Jewar Airport gets ‘DXN’ code. How IATA assigns unique codes to airports

by admin on October 14, 2023

Airport codes are unique identifiers given to each airport in order to avoid confusion and enable smooth running of operations.

The upcoming Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar was awarded its own unique international three-letter code, ‘DXN’, by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Explaining the code’s significance, NIA CEO Christoph Schnellmann said it gives a clear understanding of Delhi-Noida and its connectivity to the world through this airport. “The D in DXN signifies Delhi, which is the national capital, and N stands for Noida, which shows our presence in the Western UP area. X, we think, signifies connectivity within India and the world,” he said on Wednesday.

Phase 1 of the airport, 65 km from Botanical Garden, Noida, is proposed to be operational by the end of 2024. It will have one terminal with a capacity of 12 million passengers per year and a 3.9-km-long North Runway.

What are airport codes?

Airport codes are unique identifiers assigned to each airport. While most people are familiar only with the codes assigned by IATA, a Montreal-based international aviation trade association, each airport actually has two unique codes — the other assigned by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an arm of the United Nations. Both are used to accurately identify airports, but in different contexts.

The three-digit IATA codes are used for passenger facing operations — on tickets, boarding passes, signages, etc. The four-digit codes assigned by the ICAO, on the other hand, are used by industry professionals such as pilots, air traffic controllers, planners, etc. For instance, for the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, the IATA code is DEL whereas the ICAO code is VIDP.

Airport coding first began in the 1930s, in the very early days of commercial aviation. At the time, airlines and pilots typically chose their own two letter codes to identify destinations. However, by the 1940s, as the number of airports grew exponentially, a system of three letter codes was devised (allowing for a far higher number of combinations) and eventually standardised in the 1960s by the IATA.

“This is one of our major milestones as an airport operator, the identity of our airport. The code is for infinity, it’s not going to change (as long as the airport remains),” said Kiran Jain, Chief Operating Officer, NIA.

How does IATA assign airport codes?

While many airport codes intuitively make sense (like DEL for Delhi or BOM for Mumbai, previously Bombay), others seem to be more random (like IXR for Ranchi). This is what determines the IATA code for any airport:

• How the airport wishes to identify itself. Lots of lobbying goes on behind the scenes by an airport authority to receive a code that is meaningful in some way. As we can make out from NIA CEO Schnellmann’s statement, the code for the Jewar airport, while seemingly random at first glance, is rife with meaning. City names, airport names, and location names are some common bases for codes.
• The availability of said code. The codes are meaningful only because they are unique. This means that no two airports can have the same IATA codes. This is one of the reasons why the Ranchi airport is not RAN (taken by Ravenna, Italy).
• Certain common conventions, which depend on the country. The other reason why the Ranchi airport is IXR is due to a convention followed in India where military airports extended for civilian traffic are assigned codes beginning with ‘IX’. For instance, Agartala’s airport is IXA, Chandigarh’s airport is IXC, and Leh airport is IXL.
  Similarly, in Canada, all airport codes begin with ‘Y’ — Toronto has YYZ, Vancouver YVR, and so on. In the US, all codes starting with N are reserved for the US Navy.

The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763 and are published twice each year in the IATA Airline Coding Directory.