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There are thousands of airports
connecting cities across countries
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and continents. Yet, with just 3 letters,
from 'AAC' and 'BBI' to 'YYZ' and 'ZZU',
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both me and you and our bags
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route around the world
as unambiguously as practically possible.
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Airport Codes!
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If you fly, you know them as part of
the planning on your tickets,
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trackers, and tags, and even as part of
the port itself as big big branding.
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It's impossible not to wonder, bored on a
long haul with only in-flight
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entertainment, about potential patterns
peaking through,
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like all of the Canadian "Y" airports.
Why Canada?
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And, why everyone? How do all of these
codes code?
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Well, neighbor, to find the answer, we
need to divert this flight to 'YUL',
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the Canadian city that's capitol of codes,
Montreal,
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where is headquartered IATA, the
International Air Transport Association.
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It's not a governmental organization,
more an independent aviation agency
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for airlines, where they work to make
airports and airplanes increasingly
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interoperable using humanity's
most exciting and powerful, yet
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oft-maligned as dull tool, Standards!
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One of which is the IATA Airport Code -
three letters to identify every airport
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in the world, from the most connected
to the least.
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All are coded so companies can communicate
clearly and concisely complicated
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connections to carry their customers and
their bags.
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And, actually, the code IATA created isn't
only for airports, rather, technically
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it's a location code for all kinds of
transportation interchanges,
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like plane stations that connect to train
stations such as
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Amsterdam Schiphol, which is just so
intermodally epic!
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Okay, let's try not to get distracted by
efficient infrastructure (easier said
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than done). Here's how the IATA code
is supposed to work.
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One airport, One code, which is unique
because airport names are not.
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Booking passage to Portland? Cool, that
could be Oregon or Maine or Victoria.
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(Australia.)
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Ambiguity is the enemy. International
flying creates communication connections
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between every language on Earth. So, the
IATA code helps when you don't speak
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Greenlandic or Odia but still need to
book a flight to
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"Kangerlussuaq" via
"Bhubaneswar"
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(I'm so sorry Greenland and India.)
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Instead of mangling pronunciation, it's
just "SFJ via BBI." Much clearer! Not just
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for you, but also for the ground crew
getting the bags through.
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Ideally, the IATA code comes from the
first three letters of the location, like
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with Gibraltar where Gibraltar Airport
is given "GIB." GIB, Gibraltar.
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So, going to Cork, it'll be "COR" -
COR, Ireland.
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Oh, that didn't work.
Seems Cordoba, Argentina built their
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airport first and got "COR" ahead of Cork
so, uh, "ORK" for Cork!
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Tough noogies, Ork, Germany, that's an
adorable town name you've got there, but
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you're going to need to pick something
else for your code. Thus, a single code
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collision kicks off a consistency cascade
as airports compete for clearer codes.
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So, if your local airport has an
odd 3 letters, there's probably a rival
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port that picked previously. This is one
of the major things IATA does - coordinate
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everyone's code preferences, which means
dealing with not just individual airports,
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but all of the aviation agencies in
different countries, some with their own
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desires for inter-country code
consistency, such as Canada, who clearly
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claimed all of the 'Y's. Thus, picking a
'Y' one at random, at least you know
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roughly where you're going to go.
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Oops! No! That didn't work!
YKM brought us to Washington, USA,
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and since we're here, we might as well
talk about the FAA. In America, the
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Federal Aviation Administration,
daughter of the Department
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of Transportation, is given the job of
assigning all American airports an
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American airport code. Yes, the FAA
actually has her own set of three letter
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codes, but we're not going to talk about
it because it means in America
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there's "One airport, Two codes," and,
for simplicity, I'm sticking to this
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story, "One airport, One code,"
right? Right. Now, FAA has letters
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she really rather American airports
noooooooot.
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Please, no: N, Q, W, K, Z, or Y.
'N' is reserved for the Navy for,
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"OMG, is it for aircraft carriers?"
