Location identifier
Encyclopedia
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 manned air traffic control facilities in air traffic control
, telecommunications, computer programming, weather reports, and related services.
The International Civil Aviation Organization
establishes sets of 4-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 and KCEF for Westover Joint Air Reserve Base
.
The International Air Transport Association
uses sets of 3-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
, Michigan, which uses the FAA identifier SAW and the IATA identifier MQT.
identifier is a three-letter or four-letter alphanumeric code identifying United States airports. They were developed in the 1960s, replacing an old system that relied on plain language, teletype station identifiers, and weather reporting codes.
For nearly all major airports, the letters are alphabetic three-letter codes, such as SFO for San Francisco International Airport. Minor airfields typically have a mix of alphabetic and numeric codes, such as 8N2 for Skydive Chicago Airport and 0B5 for Turners Falls Airport
. Private airfields have a four-letter identifier, such as 1CA9 for Los Angeles County Fire Department Heliport. The system is designed to mesh with the Transport Canada Identifiers described below.
The FAA is the authority for assigning three-letter identifiers (except those beginning with the letters N, W, Y, and Z), three and four character identifiers, and five-letter name codes 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. The block beginning with letter Q is under international telecommunications jurisdiction and is used by FAA Technical Operations to capture National Airspace equipment not published in this order.
Three-letter identifiers are assigned as radio call signs to aeronautical navigation aids; to airports with a manned 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-number, 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 number is always in the first position of the three-character combination.
Most one-letter, two-number 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.
Two-letter, two-number 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.
assigns two, three, and four character identifiers, including three letter identifiers beginning with letters Y and Z, for its areas of jurisdiction. These identifiers are designed to mesh with the FAA Identifier system described above, though a few conflicts exist (such as WMC for both Winnemucca NV and Maple Creek SK, and WAL for Wallops Island VA and Cooking Lake AB).
uses a system of five-digit numeric station codes to represent synoptic weather stations. An example is 72295 for Los Angeles International Airport. The first number specifies the region: 0 to 1 for Europe, 2 to 3 for Russia, 4 for Asia, 5 for the Far East, 6 for Africa, 7 for North America, 8 for South America, and 9 for the Pacific. The remainder of the numbers are set at the regional and national level.
uses several schemes for identifying stations. It typically relies on the ICAO and WMO identifiers, although several weather forecast offices (WFOs) and weather radar
sites that have moved away from airports have been given their own codes which do not conflict with existing codes. These typically end in X, such as where Birmingham, Alabama
(BHM) had its radar site replaced by one south of the city (BMX), or where the Knoxville (TYS
) office was moved to nearby Morristown, Tennessee
(MRX). Others have changed such that Miami, Florida
is now MFL instead of MIA
, and Dallas/Fort Worth (formerly DFW) is now FWD. Climatological applications use the WBAN (Weather Bureau Army Navy) system, which is a five-digit numeric code for identifying weather stations under its jurisdiction.
Recently it began using four-letter-plus-one-number identifiers for specialized weather requirements such as hydrometeorological stations. These are used by the USFS RAWS system, and by the stream gauge
s operated by the USGS, both of which report through GOES
weather satellite
s operated by NOAA. These use three letters which are a mnemonic
for the location, followed by the first letter of the U.S. state
, followed by a numeral indicating the alphabetical order within that letter (for example, North Carolina
stations end with N7). The mnemonic may be the nearest town, or the name of the stream, or a combination of the two; and the same names may be rearranged into different mnemonics for different nearby locations. For example, VING1 is the gauge at Vinings, Georgia
, and is differentiated from other stations along the Chattahoochee River
(such as CHAG1 in nearby Oakdale) which are also at the Atlanta
city limit like Vinings is, and from other stream
s in Atlanta such as Peachtree Creek
(AANG1).
The United States Air Force
Weather Agency
(AFWA), acting on behalf of all the American military services, assigns special use ICAO identifiers beginning with "KQ", for use by deployed units supporting real-world contingencies; deployed/in-garrison
units providing support during exercises; classified operating locations; and units that have requested, but not yet received a permanent location identifier.
