What airport is DCA?
Why the code is DCA
District of Columbia Airport — although the runways are physically in Virginia.
The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.
The airport
- IATA code
- DCA
- ICAO code
- KDCA
- Airport
- Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
- City
- Washington, United States
- Opened
- 1941
- Code origin
- Documented
The land was declared part of the District of Columbia when the airport was built, then ruled to be in Virginia by Congress in 1945 for jurisdictional purposes; the code had already been assigned. It has a 1,250-mile perimeter rule and one of the most constrained approaches in the country, following the Potomac in a curve to avoid restricted airspace over the city.
Codes people book by mistake
| Code | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| IAD | Dulles, 26 miles further out. The two codes exist in their present form specifically to stop people confusing them. |
The other code, KDCA
Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, DCA, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, KDCA, 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 KDCA looks nothing like DCA.
Common questions
- What airport is DCA?
- Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in Washington, United States.
- Why is Washington's airport called DCA?
- District of Columbia Airport — although the runways are physically in Virginia.
- What is the difference between DCA and KDCA?
- DCA is the IATA code, used commercially — tickets, timetables, luggage tags. KDCA is the ICAO code, used operationally by pilots and air traffic control, and assigned geographically by region.
- Is DCA the same as IAD?
- No. IAD is dulles, 26 miles further out. The two codes exist in their present form specifically to stop people confusing them.
Related pages
- United States Capital, area, population and currency
- The flag of United States Colours, symbols and lookalikes
- Airport codes in United States 32 here
- What airport is IAD? Washington Dulles International Airport
- What airport is JFK? John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York
- What airport is LAX? Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles
- What airport is ORD? O'Hare International Airport, Chicago
- What airport is ATL? Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta
- What airport is MCO? Orlando International Airport, Orlando
- What airport is DFW? Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas
- What airport is EWR? Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark
- What airport is SFO? San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco
Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place