IATA Codes VS ICAO Codes

Aviation Games Debating
1

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IATA FORMAT: FLL or LHR

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IACO Format: KFLL or EGLL

Now personally, I think I’m in the minority when I prefer IATA, but I want to hear what you guys think

  • IATA
  • ICAO

0 voters

2

ICAO because it’s easier to remember.

3

it’s icao not iaco

4

You can edit the post and poll.

5

the votes were removed

6

Yup we just have to vote again.

1 Like
7

ICAO because it’s more realistic, ATIS etc.

8

I prefer ICAO because I can determine the country/state/province/prefecture/region quickly.

9

I knew I was in the minority but holy cow. I just feel like some of the IACO codes make no sense. Like EGLL for London Heathrow, obviously I memorize that but it just doesn’t make sense. For example, Bangkok is VTBS, but if someone just said BKK, I could infer it was Bangkok based off the words

10

For me it depends on the situation. Overall I’d say I prefer IATAs if I’m just trying to abbreviate the airport, but if I need to be more accurate, or make a more detailed chart or something, then I like the ICAOs.

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13

both is good

14

IATA is everywhere (that’s why I like it), but ICAO better

15

iata because ez to understand

16

look

SBGR

S: South America
B: Brazil
GR: Airport

works like this for most major airports

17

yeah no one is gonna understand that

2 Likes
18

IATA is more confusing and harder to remember than ICAO.

Here’s my reasoning:

When you see a random IATA code that you’ve never heard of, you have almost no way of guessing where the airport is located because there isn’t any assigned prefix for a region.

For ICAO codes, the first or first two letters often indicate which country or continent the airport is in. That way passengers already have an approximate idea of where the airport is located even when just looking at a code.

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19

Worse, often IATA codes may be very similar to each other (sometimes sharing two letters) but are located thousands of miles away. That kind of confusion won’t happen in ICAOs for two reasons:

  1. There are 4 digits, so the chance of overlapping is lower.

  2. The first letter of the ICAO already tells you roughly where the airport is, so even if the last 3 letters are very similar to each other if the first one is different, chances are that they are not in the same region.

@barbadian @Alec you two see why actually ICAOs are more systematic and easier to keep track of.

2 Likes
20

FE7

F - frick what is that standing for
E- eh I still don’t understand
7 - 7oh f-

1 Like