One system still used by both the Air Force and National Climatic Data Center
is the Master Station Catalog or MASLIB code. This is a 6-digit numeric code that is essentially the same scheme as the WMO station identifier but adds an extra digit, allowing many more stations to be indexed. This extra digit is always "0" when referencing an actual WMO station using the 5-digit identifier, but may be 1..9 to reference other stations that exist in the vicinity. The MASLIB identifiers are not generally recognized outside the United States.
to Denver International Airport
in 1996, and AUS/KAUS, which migrated from Austin Mueller Municipal Airport
to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
in 1999. Conversely, when Orlando
's international airport
moved, the original airport retained ORL/KORL as Orlando Executive Airport
, while the new airport kept the original MCO/KMCO of McCoy Field.
Occasionally a code will be discontinued entirely, with no successor. Sometimes this is a small airport that has closed, such as Stone Mountain Airport
, whose identifier 00A is now used for an R/C heliport
in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. In another case, the identifiers for Idlewild Airport in New York were changed to JFK and KJFK when it was renamed after John F. Kennedy
, and its original IDL and KIDL were later reused for Indianola Municipal Airport
in Indianola, Mississippi
.
Transplanted identifiers tend to be poorly documented
, and can cause problems in data systems and software which process historical records and in research
and legal work. A similar problem also exists for broadcast callsigns.
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
, navigation aid
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...
, or weather station
Weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for observing atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind...
, and is used for manned air traffic control facilities in air traffic control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
, telecommunications, computer programming, weather reports, and related services.
ICAO location indicator
- See International Civil Aviation Organization airport codeInternational Civil Aviation Organization airport codeThe ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-character alphanumeric code designating each airport around the world. These codes are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators.The ICAO codes are used by air traffic...
The International Civil Aviation Organization
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization , pronounced , , is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth...
establishes sets of 4-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
METAR
METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting....
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 and KCEF for Westover Joint Air Reserve Base
Westover Joint Air Reserve Base
Westover Air Reserve Base is an Air Force Reserve Command installation located in the Massachusetts communities of Chicopee and Ludlow, near the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. Westover hosts the largest Air Reserve Base in the world in terms of area...
.
IATA identifier
- See International Air Transport Association airport code
The International Air Transport Association
International Air Transport Association
The International Air Transport Association is an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the International Civil Aviation Organization is also headquartered. The executive offices are at the Geneva Airport in SwitzerlandIATA's mission is to...
uses sets of 3-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
Sawyer International Airport
Sawyer International Airport is a public airport located south of the central business district of Marquette, a city in Marquette County, Michigan, United States. The airport is publicly owned by Marquette County....
, Michigan, which uses the FAA identifier SAW and the IATA identifier MQT.
FAA identifier
The Federal Aviation AdministrationFederal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
identifier is a three-letter or four-letter alphanumeric code identifying United States airports. They were developed in the 1960s, replacing an old system that relied on plain language, teletype station identifiers, and weather reporting codes.
For nearly all major airports, the letters are alphabetic three-letter codes, such as SFO for San Francisco International Airport. Minor airfields typically have a mix of alphabetic and numeric codes, such as 8N2 for Skydive Chicago Airport and 0B5 for Turners Falls Airport
Turners Falls Airport
Turners Falls Airport is a public airport located three miles north of the central business district of Montague, a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, USA. The airport is owned by the Town of Montague...
. Private airfields have a four-letter identifier, such as 1CA9 for Los Angeles County Fire Department Heliport. The system is designed to mesh with the Transport Canada Identifiers described below.
The FAA is the authority for assigning three-letter identifiers (except those beginning with the letters N, W, Y, and Z), three and four character identifiers, and five-letter name codes for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and its jurisdictions. The Department of the Navy
United States Department of the Navy
The Department of the Navy of the United States of America was established by an Act of Congress on 30 April 1798, to provide a government organizational structure to the United States Navy and, from 1834 onwards, for the United States Marine Corps, and when directed by the President, of the...
assigns three-letter identifiers beginning with the letter N for the exclusive use of that Department. The block beginning with letter Q is under international telecommunications jurisdiction and is used by FAA Technical Operations to capture National Airspace equipment not published in this order.
Three-letter identifiers are assigned as radio call signs to aeronautical navigation aids; to airports with a manned 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
United States Customs Service
Until March 2003, the United States Customs Service was an agency of the U.S. federal government that collected import tariffs and performed other selected border security duties.Before it was rolled into form part of the U.S...
as Airports of Entry
Airport of Entry
An airport of entry is an airport that provides customs and immigration services for incoming flights. These services allow the airport to serve as an initial port of entry for foreign visitors arriving in a country.-Africa:-Americas:-Asia:...
. Some of these identifiers are assigned to certain aviation weather reporting stations.
