Cairo International Airport, in Cairo, Egypt.

What is the difference between CAI and HECA?

CAI is the IATA code, used commercially — tickets, timetables, luggage tags. HECA is the ICAO code, used operationally by pilots and air traffic control, and assigned geographically by region.

What airport is CAI?

CAI is

Cairo International Airport

Cairo, Egypt

Why the code is CAI

CAIro.

The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.

The airport

IATA code: CAI
ICAO code: HECA
Airport: Cairo International Airport
City: Cairo, Egypt
Code origin: Documented

Cairo is the busiest airport in Africa after Johannesburg and sits on the site of a US air base built during the war. Its ICAO prefix HE covers Egypt, part of the H block allocated to north-east Africa.

The other code, HECA

Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, CAI, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, HECA, is the one pilots and controllers use, and it is assigned geographically: the first letter or two identify the region, so every airport in the same part of the world shares a prefix. That is why HECA looks nothing like CAI.

Common questions

What airport is CAI?: Cairo International Airport, in Cairo, Egypt.
Why is Cairo's airport called CAI?: CAIro.
What is the difference between CAI and HECA?: CAI is the IATA code, used commercially — tickets, timetables, luggage tags. HECA is the ICAO code, used operationally by pilots and air traffic control, and assigned geographically by region.

Egypt Capital, area, population and currency
The flag of Egypt Colours, symbols and lookalikes
Airport codes in Egypt 1 here

Sources

OurAirports — OurAirports (Public domain)

How these figures are compiled and checked