Airport Code
Quiz
Type the IATA code · 150+ airports · beat your streak
Question 1 of 5
IATA code for
Heathrow
London
Choose your mode
How well do you know airport codes?
Type the 3-letter IATA code · Auto-advances on correct · Uppercase or lowercase, either works
The airport code quiz
Test your IATA airport codes
The TripMemo Airport Code Quiz is a free typing game that tests how many IATA 3-letter airport codes you can recall. Every airline boarding pass, baggage tag, and flight board uses these codes — LHR for London Heathrow, JFK for John F. Kennedy, SIN for Singapore Changi, DXB for Dubai International. If you fly enough, the codes stop being random letters and start feeling like place names. This quiz puts that recall to the test.
Pick from three modes. Quick gives you ten famous hubs in about ninety seconds — a casual warm-up. Daily is five codes with a forty-second cap, deterministic for the date so every player today sees the same puzzle — perfect for a streak. Full draws fifty random codes from across all six inhabited continents — the real aviation flex. There's no multiple choice and no submit button. You type the three letters; the quiz auto-advances the moment you're right.
This quiz is built for frequent flyers, aviation enthusiasts, trainee flight attendants and pilots, travel agents, and anyone who just enjoys geography. It covers all the world's busiest passenger hubs, the major airline mothership airports (Emirates at DXB, Lufthansa at FRA, Delta at ATL, Qantas at SYD), the dual-airport megacities (NYC, London, Tokyo, Paris), and a handful of regional curveballs to keep the Full mode honest.
How it works
Three rules · three modes
Pick a mode
Quick for a warm-up · Daily for streaks · Full to test all regions
Type the code
Three letters · auto-advances the instant you type the right code
Share your score
Wordle-style emoji grid for iMessage and X · square card for Instagram
Notable codes
The codes that trip everyone up
Eight stories behind codes you thought you knew · the romanisation relics, the city-name fakeouts, the airports renamed after presidents
Old name relic
PEK
Beijing Capital · from "Peking" romanisation
Saigon never left
SGN
Ho Chi Minh City · code kept "Saigon"
Not in NYC
EWR
Newark Liberty · serves New York from New Jersey
Old field name
ORD
Chicago O'Hare · from "Orchard Field"
Designed by Zaha
PKX
Beijing Daxing · Zaha Hadid Architects, 2019
Best in the world
SIN
Singapore Changi · waterfall, butterfly garden, the lot
Built on water
KIX
Kansai International · entirely on a man-made island
Busiest on Earth
ATL
Hartsfield-Jackson · #1 for passenger traffic for decades
By region
151 airports · split by where
The fastest way to learn codes is to drill one region at a time · here's the lay of the land
Europe
41Most tested region · holiday capitals are gimmes, Eastern Europe trips people up
Trickiest
KEF, WAW, PRG, DUS
Free points
LHR, CDG, FRA, AMS, MAD, BCN
North America
28US hubs dominate · DCA/IAD vs JFK/LGA/EWR is the classic dual-airport trap
Trickiest
IAH, MSP, IAD, YYC
Free points
JFK, LAX, ORD, ATL, SFO
Asia
42Biggest region in the pool · Gulf hubs and dual-airport megacities (BJS, SHA, TYO)
Trickiest
PKX, GMP, IKA, KHI
Free points
DXB, HKG, SIN, NRT, ICN, BKK
Africa
16Sparse coverage · expect African hubs and a couple of safari gateways
Trickiest
JRO, ZNZ, ALG, MRU
Free points
CAI, JNB, CPT, NBO
South America
14São Paulo and Buenos Aires each have two — the second airport is always the trap
Trickiest
AEP, CGH, GPS, BSB
Free points
GRU, EZE, LIM, BOG
Oceania
10Small pool, all knowable in an evening · Auckland and Sydney are free points
Trickiest
OOL, WLG, NAN, CHC
Free points
SYD, MEL, AKL
The busiest 10
World's busiest airport codes
The ten airports that move more passengers than any others on Earth · know these and you'll never blank on a boarding pass
ATL
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
United States
DXB
Dubai International
UAE
DFW
Dallas/Fort Worth
United States
HND
Tokyo Haneda
Japan
LHR
London Heathrow
United Kingdom
DEN
Denver International
United States
IST
Istanbul Airport
Turkey
LAX
Los Angeles International
United States
ORD
Chicago O'Hare
United States
CDG
Paris Charles de Gaulle
France
Passenger traffic rankings · ACI World data (2024)
By airline hub
Hubs of the world's major airlines
The fastest mnemonic for remembering airport codes is the airline that lives there · every major carrier has a mothership (or three)
Delta
United States6 hubs
United
United States6 hubs
American Airlines
United States6 hubs
British Airways
United Kingdom3 hubs
Lufthansa
Germany2 hubs
Air France
France2 hubs
KLM
Netherlands1 hub
Emirates
UAE1 hub
Qatar Airways
Qatar1 hub
Singapore Airlines
Singapore1 hub
Cathay Pacific
Hong Kong1 hub
Japan Airlines / ANA
Japan3 hubs
Korean Air
South Korea2 hubs
Qantas
Australia4 hubs
Study guide
Learn airport codes · faster
Five techniques that beat brute-force memorisation · proven by every airline crew and pilot who didn't grow up flying
Group by hub airline
Every major carrier has a home hub: Lufthansa lives at FRA, Emirates at DXB, Delta at ATL, ANA at HND. Tie each airline you fly to its mothership code · suddenly you remember six codes per airline, not one.
Master the dual-airport cities first
NYC (JFK/LGA/EWR), London (LHR/LGW/STN/LTN/LCY), Tokyo (NRT/HND), Paris (CDG/ORY), Beijing (PEK/PKX), Shanghai (PVG/SHA). These are the codes that come up in conversation · every flight delay story names one.
Decode the old romanisations
Codes are frozen relics. PEK (Peking), CAN (Canton/Guangzhou), SGN (Saigon), BOM (Bombay), CCU (Calcutta). Once you know why they look wrong, they're unforgettable · the wrong name is the mnemonic.
Use the first 3 letters where you can
Half the codes are exactly the first 3 letters: MAD (Madrid), BCN (Barcelona), FRA (Frankfurt), MIA (Miami), LIM (Lima), DEN (Denver), ATH (Athens). Always try the obvious 3 first — they're right more often than you'd guess.
The Daily 5 builds it slowly
Five fresh codes a day for two months covers every major airport on Earth. Streaks reinforce recall better than any single cram session · and the Daily mode keeps each game under a minute.
FAQ
Common questions
How does the Airport Code Quiz work?
What is an IATA airport code?
How many IATA airport codes are there in total?
What's the difference between IATA and ICAO codes?
Why do Canadian airport codes start with Y? (YYZ, YVR, YUL)
Why is Los Angeles called LAX?
What counts as a correct answer?
How does the daily streak work?
Why are some answers worth more points?
Can I share my score?
Why does PEK code Beijing — shouldn't it be BEI or BJG?
How are new airport codes assigned?
Is this quiz good practice for flight attendants or pilots?
What's the difference between this and the TripMemo app?
All 151 airports
Codes tracked in this quiz
Every major hub and most second-tier airports from each region.
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Methodology
Last updated 16 May 2026. Airport selection covers the world's 150 busiest passenger hubs plus a handful of well-known regional airports. IATA codes verified against Wikipedia’s list of airports by IATA code and the IATA Airport Code Search.
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