Airport Naming System

Golden Flyer · Post by **Golden Flyer** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:50 am

How did the airport naming system in Canada come about? Can someone please explain them.. When I see an airport code from the U.S. it is easy to recognize. Why does CYTZ stand for the Toronto City Centre Airport and CYYZ Pearson? Sorry, it's always been a thought of mine for ages. Just never got around to it....

wingtip · Post by **wingtip** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:09 am

This falls into my "forgot half of what I knew to get the licenses category" but, (correct me if I am wrong) C-Canadian, Y- licensed airport, the last wo are the designators. Who chooses them? Some TC dweeb, but some make sense. ie VR-Vancouver, OW- Ottawa, CD-Cassidy, UL-Unruley Lot...you get the idea..

harveymushman · Post by **harveymushman** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:37 am

st theresa pt. CYST

niss · Post by **niss** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:06 am

Whats with the N?

CNA3
CNB9
CNY3

chancellor · Post by **chancellor** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:10 am

Maybe a liitle off here but the "Y" and "Z" in the identifier mean weather reporting or not at least it used to I know CZFN has a CARS person that reports weather.

ettw · Post by **ettw** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:52 am

This falls into my "forgot half of what I knew to get the licenses category" but, (correct me if I am wrong) C-Canadian, Y- licensed airport, the last wo are the designators. Who chooses them? Some TC dweeb, but some make sense. ie VR-Vancouver, OW- Ottawa, CD-Cassidy, UL-Unruley Lot...you get the idea..

Unruley Lot....LMAO!!!!

Spokes · Post by **Spokes** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:31 am

chancellor wrote:Maybe a liitle off here but the "Y" and "Z" in the identifier mean weather reporting or not at least it used to I know CZFN has a CARS person that reports weather.

This is also what I have heard. The 'Y' means yes- there is weather reporting. I have seen no reference to back this up though, just something I picked up years back.

just curious · Post by **just curious** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:44 am

I don't give it much thought these days. Not a great deal in Canadian Aviation makes sense from an international standpoint, and often less from a common sense standpoint.

In the outside world, the international ones have a little more of a link to reality.

SCCI fer instance, Southern Hemisphere, Chile, Carlos Ibanez In Punta Arenas Chile.

SEQU Southern Hemispere Ecuador, Quayaquil

MWCR Middle of the world, Western hemisphere, Caymans Robert's Airport.

niss · Post by **niss** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:50 am

HOOOOOAHH!!!!

Mach1 · Post by **Mach1** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 9:43 am

http://www.skygod.com/asstd/abc.html

AntiNakedMan · Post by **AntiNakedMan** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 3:35 pm

I was told that the airport ID's were selected during WWII for their anonymity making it hard to decipher coded messages.

For example, Saskatoon is YXE, North Battleford YQW, even though they have nothing to do with the actual place name.

Not sure if that's right, just what I was told.

Anti

Golden Flyer · Post by **Golden Flyer** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:18 pm

I guess no one really knows. I've done my own research as well... Ive asked pilots and they all give me 20 different stories... Same with the web. Now it's just to find out wish one is the right....

goldeneagle · Post by **goldeneagle** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 2:15 am

just curious wrote:I don't give it much thought these days. Not a great deal in Canadian Aviation makes sense from an international standpoint, and often less from a common sense standpoint.

In the outside world, the international ones have a little more of a link to reality.

SCCI fer instance, Southern Hemisphere, Chile, Carlos Ibanez In Punta Arenas Chile.

SEQU Southern Hemispere Ecuador, Quayaquil

MWCR Middle of the world, Western hemisphere, Caymans Robert's Airport.

SSSHHHHHHHH. The folks out east haven't figured it out yet. Now you let the cat out of the bag, we are most certainly going to see a whole slew of chart updates coming...

CUOW (Center of the Uniuverse - Ottawa)
CUYZ (Center of the Universe - Toronto)

snaproll20 · Post by **snaproll20** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 5:41 am

It was evident in the sixties that the outer markers at airports related to its lettering i.e. CYXD had outer markers on the primary runway of X and D.
Now the outer markers are disappearing, so it is not so apparent. It is possible that frequency allocations for NDB approaches (which was the primary way back) were done to avoid interference from one airport to another. Some X-rays have the same frequency. I never researched it any further to determine if they were all the same.

Otherwise I would opt for a burocratic dartboard.

Lost in Saigon · Post by **Lost in Saigon** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 5:47 am

This question has been asked many times. Here is an answer from long ago..... It does seem to make sense but.......

