IATA Airport Codes or 3 Letter Airport Codes is the most frequently used language in the air shipping industry.
What is the airport code & city code?
A city code is a three-letter code designating different cities around the world. Sometimes, the city code is the same as a specific airport code in the city.
What’s the difference between ICAO codes and IATA codes?
Their designation is markedly different and they serve different purposes. ICAO is used for official purposes as it is concerned with regulating international travel at a state level while IATA is used for commercial purposes as it focuses on the private sector. But the most obvious distinction between the codes used by the ICAO and IATA is very simple — ICAO codes are four letters, whereas IATA codes are three letters.
Where can IATA airport codes be used?
The mostly frequent used airport codes, are the IATA Airport Codes, or 3 Letter Airport Codes, the unique identifiers of the world airports.Airport Terminals
An IATA airport code is the unique identifier of each airport terminal. Every code represents only one airport and never repeats. For example, there are several airports in Moscow, and each airport has its airport code. When the buyer or consignee instructs his forwarder or supplier to ship his cargo to “SVO”, he may has his own customs broker in SVO terminal to help them to clear custom. If you neglect his instruction, and ship the goods to any other customs airports,like DME, or VKO in Moscow, the consignee may has problems to have the goods cleared.Airway Bills
The IATA airport codes are used on the airway bill.Airport Tickets
The IATA airport codes also appear on the airport ticket.
Airport Baggage Lags
The IATA airport codes are applied to the baggage lags. When you take planes, you will always see the IATA airport codes on your baggage lags. On tags, IATA airport codes of destination are printed, such as FUN, Funafuti International Airport.
How to find the proper airport codes for your air cargo shipment?
But when you want to ship your cargo from one country to another country, you need to pay attention to the customs airport.
How to identify the customs airport?
A customs airport is an airport notified by the appropriate customs authority of the country as an airport for the unloading of imported goods and the loading of export goods or any class of such goods. If you don’t choose a customs airport when you intend to import or export your cargo, your cargo can’t be shipped.
For example, if you want to ship your cargo from China to Israel, but you don’t know how to choose the destination airport, you can just go to seabaycargo.com, find the airport search box, type Israel and search, then the system will show you the whole country’s airports with IATA airport codes.
From the below Israeli airport lists, you can see there is only one single airport code TLV marking “Customs”, which is the only choice for your international cargo destination airport. If there are alternative customs airports in the same country, you can look into every specific airport to find the most suitable one for the shipment.Seabaycargo.com provides powerful logistics tools for the international shipping industry. Besides helping shipping expert to find out suitable airport codes for the specific shipment, Seabaycargo.com also provides multiple solutions for every shipment from China to all destination airport with up-to-date accurate air freight.