Polaris From Canada, joined Feb 2000, 1118 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (12 years 11 months 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1146 times:
After Russia, Canada is the world's second largest country in land mass. (Yes, bigger than the US.) That means air travel is very important in this country and, in fact, Canada is one of the world's aviation pioneers. There are over one thousand two hundred airports in Canada (that's 1,200). The "Y" is the second letter in the actual airport code. The airport code is part of the airport's radio call letters. For example, Toronto Pearson is CYYZ - shortened to YYZ; Montreal Dorval is CYUL - shortened to YUL; Vancouver is CYVR - shortened to YVR. You are in the US. In the US, most radio frequencies east of the Mississippi start with "W"; most west of the Mississippi start with "K". For example, in New York you have a radio station with the call letters WCBS. I believe all your airport codes actually start with "K" followed by their respective three letters. Other countries also have their own designated first letter. Hope this helps.
Polaris From Canada, joined Feb 2000, 1118 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (12 years 11 months 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1140 times:
No...no...they all start with "Y". In fact, I missed one point. There are a few more obscure airports that start with "Z". So, they would actually be CYYY or CZZZ. I could get more info for you if you want but I'm at work and the info is at home.
Klmd11 From Netherlands, joined Sep 2007, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (12 years 11 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1127 times:
I believe that there are 26^2 (676) possible combinations with two letters. Someone stated on the forum earlier that the code is derived by prepending Y to the railway code -- eg. VR is Vancouver railway code, so airport callsign is YVR, full code CYVR. Nobody seemed to know why 'Y' is used, though.
Polaris From Canada, joined Feb 2000, 1118 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (12 years 11 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1121 times:
"Y" is used because:
When formal radio regulations began, radio call signs were assigned to each country in the world. Canada was assigned the following first two letters: CB, CF, CH, CI, CJ, CK, CY, CZ. Newfoundland was assigned VO. When they joined Canada, these letters joined Canada with them. Canada chose to use CB for CBC broadcasting (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). CF, CH, CI, CJ, CK was used for other broadcasters. CY, CZ was used for transportation communication. That's why Canadian airports start mostly with CY - or - just "Y" if you drop the "C". Hope this clears things up a little. Find out what letters were assigned to your countries. That would be interesting.
CYLW From Canada, joined Apr 2000, 413 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (12 years 11 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 1100 times:
Polaris is right. All countries have their own ICAO country codes.
Canada has CU-CZ
USA uses K (PH for Hawaii, PA for Alaska)
UK uses EG (Heathrow is EGLL)
France is LF (Charles de Gaulle is LFPG)
Italy is LI (Rome-Fumicino is LIRF)
Switzerland is LS (Zurich is LSZH)
etc....
I have a list of them all if you want your country. These 4-letter ICAO codes are used by the pilots/ATC whereas the 3-letter codes (CDG, HKG etc.) are only used by passengers, ticket agents, and travel agents.
CYLW From Canada, joined Apr 2000, 413 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (12 years 11 months 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 1087 times:
I have a newly outdated Air Canada Route Manual Supplement. It's got them most in there. I'm sure there is somewhere on the net that has them listed, but do not know where. I could make a list, but that would take some time, and I have to go to work now.
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