Four-letter code under the ICAO system that identifies an aerodrome in flight plans, air traffic control and weather reports, such as EGLL for London Heathrow.
What it is
Unlike the IATA code, the ICAO code follows a geographical logic. The first letter denotes a broad region, and the first two usually identify the country: EG is the United Kingdom (EGLL, Heathrow), LE Spain (LEMD, Madrid), SK Colombia (SKBO, Bogotá), MM Mexico (MMMX, Mexico City) and SA Argentina (SAEZ, Ezeiza). The contiguous United States usually uses K followed by the IATA code, as in KJFK, and Canada uses C, as in CYYZ.
It is the code used in flight plans, in METAR and TAF weather messages and on navigation charts. Each state assigns codes to its aerodromes within the prefixes allocated to it, and ICAO publishes them in Document 7910. Many aerodromes that have never seen an airline flight carry one, from small general aviation fields to heliports, and often have no IATA code at all.
Related terms
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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). ICAO airport code. Retrieved October 18, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airport-code
MLA
“ICAO airport code.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airport-code. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “ICAO airport code.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airport-code.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) ICAO airport code. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airport-code (Accessed: 18 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_icao_airport_code,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{ICAO airport code}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-09},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airport-code},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airport-code}},
urldate = {2026-10-18},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-18}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airport-code |title=ICAO airport code |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-18 |language=en}}