Most one-number, 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 number is always in the first position of the three-character combination.
Most one-letter, two-number 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-number 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'sArea Control CenterIn air traffic control, an Area Control Center , also known as a Center, is a facility responsible for controlling instrument flight rules aircraft en route in a particular volume of airspace at high altitudes between airport approaches and departures...
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-number 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
METAR
METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting....
. The METAR code is dependent wholly on the ICAO identifier system.
Transport Canada identifier
Transport CanadaTransport Canada
Transport Canada is the department within the government of Canada which is responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities portfolio...
assigns two, three, and four character identifiers, including three letter identifiers beginning with letters Y and Z, for its areas of jurisdiction. These identifiers are designed to mesh with the FAA Identifier system described above, though a few conflicts exist (such as WMC for both Winnemucca NV and Maple Creek SK, and WAL for Wallops Island VA and Cooking Lake AB).
WMO station identifiers
The World Meteorological OrganizationWorld Meteorological Organization
The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 189 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization , which was founded in 1873...
uses a system of five-digit numeric station codes to represent synoptic weather stations. An example is 72295 for Los Angeles International Airport. The first number specifies the region: 0 to 1 for Europe, 2 to 3 for Russia, 4 for Asia, 5 for the Far East, 6 for Africa, 7 for North America, 8 for South America, and 9 for the Pacific. The remainder of the numbers are set at the regional and national level.
United States weather agency identifiers
The National Weather ServiceNational Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
uses several schemes for identifying stations. It typically relies on the ICAO and WMO identifiers, although several weather forecast offices (WFOs) and weather radar
Weather radar
Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, estimate its type . Modern weather radars are mostly pulse-Doppler radars, capable of detecting the motion of rain droplets in addition to the...
sites that have moved away from airports have been given their own codes which do not conflict with existing codes. These typically end in X, such as where Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
(BHM) had its radar site replaced by one south of the city (BMX), or where the Knoxville (TYS
McGhee Tyson Airport
-Top Destinations:-Accidents and incidents:* On 06 August, 1962, an American Airlines Lockheed L-188 Electra veered off the runway on landing, striking the raised edge of an under-construction taxiway with the landing gear, causing it to collapse...
) office was moved to nearby Morristown, Tennessee
Morristown, Tennessee
Morristown is a city in, and the county seat of, Hamblen County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 29,137 at the 2010 United States Census. It is the principal city of the Morristown, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Grainger, Hamblen and Jefferson counties...
(MRX). Others have changed such that Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
is now MFL instead of MIA
Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area...
, and Dallas/Fort Worth (formerly DFW) is now FWD. Climatological applications use the WBAN (Weather Bureau Army Navy) system, which is a five-digit numeric code for identifying weather stations under its jurisdiction.
Recently it began using four-letter-plus-one-number identifiers for specialized weather requirements such as hydrometeorological stations. These are used by the USFS RAWS system, and by the stream gauge
Stream gauge
A stream gauge, stream gage or gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water surface elevation and/or volumetric discharge are generally taken and observations of biota may also be...
s operated by the USGS, both of which report through GOES
Goes
Goes is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands in Zuid-Beveland, in the province Zeeland. The city of Goes has approximately 27,000 residents.-History of Goes:...
weather satellite
Weather satellite
The weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...
s operated by NOAA. These use three letters which are a mnemonic
Mnemonic
A mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
for the location, followed by the first letter of the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
, followed by a numeral indicating the alphabetical order within that letter (for example, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
stations end with N7). The mnemonic may be the nearest town, or the name of the stream, or a combination of the two; and the same names may be rearranged into different mnemonics for different nearby locations. For example, VING1 is the gauge at Vinings, Georgia
Vinings, Georgia
Vinings is a census-designated place and an unincorporated town in Cobb County, Georgia, just across the Chattahoochee River from Atlanta. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 9,734. It is located between the affluent West Paces Ferry section of Buckhead in northwest Atlanta,...
, and is differentiated from other stations along the Chattahoochee River
Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River flows through or along the borders of the U.S. states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and emptying into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of...
(such as CHAG1 in nearby Oakdale) which are also at the Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
city limit like Vinings is, and from other stream
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
s in Atlanta such as Peachtree Creek
Peachtree Creek
Peachtree Creek is a major stream in Atlanta. It flows for almost due west into the Chattahoochee River just south of Vinings. Like other "Peachtree" names in the area, the name is most likely a corruption of "pitch tree", from the area's many pines and their sticky sap.Peachtree Creek is an...