No, they use an unrelated and additional
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system that we're also not going to talk
about. The Navy 'N' is given to Navy bases
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with airports. So, American airports like
Nashville that seem like they should start
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with the letter "N" were encouraged to
pick something else, like 'B',
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for B-nashville. There is also 'A' for the
Army and the Air Force, although not
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all of the 'A's, so there's a bunch of 'A'
airports like
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Albuquerque, Aberdeen, Anchorage,
Amarillo, and Augusta.
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Next, 'Q' FAA wants avoided because of
(checks notes)
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Morse code? Wow, really?
There's a set of three letter
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international Morse code that begin with
'Q' for 'quicky communications' that are
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still used, I guess? So because of 1800s
telegraph slang, American airports
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shouldn't start with the letter 'Q'.
Next, 'K' and 'W' the FAA advises against
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because FCC, the Federal Communications
Commission, daughter of no one, she's an
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independent agency, assigns 'K' and 'W'
for US civilian broadcast stations, so
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that thing on the radio they say,
"KMAD Action News!" or
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"WDUL Public Airwaves," yea, they all
start with a 'K' or a 'W' which is
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actually location information. 'K's are
in the west and 'W's in the east, except
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for the middle where it's both?
FCC, why did you do it this way?
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Well, since you coded those codes first,
FAA discourages airports from starting
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with those letters. Even though broadcast
codes are 4 letters, not 3, and they're,
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you know, radio stations, not airports,
and definitely not weather stations.
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"Of course they're not weather stations."
"Why would you even say that?"
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No reason. It won't come up later.
Don't worry. Moving on.
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'Z' is reserved for air route traffic
control centers themselves, and
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why no 'Y'? Because Canada, of course!
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Yes, I understand that's not an
explanation. We'll get to it later.
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That's America's preferences for airport
codes, but other countries exist, and
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their aviation agencies don't care at all
which letters the United States avoids,
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so while 'B-nashville' was building her
big big branding,
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Nassau grabbed the 'N' to get 'NAS'
for the Bahamian capitol.
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There's no shortage of airport codes that
start outside the US with America's
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reluctant letters, and also, because
FAA's precedents aren't laws, you can
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find American exceptions like
'KEK', 'WAH', 'YAK', 'QWG', and 'ZZV.'
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Boy, that was fun to say! Let's end the
video with more of that, shall we?
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And that 'NEW' must particularly burn
Newark, New Jersey, who had to go with
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'Ewark, Ew Jersey' instead. Right,
finishing this thought, every country
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and their agencies has their own wacky
preferences for letters and wants to
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ignore every other country's preferences,
and IATA's job is to coordinate
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between them. The result of which is:
IATA airport codes have no satisfying
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system at all, which is so sad for a
standard, and the story of
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"One airport, One code" also falls
apart even within IATA because of
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megacodes for megacities.
Example: London, which has 6
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international airports - Heathrow,
Gatwick, City, Luton, Stansted, Southend.
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'LHR', 'LGW', 'LCY', 'LTN'.
"Oh, they all start with L?"
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No, 'STN' and 'SEN', but there's a
megacode for them all - 'LON',
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which you can use while searching for
flights landing in London but don't care
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where, even though these airports are
ages apart. LON is the international city
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mega-est megacode, but there's also
Moscow 'MOW' and Stockholm 'STO' with
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4 airports each, and more with 2 or 3,
like 'NYC' and 'BUE.'
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And then, code-wise, is the most
exceptional airport:
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EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, an
airport so nice they coded it thrice.
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'MLH', 'BSL', 'EAP.' How this happened is
France and Switzerland both wanted an
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airport here-ish near the German border
and teamed up.
