About Aviation
Most likely you have flown at least once in your life and therefore you probably
know at least some basic things about aviation. Regardless of whether you are just
a passenger, an aviation aficionado or a flight simulation enthusiast we are sure
you will find some useful information here. If not please do let us know so that
we can improve and add material to satisfy your aviation knowledge needs!.
Country codes in aviation
Given that you are an internet navigator you are probably now very acquainted with
the country codes used in internet domains such as ".nl" or ".pa". These are the two-letter
ISO codes. Each country also has a three-letter ISO country code,
for example "NED" and "PAN".
The aviation world is regulated by the ICAO (the
International Civil Aviation Organization). For that purpose every country in the world has
an assigned ICAO country code. The ICAO country code a two-letter code with a few exceptions
that have a one-letter country code. Following the previous examples, the ICAO country codes
of The Netherlands and Panama are respectively EH and MP.
Airport codes used in aviation
Now that we have introduced a little bit about country codes you should know that every
public airport in the world has an assigned ICAO code. The airport's ICAO code of any given
country is always prefixed by that country's ICAO code. For example,
Panama's Tocumen international airport
is identified by ICAO MPTO and The Netherland's Schiphol airport has an icao code
EHAM. Do notice that these prefixes match their respective ICAO country codes.
Unless you are a real pilot or a so called arm chair pilot (virtual pilot) you probably
never heard of these ICAO country codes, otherwise you must already know it from all those
times you file a flight plan prior to your flight.
A passenger is usually acquainted with the airport's IATA
code that appears on their plane tickets and flight schedules. For example, Panama's Tocumen
(MPTO) airport shows as PTY and The Netherlands' Schiphol airport appears as
AMS.
|