A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programming, weather reports, and related services.
ICAO location indicator
The International Civil Aviation Organization establishes sets of four-letter location indicators which are published in ICAO Publication 7910. These are used by air traffic control agencies to identify airports and by weather agencies to produce METAR weather reports. The first letter indicates the region; for example, K for the contiguous United States, C for Canada, E for northern Europe, R for the Asian Far East, and Y for Australia. Examples of ICAO location indicators are RPLL for Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport, KCEF for Westover Joint Air Reserve Base and EGLL for London Heathrow Airport.
IATA identifier
The International Air Transport Association uses sets of three-letter IATA identifiers which are used for airline operations, baggage routing, and ticketing. There is no specific organization scheme to IATA identifiers; typically they take on the abbreviation of the airport or city such as MNL for Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport. In the United States, the IATA identifier usually equals the FAA identifier, but this is not always the case. A prominent example is Sawyer International Airport in Marquette, Michigan, which uses the FAA identifier SAW and the IATA identifier MQT.
FAA identifier The Federal Aviation Administration location identifier (FAA LID) is a three- to five-character alphanumeric code identifying aviation-related facilities inside the United States, though some codes are reserved for, and are managed by, other entities. For nearly all major airports, the assigned identifiers are alphabetic three-letter codes, such as ORD for Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Minor airfields are typically assigned a mix of alphanumeric characters, such as 8N2 for Skydive Chicago Airport and 0B5 for Turners Falls Airport. Private airfields are assigned four-character identifiers, such as 1CA9 for Los Angeles County Fire Department Heliport. The location identifiers are coordinated with the Transport Canada Identifiers described below. In general, the FAA has authority to assign all three-letter identifiers (except those beginning with the letters K, N, W, and Y), all three- and four-character alphanumeric identifiers, and five-letter identifiers for the United States and its jurisdictions. The Department of the Navy assigns three-letter identifiers beginning with the letter N for the exclusive use of that department. Transport Canada assigns three-character identifiers beginning with Y. The block beginning with letter Q is under international telecommunications jurisdiction, but is used internally by FAA Technical Operations to identify National Airspace equipment not covered by any other identifying code system. The block beginning with Z identifies United States Air Route Traffic Control Centers. In practice, the assigned identifiers are not always consistent with the current "encoding" rules adopted by the FAA, nor are all the assigned identifiers distinct between the United States and Canada. The coding system has evolved over time, and to ensure safety and reduce ambiguity, many "legacy" codes have remained intact, even though they violate the currently ordered rules. For this reason, the FAA regularly publishes detailed listings of all codes it administers.
General assignment patterns In general, three-letter identifiers are assigned as radio call signs to aeronautical navigation aids; to airports with a staffed air traffic control facility or navigational aid within airport boundary; to airports that receive scheduled route air carrier or military airlift service, and to airports designated by the United States Customs Service as airports of entry. Some of these identifiers are assigned to certain aviation weather reporting stations. Most one-digit, two-letter identifiers have been assigned to aviation weather reporting and observation stations and special-use locations. Some of these identifiers may be assigned to public-use landing facilities within the United States and its jurisdictions, which do not meet the requirements for identifiers in the three-letter series. In this identifier series, the digit is always in the first position of the three-character combination. Most one-letter, two-digit identifiers are assigned to public-use landing facilities within the United States and its jurisdictions, which do not meet the requirements for identifiers in the three-letter series. Some of these identifiers are also assigned to aviation weather reporting stations.
One-letter, two-digit identifiers are keyed by the alphabetical letter. The letter may appear in the first, middle or last position in the combination of three characters. When the letter signifies an air traffic control center's area, the assignment will not change if the center's boundaries are realigned. Identifiers in this series which could conflict with the Victor, Jet or colored airway numbers are not assigned. Two-letter, two-digit identifiers are assigned to private-use landing facilities in the United States and its jurisdictions which do not meet the requirements for three-character assignments. They are keyed by the two-letter Post Office or supplemental abbreviation of the state with which they are associated. The two-letter code appears in the first two, middle, or last two positions of the four-character code. The use of the FAA identifier system in meteorology ended in 1996 when airways reporting code was replaced by METAR code. The METAR code is dependent wholly on the ICAO identifier system.
History As of September 1947, the CAA had compiled an internal list of identifiers. The list was made publicly available in 1963.
National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil Since January 2019, the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC) issues a six-digit designator called Aerodrome Identification Code (Portuguese: Código de Identificação de Aeródromo, CIAD) for each aerodrome. The first two digits are the letters related to the State of the Federation where the aerodrome is located and the next four digits are numbers assigned by ANAC. In the case of military aerodromes, the first number is 9.
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