Why do some airports have a K infront of their code and some don't?

Question

Example: KBED for Bedford Ma and 6B6 for Minute Man Airfield

Answer 1

here is what i was told, that some airport use to be radio stations so it may have something to do with that

Answer 2

The airports with a K are usually larger airports with a tower. Smaller airport usually don't. The K is used only in the continental  48 states. In Alaska and Hawaii it's P. For example Honolulu's code is PHNL.

Answer 3

To add to what everyone has said, when operating a GPS, the 'K' tells the GPS that you mean an airport and not a colocated VOR. For example, San Jose Airport is 'KSJC' and the VOR located at the airport is 'SJC'. In cases like this, you may need to enter the airport with a 'K' even if its normal identification doesn't have a 'K'.

Answer 4

The International Civil Air Organization puts a country code in front of their airport codes.  K is the code for america.  The International Air Transport Association does not.  For example, the ICAO code for Los Angleles International is KLAX, where as the IATA's is simply LAX.  Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Many answers are on the right track.  The K is the ICAO prefix for an airport in the continental United States.  It is almost always the FAA designator with a K on the front.

Alphanumeric FAA designators like 6B6 do not meet ICAO designator standards - ICAO airport designations are all letters.  Airports with alphanumeric designators do not have control towers or weather reporting, so there is no need to make them conform to international standards.  There are several examples of airports being redesignated from an alphanumeric FAA code to an all letter code with the K- ICAO prefix when a weather observation station was installed.

The three letter codes are not all IATA codes.  IATA codes are only assigned to airports with air carrier services and are only used within the airline industry.  IATA codes are all letters as well, not alphanumeric identifiers.  In your example, 6B6, it has nothing to do with IATA.  That's just simply an airport with an FAA designation, but no ICAO designation.

I was just at KBED last week.  Real nice area!

Answer 6

K is the country identification ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization)

code for airports in the US. (KDEN, KJFK, etc.)

another example is E for england, c for canada etc. (EGLL, CYYZ)

in 6B6's case, maybe it was dropped,  or it wasn't a important enough of a field.

OR it was using the The International Air Transport Association (IATA's) with is three letter identifier only.

that is being slowly phased out because it is too easily confused with other navigational fix codes. (VOR, NDB etc.)

Answer 7

There are two different types of airport codes inthe world, one is the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the other is the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). ICAO is a four letter identifier, which is where the K comes in for US airports, and IATA is a 3 letter identifier.

Baggage tags always use an IATA identifier whereas pilots punch in an ICAO identifier into their Flight Management Computer. So your bags might be going to SEA (Seattle Tacoma International Airport), but in the pilots mind, you are going to KSEA.

The ICAO code for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is KSEA whereas the IATA code is SEA (the K is left off) just as an example.

some airport codes are really straight forward and follow the name of the airport, such as JFK or KJFK for John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, but some are a little more complex than that such as CYEG or YEG for Edmonton International Airport in Alberta, Canada