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France provided the land, Switzerland the
capital, Germany has nothing to do with
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this, and the pair co-built the port,
constructing duplicate and separate
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everythings. So it was, effectively, 2
airports run by 2 countries with
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2 runways and 2 sets of rules, and thus
needed 2 airport codes, depending on
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which side passengers could connect
through and one megacode if it
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didn't matter. But, all of this doesn't
mega-matter now because the two airports
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mostly act as one anyway. Thus, one
airport, three codes. And there are plans
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to run a railway through for epic
inter-modalness, so it could become
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one airport, four codes, or five codes.
I mean, why not at this point?
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So yea, an airport isn't uniquely
identified by one code and there's no
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location information coded in this
location code, not even a
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checksum letter? What is this, a social
security number? Without a checksum,
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if you're planning a flight to 'CGP'
in Bangladesh but typo the incorrect
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'CPG', you'll end up in Argentina instead.
Again. But, at least the chance of a
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switcheroo like that must be pretty small.
After all, a 3 letter code means
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17,000 permutations - way more than the
actual number of airports, which is only
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40,000 airports worldwide?! How can that
possibly be true? Well, it's time to
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introduce you to ICAO, the International
Civil Aviation Organization, daughter of
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the United Nations, who also lives in
Montreal with IATA. And, it might seem
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like they're the same, but IATA actually
only covers what we might call the
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standard commercial airports you'd find
searching for flights normally.
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While ICAO covers what she calls
"aerodromes," which is everything from
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the world's busiest passenger airport in
the always unlikely seeming
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Atlanta, Georgia, down to rarely used
runways on ranches in Texas, of which
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there are an absolutely absurd number.
So with all those aerodromes to account
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for, ICAO uses 4 letters, which gives,
wow, a lot more options
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(thanks exponentials), and she also uses
the extra space to add location
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information. Finally! In ICAO system,
the first letter of an airport code is
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roughly where on Earth it is. 'P' is for
airports in the Pacific, one letter to
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cover flying over the most terrifyingly
empty half of the Earth (try not to think
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about it as you look down into the endless
abyss) before arriving at South America,
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'S'. Then 'M' for Middle America, and 'K'
for 'Kontinental America'?
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'C', sensibly, is Canadian America, and
flying over the pole we get to 'U' for
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'Used to be USSR.' Yes, that's actually
the name. Look, what makes standards
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standards is their stubbornness.
Just because a gigantic country collapsed
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is no reason to change what millions of
flight computers know in their code and
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pilots in their brains. After ICAO's first
letter there is also a bunch of second
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sub-letters, well except for America and
Canada, who skip that, but don't worry.
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Moving on, as an example, if your airport
starts with a 'F',
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it's in 'Southern aFrica,' and if the next
letter is 'A,' that's South Africa, and
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the last 2 letters are for the airport,
so Cape Town gets CT for a 'FACT'.
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Of course, there are some exceptions like
Antarctica, the continent no one owns but
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all of the cool kids want to claim.
Aerodromes here are supposed to use the
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code for the country's claim they're in,
such as Williams Field, which is American
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run but uses 'NZWD' because it's in the
Kiwi claim. But, also lots of
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Antarctic aerodromes use pseudo codes
(no we're not going to talk about what
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that means) which start with 'AT' and end
with a number, like 27 for Troll Airfield
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serving Troll Research Station which runs
on Troll Time. Norway, is that you? I knew
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it was, but you really should be using
'EN' for 'Europe, Norway' and 'TR' is
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free. 'ENTR Trolls', it's so perfect! And
yes, the 27 means there are at least
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26 other runways in Antarctica (I was
surprised too) but this, along with all
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of the ranches, is how you get to crazy
numbers of aerodromes. And yes, ICAO
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has more exceptions to this system that
we're going to skip, but I can't resist
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just one more which is Region J. Looking
at the map, you won't be able to find it
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because 'J' is Mars. When the rover
arrived at Jezero Crater, ICAO gave the
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historic landing location the code 'JZRO'.
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Okay, but that's it for exceptions. So,
to sum up, the story of one airport,
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one code, was just that - a story.