(AANG1).
The United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
Weather Agency
Air Force Weather Agency
The Air Force Weather Agency is a Field Operating Agency and the lead military meteorology center of the United States Air Force...
(AFWA), acting on behalf of all the American military services, assigns special use ICAO identifiers beginning with "KQ", for use by deployed units supporting real-world contingencies; deployed/in-garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
units providing support during exercises; classified operating locations; and units that have requested, but not yet received a permanent location identifier.
One system still used by both the Air Force and National Climatic Data Center
National Climatic Data Center
The United States National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina is the world's largest active archive of weather data. The center became established in late 1951, with the move into the new facility occurring in early 1952....
is the Master Station Catalog or MASLIB code. This is a 6-digit numeric code that is essentially the same scheme as the WMO station identifier but adds an extra digit, allowing many more stations to be indexed. This extra digit is always "0" when referencing an actual WMO station using the 5-digit identifier, but may be 1..9 to reference other stations that exist in the vicinity. The MASLIB identifiers are not generally recognized outside the United States.
Transplanted identifiers
There have been rare instances where identifiers have been transplanted to new locations, mainly due to the closure of the original airport. Prominent examples are DEN/KDEN, which migrated from Stapleton International AirportStapleton International Airport
Stapleton International Airport was Denver, Colorado's primary airport from 1929 to 1995. At different times it served as a hub for TWA, People Express, Frontier Airlines and Western Airlines as well as a hub for Continental Airlines and United Airlines at the time of its closure.In 1995 Stapleton...
to Denver International Airport
Denver International Airport
Denver International Airport , often referred to as DIA, is an airport in Denver, Colorado. By land size, at , it is the largest international airport in the United States, and the third largest international airport in the world after King Fahd International Airport and Montréal-Mirabel...
in 1996, and AUS/KAUS, which migrated from Austin Mueller Municipal Airport
Robert Mueller Municipal Airport
Robert Mueller Municipal Airport served the Austin, Texas, United States, area until it was replaced by the Austin Bergstrom International Airport and subsequently closed in 1999...
to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is a mixed-use commercial airport located southeast of the central business district of Austin, Texas, United States. It covers and has two runways and three helipads.The airport began passenger service on May 23, 1999...
in 1999. Conversely, when Orlando
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
's international airport
International airport
An international airport is any airport that can accommodate flights from other countries and are typically equipped with customs and immigration facilities to handle these flights to and from other countries...
moved, the original airport retained ORL/KORL as Orlando Executive Airport
Orlando Executive Airport
Orlando Executive Airport is a public-use airport located three nautical miles east of the central business district of Orlando, a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is owned by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority...
, while the new airport kept the original MCO/KMCO of McCoy Field.
Occasionally a code will be discontinued entirely, with no successor. Sometimes this is a small airport that has closed, such as Stone Mountain Airport
Stone Mountain Airport
The Stone Mountain Airport , later also known as Stone Mountain Britt Memorial Airport , was a small privately-run public-use airport located in Stone Mountain, Georgia from around 1963 until 1996. Used for general aviation, it had a paved runway of either or , and a "crosswind" grass runway of...
, whose identifier 00A is now used for an R/C heliport
Heliport
A heliport is a small airport suitable only for use by helicopters. Heliports typically contain one or more helipads and may have limited facilities such as fuel, lighting, a windsock, or even hangars...
in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. In another case, the identifiers for Idlewild Airport in New York were changed to JFK and KJFK when it was renamed after John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, and its original IDL and KIDL were later reused for Indianola Municipal Airport
Indianola Municipal Airport
Indianola Municipal Airport is an airport in unincorporated Sunflower County, near Indianola. The airport is operated by the City of Indianola....
in Indianola, Mississippi
Indianola, Mississippi
Indianola is a city in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 12,066 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Sunflower County.-History:...
.
Transplanted identifiers tend to be poorly documented
Documentation
Documentation is a term used in several different ways. Generally, documentation refers to the process of providing evidence.Modules of Documentation are Helpful...
, and can cause problems in data systems and software which process historical records and in research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
and legal work. A similar problem also exists for broadcast callsigns.
External links
- Location Identifiers FAAO 7350.7 - Federal Aviation Administration document describing the assignment of Location Identifiers; revised and published every 112 days
- NCDC Station Locator - Historical search engine for U.S. weather station locations
- Weather Station Identifiers - References for worldwide identifiers