Airport and airline code guides
Short, plain-English explainers for how airport and airline codes work, each with real examples you can click through to.
What is an IATA code?The three-letter airport code and two-character airline code, explained.IATA vs ICAOThe two code systems side by side, with a JFK vs KJFK worked example.IATA to ICAO converterType any code and get its counterpart: AMS to EHAM, UA to UAL. Both directions.How airport codes workWho assigns codes, and why so many (ORD, MCO, YYZ) don't match the city.ICAO code prefixesWhy ICAO codes are geographic, and what each first letter (K, E, L…) means.Airline callsigns explainedThe spoken radio name (Speedbird, Shamrock) and how it differs from the code.How to read a flight numberWhy UA100 is United flight 100, what the digits mean, and codeshares.Retired airline codesThe carriers in the dataset that no longer fly, and the codes they flew under.Country codes explainedISO 3166 alpha-2, alpha-3 and numeric, where the same letters show up, and why aviation goes its own way.