What airport is LAX?
Why the code is LAX
LA plus a filler X, added when two-letter codes were extended to three in the 1930s.
The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.
The airport
- IATA code
- LAX
- ICAO code
- KLAX
- Airport
- Los Angeles International Airport
- City
- Los Angeles, United States
- Opened
- 1930
- Code origin
- Documented
Airport codes started as the two-letter identifiers of the National Weather Service stations they were attached to. When the system ran out of combinations, a third letter was added, and airports whose two-letter code already worked simply appended an X. That is the whole explanation for LAX, PDX and PHX, and it is why the X means nothing at all.
The other code, KLAX
Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, LAX, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, KLAX, 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 KLAX looks nothing like LAX.
Common questions
- What airport is LAX?
- Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles, United States.
- Why is Los Angeles's airport called LAX?
- LA plus a filler X, added when two-letter codes were extended to three in the 1930s.
- What is the difference between LAX and KLAX?
- LAX is the IATA code, used commercially — tickets, timetables, luggage tags. KLAX is the ICAO code, used operationally by pilots and air traffic control, and assigned geographically by region.
Related pages
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- Airport codes in United States 32 here
- What airport is JFK? John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York
- 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
- What airport is LGA? LaGuardia Airport, New York
Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place