What airport is CVG?

Why the code is CVG

Covington, Kentucky — the nearest town to the site, and in a different state from the city the airport is named for.

The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.

The airport

IATA code

CVG

ICAO code

KCVG

Airport

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport

City

Cincinnati, United States

Code origin

Documented

The airport is in Boone County, Kentucky, about 13 miles from downtown Cincinnati and across the Ohio River from it. The code was assigned from Covington, the Kentucky city it originally served. This is why a flight to Cincinnati lands in another state, and why the airport eventually added "Northern Kentucky" to its name.

The other code, KCVG

Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, CVG, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, KCVG, 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 KCVG looks nothing like CVG.