I love that Canadian airport codes all start with Y. It isn't immediately obvious which airport it is, but you immediately know that it is Canadian (except for the very rare cases of airport codes starting with Y outside of Canada). It is something that is distinct to Canada globally and I think that has some value.

For what it's worth, although YYZ isn't clearly Toronto, there is an airport code for the region which is: YTO. It encompasses all Toronto airports though. I feel like YYZ is rather iconic at this point though, so hopefully they never consider replacing it.

I don't know if YYZ is iconic outside your region. I knew it as Pearson. I knew LAX, etc., as codes. Never knew my own airport code until SSP. Just always said "St. John's International" in any situation where "the airport" wasn't enough. The only other name I knew for it was "Torbay" because that's what Air Canada insisted on calling it. "We'll soon be landing in Torbay...", "The current temperature in Torbay is...".

Probably just a misguided attempt to be "local". It used to be a Canadian and, before that, American base by that name.

I wonder if given a choice Calgarians would prefer our YCG?

It annoys me that Kingston's airport is YGK, while the more fitting YKG is taken up by some small town in Quebec.

Would it have to become known as Cancelgary in lieu of Cancelgar? :D

Edit: besides, since YYC opened their parallel, virtually no cancellations/delays so it wouldn't really "fit". ;)

YVR is such a great airport. I'm glad the growth numbers are high.

why do i always hear that atlanta is the world's busiest airport?

i was atching something on cnn within the last couple weeks about weather and they said it again that many flights are delayed or cancelled blah blah in atlanta at the worlds busiest airport, those numbers don't reflect it being the busiest...

These are only international numbers. If you include all passengers, Atlanta has something like 90 million passengers a year.

Atlanta is not only a major hub for Delta but also for the United States in general, because of it's location. Most of these 90 million passengers don't even leave the airport, since they're just making a connection at Hartsfield.

ATL is the world's busiest airport based on aircraft movements, depending on the year. ORD and ATL flip back and forth.

Hi Jeremy. Actually, the prefix letter "Y" designator is used to indicate that the airport possesses a weather-related facility within the confines of the airport itself. "CYQR and CYYC" have weather reporting; whereas CZWH and CJS4 do not.

Actually, most of Canada's airports do not have a Y prefix - meaning that they are either too small, or that they are relatively close to an airport with weather reporting capability.

Further to that, all airports in Canada possess ICAO* identifiers which begin with "C", such as "CYYZ." ("C" meaning "Canada.")

I hope this helps. :)

* International Civil Aviation Organization.

I think you're right. I still think of it at Peason. Had to find out something about it a couple of weeks ago and googled Pearson. Airport codes seem to be a trendy way to refer to the entire city these days and I don't get it.

Names like St. John's International and Calgary International are kind of boring too. Torbay and McCall Field might be a little more interesting way to refer to the airports. A little cryptic maybe for out of towners but more fun than YYC.

ah i see

i used atlanta once, that airport was nuts and i was only in the one terminal

Because it is the busiest airport in the world.

It has more aircraft movements than any other airport in the world, roughly twice that of Toronto Pearson.
Only Chicago O'Hare comes close in movements in recent years. The latest figures I saw at work recently had O'Hare busier for some months last year, but in total Atlanta still topped out.

ATL is like Disneyworld or Vegas. It's something you ought to experience, even if it's not your cup of tea. ATL is perhaps the best cross-section of American society on display. Sometimes it seems like half the country is transferring through that airport.

From my experience, it's also incredibly efficient. I've never had a major delay flying out of ATL, and I've always been amazed at how tight the connections are. This could just be my experience, though.

For awhile they wanted to re-name Calgary to Peter Lougheed International. Which I actually quite like, both because I liked Peter Lougheed, but also because pretty much anything is better than "[city] International Airport".

That would be a lot nicer. YUL used to be called Dorval International Airport until 2004... Trudeau is so much better.

The United States is a foreign country if people needed that pointed out. US airports get lots of PAX to that foreign country called Canada too, so it's a little odd that you're arguing that Canadian airports are getting an artificial bump. A foreign country is a foreign country so there's nothing artificial about it.

Canada is the only country on the planet that I can think of that doesn't count a foreign country (the US in our case) in their international numbers.

The European Union countries might not count flights between EU countries as international flights.

As for Calgary airport's name, I wouldn't be surprised if its named after Joe Clark when he dies in keeping with the tradition established by naming Toronto Pearson and Montreal Trudeau, plus its fitting as Joe Clark is associated with the Calgary area.

They most certainly do. International by definition means going from one nation to another. It seems that every one understands what the word means except people in Canada.