Tons of airports have at least 2, and
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when they do, the ICAO code is what
computers and pilots know to plan where
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the plane needs to go, and IATA is what
passengers say to get on their way, but if
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ICAO exists with a more comprehensive
code, why is IATA at all?
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So IATA isn't about you, it's about
your bags.
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At an airport, you, as a human, walk to
your connecting flight, but your bags
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below need a lot of logistical assistance.
Before IATA, there was just like a
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handwritten tag saying, "Please get me
where my owner is going," written in
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potentially every language on Earth, so
you can't imagine how often that went
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wrong. So, IATA used codes to make life
better for bags with bag tags with big
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clear codes to get those bags cleanly
through connections across countries
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and companies. And, the original plan
was that train stations with IATA codes
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would also let you check in your bag
there, and it would be part of the
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automatic connection too, but that mostly
doesn't happen now because of logistical
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difficulties, which is the same reason
that the IATA code is a club that excludes
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all of the little aerodromes too annoying
to attend to. So, if your bag's final
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destination after connecting at Austin is
one of the many random ranch airstrips,
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the ground crew is not going to swap your
bags onto the tiny crop duster for you.
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Ditto if you're connecting through
Argentina to Antarctica anywhere. Those
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tiny airports? No IATA code for you, and
without an IATA code, your bag depends
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on you to get it all the way through. And,
that's what IATA is actually for. That
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big big branding you see is for your bags,
and because of the tag, it became what
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customers know, which brings us back to
the start. And, oh sorry Canada, I know
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I've been avoiding answering the whys, but
it's just so much more complicated than
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expected. There's a tale that the 'Y's
are an old system for if Canadian airports
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had a weather station. 'Y' for 'Yes,
weather station' and
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'W', 'without.' And, since pilots want to
know the weather, that explains all the
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'Y's but also the few oddball Canadian
'W's. But, investigating the truth of that
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story took 8 months of my life which I
will now give to you as an extremely
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compressed executive summary.
Working backwards, the American and
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Canadian IATA codes created in the 1950s
come from the last 3 letters of ICAO codes
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created in the 1940s. The first letter of
ICAO codes come from the ITU, the
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International Telecommunication Union's
codes created in the 1910s for radio
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stations, which used 'K' for America and
'CY' for Canada. So, 'K' and 'CY' into
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4 letters and back down to 3 leaves
'Y' for Canada. Here is where you
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reasonably ask, "Why CY for Canada?"
but that goes all the way back to
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telegraphs and beyond, so is a story for
another time.
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But, for now, for this video, why 'Y' for
Canada? Because of radio callsigns
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(because of a lot of other things),
because of US and Canada coordinating
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that for flights within North America, it
really would be 'Y' for 'Yes Canada'
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(mostly)
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Well, that was a lot of bureaucratic
history, so let's finish with the final
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fun IATA codes promised from before.
Starting with Sioux City with the
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sensible looking 'SUX' until you say it
out loud, but to her credit, totally owns
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that branding for airport merch. Good for
you, Sioux! And there's also
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Beaches International Airport, summer
break central, their top 2 picks for codes
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were picked, so to help the confused
collegiates find their connections, the
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agencies agreed on 'ECP' to stand for
'Everyone Can Party' which is awesome
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branding, but you'd never know because
beaches doesn't bother.
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Geez 'ECP', you can a learn a thing or two
from Sioux.
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But now everyone can party on this 'round
the world flight of IATA codes
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entertaining to say out loud. Ready?
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'FAB', 'BOO', 'EEK', 'COW', 'WOW',
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'POO', 'GAG', 'BRO', 'BUT',
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'GOT', 'HOT', 'PIE', 'YUM', 'UMM',
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'MOM', 'DAD', 'MAD', 'RUN', 'FUN',
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'IOU', 'FAQ', 'OMG', 'LOL'.