Episode 61 Airport Codes
Claire: Hello this is 5 Minutes withAOPA-China. Imagine you’re sitting in first class on an Air China Boeing 777,headed from Beijing CapitalInternational Airport to London Heathrow. Theboarding pass in your jacketpocket the check-in lady just handed to you says, ofcourse, PEK to LHR: the familiar three-letter codes that every frequent flyer knows.
Nick: But just a few feet ahead of you, onthe flight deck, the flight plan in front of the captain’s eyes says yourdestination is EGLL(Echo Golf Lima Lima). And tomorrow, when the airplane you’re on willfly from London to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, that flight plan will say the destination is RJTT(RomeoJuliet Tango Tango), not HND(Hotel November Delta). And what about ZGGG(Zulu GolfGolf,Yankee Sierra Sierra Yankee), YSSY and MMMX?
Claire: Those are the four-letter codesused by ICAO, the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization, toidentify airports instead of the more common three-letter designations used byIATA, the International Air Transport Association. What’s up with that?Here’s all you need to know.
Nick: First of all, to betterunderstand the jumble of letters and codes, we have to travel a few decadesback in time.
When World War II was ending, governmentscame round the idea that the developing commercial aviation industry could dowith a higher degree of standardization. So two major aviation organizationswere created that would play a major role in the consolidation of civilianaviation over the decades: ICAO and IATA.
Claire: You may be forgiven for mixing themup: after all they are both based in Montreal and often work on the sameissues, but they are different in nature. While ICAO is an internationalorganization under the auspices of the United Nations, IATA is a tradeassociation that looks after the interests of the airline industry.
Nick: Each of them came up with its owncode system, based on its own separate logic, to identify airports around theworld. And this is where things got messy.
Claire: No doubt you’ll ask whendo you use which code? Roughly: the three-letter IATA codes are used byairlines for commercial purposes and in passenger-facing activities. Thefour-letter ICAO codes appear in technical documents, such as flight plans, aeronautical charts. So you’re far more likely as a passenger to encounter the former, but you’re far morelikely to impress an aviation enthusiast if you know the latter.
Nick:The ICAO system has a distinct advantage: Itidentifies an airport’s location, the geographiccontext, anywhere in the world. That’s because the first letterdesignates a “region,” the second letter designates a country and the remainingtwo represent a specific airport.
Claire: Zoom in a bit, though, and the system gets a littlemore complex.
Some very large countries suchas China, Russia or Australia, have a letter all theirown. Z represents China, Urepresents Russia and Y for Australia. But Europe is divided inroughly two zones — North, using “E” as identifier, and South, using “L”.Africa, in turn, is divided in four large regions. The second letter of the code designates thecountry or, in the case of large countries, a specific area within thatcountry.
Nick: Thus,in China, BeijingCapital International is ZBAA: where Z for China, B for BeijingFlight Information Region. ZBPD, Shanghai Pudong International: also Z forChina, S for Shanghai FIR. As in Europe, London Heathrow is EGLL: where E forNorthern Europe, G for Great Britain, See a pattern?
Claire:In comparison, IATA codes sound simpler and areeasier to remember. You don’t need to be an hardcore aviation fan to know that PEKis Beijing and BOS is Boston. They are used wherever communication with thegeneral public is involved, such as in flight schedules, boarding passes andbaggage tags.
Nick: And they have a potential as something else:marketing tools. Why do I say so? 3-letter words are popular in advertisingcampaign. They often replace the airport’s fullname in ads or slogans.
Claire: But these codes do not provide a geographicalcontext, and this makes it difficult to locate an airport if you are notfamiliar with it. Most of us may be able to recall what LHR stands for, but wouldyou be able to locate LHP and LHS as easily? You may be forgiven for not knowingLehu, in Papua New Guinea, and Las Heras, a small airport in Argentina.
Nick: While pretty much all airports havean ICAO code, many smaller GA airports do not have an IATA code. Basically, ifthey are marked on a flight map, it probably has an ICAO code.
Claire: In China, things are a little bitdifferent due to the GA industry is still in its infancy. Most GA airports don’thave a ICAO or IATA code yet. However, to cater the demand of development andpromote the industry boom, the code will be a must. AOPA-China is makingefforts in this part.
Nick: That brings us to the end of today’s5 Minutes with AOPA-China. If you like us, please rate us or review us onWechat, Facebook, Twitter Ximalaya or any podcast platform. To support us, justsend your friends your favorite episode. See you next week.
飞机即将起飞，一位头等舱乘客将自己的登机牌放在了一边，上面写着PEK—LHR。作为常飞旅客肯定一眼就看出来这是从北京飞往伦敦的航班。不远处的驾驶舱里，机长正在浏览飞行计划，上面写着此趟航班的目的地是EGLL；后续航班是从伦敦飞往东京羽田机场，飞行计划里却写着目的地是RJTT,而不是HND。这是怎样一回事呢？
（机票）
大部分机场既有三字代码又有四字代码。四字代码是由国际民航组织（ICAO）规定的，三字代码是由国家航空运输协会（IATA）规定的。为了更好地了解这两种代码，首先让我们回到七十多年前，二战快要结束的时候，世界各国商讨为了促进刚刚起步的商业航空发展，我们需要更高要求的标准，于是两大国际组织ICAO和IATA分别与1944年和1945年相继成立。
（ICAO Logo、IATA Logo）
由于他们的总部都在蒙特利尔，人们有时会弄混淆。其实，他们有本质上的差别。ICAO是联合国的一个专门机构，IATA代表着航空公司的利益，他们的代码体系也完全不一样。
那么什么时候用什么代码？
简单来说，IATA主要是航空公司用于一切有关乘客的活动中，如机票，行李牌和屏幕上的航班信息。ICAO代码主要是出现在一些技术性的文件里，如飞行计划、航图，使用者多为飞行员、空管、签派等专业从业人员。
ICAO代码有一个好处是：可以根据代码判断出机场的地理位置。第一字母表示地区或国家（国土面积较大的国家如中国、俄罗斯、澳大利亚，享有独有的国家代码：中国-Z,俄罗斯-U,澳大利亚-Y），第二个字母表示国家或国内分区（对于国土面积加大的国家而言）。比如说，E代表北欧，L代表南欧，EG便指英国（G=Great Britain）。同样在中国，北京首都机场的四字代码是ZBAA,Z代表中国，B代表北京飞行情报区。
（ICAO分区代码）
IATA代码对于乘客而言再熟悉不过了，它相对而言更容易记住，也常常成为所在城市的代号，出现在广告中或宣传标语里，但它无法告诉你所在机场的大致位置。你很有可能弄混ICN（仁川）和INC（银川），以前就有过韩国旅客买错机票去了银川；但飞行员是不会弄错的，因为RKSI（仁川国际机场）和ZLIC（银川国际机场）的首字母都不一样，所在国家肯定不一样。
另外，ICAO代码的普及率要高于IATA代码，国外许多通航小机场可能只有ICAO代码，没有IATA代码。可以肯定的是，出现在航图上的机场，都有ICAO代码。
但中国的情况有些特殊，我们的通航发展才刚刚起步，大多数通航机场既没有ICAO代码，也没有IATA代码，但随着通航的发展，与国际接轨时，小编认为这些代码是必不可少的。