Canadian Airport codes are dirived from they're four
letter radio identifers.

All Canada's radio transmiters begin with a C, followed by a letter denoting they're type:

A-H are civilian band
K are radio and TV statios
Y and Z are aircraft Navaids,

so CYYZ is the VORTAc for Toronto-Pearson. Ah
you say, but what about airports without beacons?

Well every airport has a radio transmitter somewhere. So if a town boulds a new airport, the MOT designates a three leter code for it. So we
get codes like these:

YYZ, YVR, YYC, YMX, YUL, YQB, YWG, YEG, YSJ, YUY, YYB, YAM, YSB,
YTS, YOC, YEL, YEM, YIO, YOW, YYQ, YTP, YTZ, YQM, YQT, YWW, YSL,
YVV, YYP. YRE, ect....

well some, like Bathurst, NB, have Z idents like ZBF, but these are much in the minority.

FSS · Post by **FSS** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:41 am

Little history, once upon a time, long ago, radio com was CW (Morse Code, both Ship-Shore and Air-ground), so letters were used. "C" of course denoted Canadian radio. There was air and marine, Aeradio indents were the CY--, why the Y, I don't know why. These were located at airports. The Marine Radio idents were "V", here again don't know Y, er why. For example Coral Harbour NWT, Aeradio was CYZS, Marine radio was VFU and then there was the point-to-point com, so we could talk at other stations, call sign was VFU2, (no smart remarks here, although when an adjacent Radio Operator pissed you off, a smart VFU2 felt good!). Then of course there were the Navaids which in years of yore were the good ole NDB and usually the CW ident (which was to ensure you were on the right Aid, cause at height you could pick up other NDB's on the same freq.) Seems to me for example, Baker Lake and some more northern Bcn had same freq and could cause conflict, Pond Inlet??
As more aids came on board, more idents were needed and more airports with Aeradio, they were unable to accomodate two letter idents close to the location, e.g. Sudbury, SB or Vancouver, VR because only so many combinations of two letters are able, and not have similiar ones close together. So there is the unofficial take on this and if you don't agree.
VFU2!
Keep alert, watch for other aircraft.

Lost in Saigon · Post by **Lost in Saigon** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:13 am

I suspect that YUL and YYZ and others may have roots with the railroad industry going back 100 years or more in Ontario and Quebec.

Apparently rail stations originally had 2 letter "morse" code identifiers and they eventually evolved into 3 letter codes. Examples of current railroad station codes.

Windsor YQG
Chatham XCM
Sarnia YZR
London YXU
Kitchener YKF
Toronto YBZ
Oshawa YOO
Kingston YGK
Brockville XBR
Smiths Falls YSH
Ottawa YOW
Cornwall YCC
Dorval YUL
Montreal YMY
Quebec YQB

It may explain some of the strange airport codes, but you have to wonder which came first.

Here are some others I found.

XPN (Brampton Station)
XLQ (Guildwood Station),
XOK (Oakville Station)
XEA (Vancouver Station)

FSS · Post by **FSS** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:42 am

Good question, I assume the telegraph code or the railway one came first and then Morse, and of course both use abbreviations, e.g. Q codes in aviation/marine. There would little likley hood of mix-up as one used landline and the other air. Another note, Dept of Transport Radio Operators up until about 1965 use to send across Canada a signal twice a day relayed from coast to coast as a back up com if there were a landline failure or someother catastrophe. Also ships of certain catagory had to carry a Morse Code Radio Operator on board up until about 15 or so years ago. Actual met an old guy not to long ago who was a "Wireless" operator on Canso's during the war. Maybe flew with Cat?

Wixel Pimp · Post by **Wixel Pimp** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:04 am

Tofino, B.C. = CYAZ ?? its a strange one.

Spokes · Post by **Spokes** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:46 pm

Strange people out there though...

flystraightin · Post by **flystraightin** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 2:03 pm

Spokes wrote:Strange people out there though...

LMAO surfs up dude!!

El Comat · Post by **El Comat** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 5:43 pm

Here's what a popular ATPL study guide says of the matter:

"Originally, in the 1930s, Canada used two letters for identification of a weather reporting station. Additionally, preceding the 2-letter code, was placed a Y (meaning "yes") where the reporting station was co-located with an airport, a W (meaning "without") where the reporting station was not co-located with an airport, and a U where the reporting station was co-located with an NDB. An X was used if the last two letters of the code had already been taken by another Canadian ident, and Z was used if the locator could be confused with a US 3-letter ident."

Hopefully I don't get a copyright lawsuit against me!

EC