Why Do Canadian Airport Codes Begin With The Letter "Y?" - JFK

Why Do Canadian Airport Codes Begin With The Letter "Y?"

James — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:16:14 +0000

A few days ago Ben wrote about the humorous tale of a man in Canada boarding the wrong flight 1,800 miles in the wrong direction, and ending up at an airport that didn't even sound like the town he was supposed to fly to. Ben shared a map of the airports, and as you may…

Continue reading: Why Do Canadian Airport Codes Begin With The Letter “Y?”

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Mikhail — Fri, 27 May 2022 01:20:54 +0000

LED is used by Saint Petersburg, beucase the previous name of this city is "Leningrad".

Paolo — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 17:38:05 +0000

And LED for Saint Petersburg..

Christopher — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 05:13:42 +0000

I was a travel student. I was aware that all the airports in Canada were prefaced by the letter, ‘Y.’ However, I did not know the logic behind it.

01BMW01M101MAN01 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 01:30:05 +0000

But where does the "Y" come from? Does it mean anything? And why are the airports up there not city abbreviations? Like Vancouver being "VAN" or Calgary "CAL" or "CGY"?

Bubba — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 18:39:50 +0000

There's an old 80's Christmas movie called "Scrooge" (Bill Murray's version of A Christmas Carol). In the movie he was a TV Exec that ran a commercial saying, "ITV; Yule Love it!" Montreal is YUL and I always think of that...that or the USPS ran a commercial saying, "We deliver for Yule!" one Christmas and I think of a fella in the blue garb going to Montreal. Full disclosure - I am an educator so it's my job to come up with crazy tricks to remember useless junk.

Jason Brandt Lewis — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 13:34:29 +0000

@ James ---> In a reply to Jason (not me!), you wrote: "@ Jason – I’m only suggesting Canadian airport codes are harder to remember than other countries airport codes because they are less of an abbreviation of the location or name (with only 2 letters to use), given the mandatory Y." I'm confused. How is it any harder to remember (e.g.) YVR or YUL or YYZ, for Vancouver, Montréal, and Toronto than remembering MCO is Orlando, MCI is Kansas City, and BNA is Nashville? Sure, some airport codes (PHX, SFO, DFW) are closer to the name of the city they serve; others are closer to the airport name (LHR for London-Heathrow; LGW for London-Gatwick; LCY for London-City). But in the long run, you just memorize the code: IAD for Washington; ORD for Chicago O'Hare; EWR for Newark; etc., etc.

Mitch2 — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 04:05:43 +0000

@James I love reading your articles, and find the content you produce to be continually informative and entertaining. I think one of the best parts of this blog is that it brings together the brightest avgeek minds from around the world to strengthen our collective knowledge, especially on topics the authors themselves may not be an expert on. I look forward to reading more, James!

Notbad41 — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 23:46:57 +0000

Why do people take the time and complain about a article? I thought it was interesting. I always wonder why Canada is so confusing.

George — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 22:24:51 +0000

James thank you for answering a question that has been bugging me for the past 40 years. By the way for those wondering about YYZ, seems YZ was the two letter code for the station in Malton, where the airport is situated. As for Sean M. and his fellow haters, why can't you just engage in polite and respectful discussion. If you have something to say about facts on this blog, why can't you just point these out and put your point of view forward in a civilised manner. You are so pathetic it's unreal. Didn't your parents teach you anything? Obviously not. And that's probably where you learned your objectionable behaviour in the first place. I actually pity people like you, you must lead a very lonely life (unsurprisingly). If you're so clever, why don't you go and start your own blog and see how successful you are with it.