An IATA airport code , also known as an IATA location identifier , IATA station code , or simply a location identifier , is a three-letter geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The characters prominently displayed on baggage tags attached at airport check-in desks are an example of a way these codes are used.
38-455: Macau International Airport ( IATA : MFM , ICAO : VMMC ) is an international airport in the special administrative region of Macau , situated at the eastern end of Taipa island and neighbouring waters. It opened for commercial operations on 9 November 1995, during Portuguese administration of the region . Since its opening, the airport has been a common transfer point for people traveling between mainland China and Taiwan , as well as
76-665: A "two customs, one checkpoint" service is provided. Passengers can use a bus shuttle directly from the airport to the New Macau Ferry Terminal or the Taipa Ferry Terminal without passing Macau immigration. Towards Macau Peninsula , Taipa , Cotai and Coloane Cross-border coaches connect Macau International Airport with mainland locations like Huadu , Guangzhou , Panyu , Dongguan , Gongbei Port of Entry and Hengqin Border. The "two customs, one checkpoint" service
114-636: A Segurança ) is the director of the government department responsible for public safety and security in Macau . The role replaced the former post of Secretary for Public Security . It is responsible for managing the Macau public security and police agencies. The following entities are controlled under the MSF: Macau Customs Service is a government agency responsible for the protection against smuggling; revenue collection, detect and deter drug trafficking ; protection of intellectual property rights ;
152-403: A ferry to Hong Kong in order to fly out of Kai Tak. Upon planning, Macau airport was said that it would relieve the congestion at Kai Tak. The Macau airport was constructed on reclaimed land adjacent to the islands of Taipa and Coloane . It cost US$ 1 billion to build. Commercial air service began on 9 November 1995. The first departure was an Air Macau flight to Beijing, and the first arrival
190-493: A few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice
228-550: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This
266-451: A night curfew. There are 24 parking spaces for aircraft in the apron, with five jetways . There are 10 gates. As in Hong Kong, Macau has its own immigration policies and is a separate customs territory from mainland China . All travellers, including those to mainland China and Hong Kong, need to go through the immigration and customs inspections of international flights. The airport's runway
304-518: A passenger hub for destinations in mainland China and Southeast Asia . During 2006, the airport handled 5 million passengers and 220,000 tonnes of cargo. In 2017 the number of passengers had increased to 7,165,803, which is more than the 6 million passengers per year the terminal was originally designed for. Before the opening of Macau airport, the nearest international airport was Kai Tak in British Hong Kong and passengers from Macau had to take
342-499: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow
380-734: Is also available at the Hengqin Border. The airport is served by the Airport Station of the Macau Light Rail Transit 's Taipa Line at Avenida Wai Long. [REDACTED] Media related to Macau International Airport at Wikimedia Commons IATA airport code The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in
418-574: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at
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#1732847819333456-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU
494-532: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier
532-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained
570-561: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with
608-471: The list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and the use of two letters allowed only
646-511: The IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn , is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as
684-495: The Macau Business Aviation Centre, Servair Macau and Menzies Macau . Since 2016, Macau's government has been developing a master plan for the airport's expansion. To be done in three phases, the most visible sections of it broke ground in 2020. The airport is connected by public transit bus routes, light rail, taxis, private cars, and regional coach services. For passengers transferring to China or Hong Kong,
722-645: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Secretariat for Security (Macau) Consular missions in Macau Macau–China relations The Secretary for Security ( Chinese : 保安司司长 ; Portuguese : Secretaria para
760-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append
798-571: The airport is capable of handling Boeing 747s and Antonov 124s , which forms a vital freight link between local manufacturers and overseas markets. Its catering facility can produce up to 10,000 meals per day. Other tenants of the airport are the Macau Customs Service (independent department under Secretariat for Security of Macau ), the Macau Immigration Department/Services ( Public Security Police Force of Macau ),
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#1732847819333836-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,
874-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after
912-491: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share
950-919: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through
988-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from
1026-474: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When
1064-593: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after
1102-482: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in
1140-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from
1178-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which
Macau International Airport - Misplaced Pages Continue
1216-501: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than
1254-500: The segment between Brussels and Macau. TAP encountered difficulties in running the flights. The crew had to spend long layovers in Macau because the service only operated twice a week. Additionally, TAP and Air Macau, in which the former held a stake, were unable to coordinate their schedules, making connections between the Lisbon flight and Air Macau's network inconvenient. In April 1997, TAP moved
1292-497: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in
1330-587: The stopover to Bangkok in hopes of attracting more passengers. Nevertheless, it was losing money on the route. The company's chairman stated in November 1997 that he wanted to end the link but that he faced opposition from the Portuguese government , which owned the airline. TAP stopped serving Macau the following year. The airport's designed capacity is 10,000,000 passengers per year, with processing capacity of up to 2,300 passengers per hour. The airport does not have
1368-504: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given
1406-449: Was a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur. The official inauguration ceremony took place on 8 December 1995, and Portuguese president Mário Soares presided over it. In April 1996, TAP Air Portugal started service to Lisbon using Airbus A340s . It cooperated with Sabena on the route; the flight stopped in Brussels , and TAP allocated a certain number of seats to the airline on
1444-470: Was built on a strip of reclaimed land in the sea, adjacent to Taipa Island where the main terminal and air traffic control facilities are located, unlike in Hong Kong , where Chek Lap Kok has them all on a reclaimed island. The runway is connected to the apron by two causeways . Runway 34 is ILS CAT II equipped. Navigational and radio aids are located at either end of the runway. Despite its small area,
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