City & Airport Codes
Three letter codes are used throughout the travel industry and indicate a place, city or airport, such as LAX for Los Angeles and JFK for John F Kennedy airport in New York.
You will become familiar with many three letter codes, but you should never guess what they stand for. Some three letter codes are obvious and easy to remember:
* BOS is Boston, USA
* MAD is Madrid, Spain
* RIO is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
While others are not obvious at all:
* BHX is Birmingham, UK
* LED is St Petersburg, Russia
* YVR is Vancouver, Canada
Here are more examples of City and Airport Codes
* KWI is KUWAIT - INTERNATIONAL
* KWL is GUILIN, PR OF CHINA
* LAX is LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA - INTERNATIONAL
* LCY is LONDON, UK - LONDON CITY (An airport code)
* LGA is NEW YORK, USA - LA GUARDIA (An airport code)
* LGW is LONDON, UK - GATWICK (An airport code)
* LHE is LAHORE, PAKISTAN
* LHR is LONDON, UK - HEATHROW (An airport code)
* LIM is LIMA, PERU - JORGE CHAVEZ INTERNATIONAL
* MAA is CHENNAI, INDIA
* MAD is MADRID, SPAIN - BARAJAS
* MAS is MANUS ISLAND, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
* MCT MUSCAT, OMAN - SEEB INTERNATIONAL
The three letter codes that we saw before were both city codes and airport codes; MAD indicates the city of Madrid and its International airport. In the examples above LCY and LGA are airport codes.
When a city has more than one airport it needs two types of code, a city code and a code for each airport.
* NYC is the CITY CODE for New York, USA
* EWR is the AIRPORT CODE for Newark, New York
* JFK is the AIRPORT CODE for John F Kennedy, New York
* LGA is the AIRPORT CODE for La Guardia, New York
* LON is the CITY CODE for London, UK
* LCY is the AIRPORT CODE for London City, London
* LGW is the AIRPORT CODE for Gatwick, London
* LHR is the AIRPORT CODE for Heathrow, London
* LTN is the AIRPORT CODE for Luton, London
* STN is the AIRPORT CODE for Stansted, London
