Airport wonderings

[billt4sf]

The Makassar airport, ibis, Starbucks, and all, is coded UPG. WHAAAA?!? Where does THAT come from?

OK, airports in the US are sometimes named after people (usually long-forgotten ones): O'Hare, LaGuardia, Reagan, JFK -- got it. Apparently the official name of the Makassar airport is Sultan Hasanuddin or some such.

How does THAT get translated into UPG? Other airports in Indo seem to have more logical codes: DPS, MDC, CGK (er, maybe), ...

Inquiring minds want to know!

Ooops...they just called our flight

- Bill

 

[Maverick17]

ICAO codes are four letters and more logically constructed. They are used by many organizations and pilots. The IATA codes, like UPG, sometimes are quite strange as you mention. I can't answer to UPG, but usually I assume if it's weird it's either a local translation, or the ones that make more sense are taken. But I don't see a MAK or a SAR in use.

 

[frogfish]

UPG stands for Ujung Pandang, as Makassar was called for a period of time...
DPS = Denpasar
CKG =CengKareng, the old name of the airport...

 

[Dan]

UPG stands for Ujung Pandang, as Makassar was called for a period of time...
DPS = Denpasar
CKG =CengKareng, the old name of the airport...

You know Indonesian history quite well

Ujung Pandang means the end of sight. It was originally named Makasar up to 1971. Then it was changed to Ujung Pandang. In 1999 it was changed again to Makassar. Makassar - Wikipedia

If I have to guess on MDC, it could come from ManaDo City?

Jakarta airport code is CGK, not CKG, but you are right about its code is named after CenGKareng, a subdistrict of Jakarta, where the airport is located.

People all over the world seem to like to change city names once in a while.

Bombay (BOM) is now Mumbai, Mumbai - Wikipedia
Peking (PEK) is now Beijing, Beijing - Wikipedia
Saigon (SGN) is now Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City - Wikipedia
Batavia became Jakarta after Dutch left. Jakarta - Wikipedia

 

[Luko]

Bombay is now Mumbai, Mumbai - Wikipedia
Peking is now Beijing, Beijing - Wikipedia

Kolkata (Calcutta), Guangzhou (Canton) these are mostly due to a better "romanisation" of their names as pronounced.

But in this case

Batavia became Jakarta after Dutch left. Jakarta - Wikipedia

it has to do with history and the will not to keep the cityname used under a certain regime like for instance Saigon became HoChiMinh city (although Saigon is still a district of HCM) or Leningrad renamed like its older name Saint Petersburg or Madras renamed Chennai (and a whole lot of Indian cities that didn't want to keep their "colonial" name)

 

[flyboy08]

If you like history of ICAO/IATA airport identifiers....check out "waypoint" names. some of them are extremely funny.
Some of the waypoints for Logan Airport include HAVRD YAARD, BGDIG, CELTS, BOSOX and … wait for it … DRUNK.

Aircraft approaching Australia’s Brisbane Airport find themselves navigating waypoints such as LEAKY, BOATS, SINNK, DRAIN, PLUGG.

 

[KeithG]

This is an interesting read IATA airport code - Wikipedia

I never new why Canadian airports all seemed to use bizarre tags. Toronto's Pearson Airport is YYZ.

 

[JohnN]

So how did Canada get so screwed on airport codes?

Vancouver BC -- YVR
Toronto -- YYZ

 

[flyboy08]

So how did Canada get so screwed on airport codes?

Vancouver BC -- YVR
Toronto -- YYZ

All airports are assigned a three-letter identifying code. Most Canadian airports begin with the letter Y (there's a couple Zs). For example YYZ is Toronto, YOW is Ottawa. Some make more sense than others. So, for YVR, the Y is an indicator that it is Canadian, and the VR is a sort-of abbreviation of Vancouver

 

[dirtfarmer]

So how did Canada get so screwed on airport codes?

Vancouver BC -- YVR
Toronto -- YYZ

Hey you have single payer Healthcare I'll trade you airport codes for that.