ICAO Airport Code trivia

[Gartro 18]

Historically, I have had a very basic approach to the use of ICAO alphanumeric airport codes in flight sim – only using them to identify where I was going from and to.

 

I had a general understanding of how they were assigned and what the four letters in the code for an airport signified eg the first letter for the region, the second for the country in the region and the other two to identify the airport. I understood that there were some exceptions from the first two letters approach, exampled by Canada and the US.

 

A couple of weeks ago when I was overflying a small country, I noticed that the ICAO code for the international airport there was exactly the same as the name of the airport and the name of the country.

 

That set me to wondering whether there are any other instances of that happening. I could find only one other. It is a private aerodrome. The ICAO code is not the same as the name of the aerodrome but it is exactly the same as the alternative name for the country (this should be dear to Poppet’s heart!).

 

Does anyone know what those two instances are and whether there are any other examples (and where)?

 

That investigative exercise threw up some other interesting aspects, such as why Kosovo is in the same ICAO code region as Greenland and Iceland rather than in the region of its neighbouring countries and that in the Falkland Islands, there is one site which is assigned the South American region and another which has both the region and country letters for the UK – see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Civil_Aviation_Organization_airport_code

 

 

Gary

[x-plane 123 61]

The only one I know of is NIUE.

[Gartro 18]

Jon

 

You're spot on with that - see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niue_International_Airport

 

That is the one I came across by chance, overflying it.

 

The other one I subsequently found is in the northern hemisphere.

 

Gary

[Gartro 18]

217 views later and no answer for the second airport, it is Abbeyfeale Aerodrome (EIRE)  in County Limerick in the Province of Munster, Ireland - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland

 

Gary