Last reviewed and updated:
Most airports with airline service have two codes. The three-letter IATA code is the one on your boarding pass and baggage tag. The four-letter ICAO location indicator is the one pilots, dispatchers and air traffic control use in flight plans, METARs, TAFs and NOTAMs. Dubai International is DXB to passengers and OMDB to the crew flying there.
Side by side
| Airport | IATA | ICAO |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai International | DXB | OMDB |
| Zayed International, Abu Dhabi | AUH | OMAA |
| London Heathrow | LHR | EGLL |
| New York JFK | JFK | KJFK |
| Toronto Pearson | YYZ | CYYZ |
| Anchorage | ANC | PANC |
| Delhi | DEL | VIDP |
| Karachi | KHI | OPKC |
| Tokyo Haneda | HND | RJTT |
| Sydney | SYD | YSSY |
Look up both codes for any airport with the Airport Code Lookup.
How ICAO codes are built
ICAO location indicators are geographic, not abbreviations of the airport’s name. Read them from left to right:
- First letter: the region of the world.
- Second letter: usually the country or territory within that region.
- Last two letters: the specific location, assigned by that country.
In OMDB, O is the Middle East region, M is the United Arab Emirates, and DB identifies Dubai International. In EGLL, E is northern Europe, G is the United Kingdom and LL identifies Heathrow. The last two letters sometimes look like the city’s initials, but that is a convention some countries follow, not a rule.
First letters you will see most often
| Letter | Region | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| K | Contiguous United States | KJFK, KLAX |
| C | Canada | CYYZ, CYVR |
| P | Alaska, Hawaii and parts of the Pacific | PANC, PHNL |
| E | Northern Europe | EGLL (UK), EDDF (Germany), EHAM (Netherlands) |
| L | Southern Europe and Israel | LFPG (France), LEMD (Spain), LIRF (Italy) |
| O | Middle East and Pakistan | OMDB (UAE), OERK (Saudi Arabia), OTHH (Qatar), OPKC (Pakistan) |
| V | South Asia and parts of South-East Asia | VIDP (India), VTBS (Thailand) |
| R | Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan | RJTT, RKSI |
| Z | China | ZBAA, ZSPD |
| Y | Australia | YSSY, YMML |
In the contiguous United States the ICAO code is usually K plus the three-letter domestic identifier (LAX becomes KLAX). Canada works the same way with C (YYZ becomes CYYZ). Outside North America you cannot work out the ICAO code from the IATA code: DXB is not KDXB or ODXB, it is OMDB.
How IATA codes work
IATA codes are assigned by the International Air Transport Association for the commercial side of aviation: reservations, tickets, baggage handling, airline schedules and airport screens. Many reflect the city or an old airport name, but plenty do not, and some cities also have a code covering all their airports, such as LON for London or NYC for New York. Most small airfields have no IATA code at all, because they have no airline service.
The same split applies to airlines and aircraft
| IATA | ICAO | |
|---|---|---|
| Emirates | EK | UAE |
| Etihad Airways | EY | ETD |
| Boeing 777-300ER | 77W | B77W |
Your ticket says EK; the flight plan and ATC call sign use UAE.
Which code should you use?
- Booking, tickets, baggage, flight trackers aimed at passengers: IATA.
- Flight plans, METAR and TAF, NOTAMs, ATC and operational systems: ICAO.
- An aerodrome with no ICAO code at all: flight plans use the placeholder ZZZZ. See What ZZZZ Means in a Flight Plan.
Common mistakes
- Guessing the ICAO code from the IATA code outside the US and Canada.
- Searching a weather service with an IATA code. Many aviation weather services expect ICAO. Our METAR & TAF Decoder accepts either.
- Confusing neighbouring airports that share a city name. Always confirm the code against an authoritative source.
Codes can change. Confirm operational identifiers in current official publications.
Sources and further reading
- ICAO Doc 7910, Location Indicators
- IATA Airline Coding Directory (three-letter location codes)
- OurAirports open airport dataset (used by the USFITools airport code lookup)
Sources checked November 2026. Rules differ between countries and change over time: for real flights, use the current publications of the authority that applies to you, your aircraft flight manual and your operator’s procedures.