IATA code and ICAO code: which one you need
The three-letter IATA code — BLR, LAX, PVG — is the one on an air waybill, a booking, a flight schedule and a bag tag. IATA assigns it to airports and to some cities, and it is what a forwarder, an airline cargo desk and a customs broker mean by "the airport code".
The four-letter ICAO code — VOBL, KLAX, ZSPD — is the aeronautical identifier used in flight plans, air-traffic control and weather reports. Its first letter or two give the region and country (K for the contiguous United States, V for South Asia, Z for China), so it is unambiguous worldwide but rarely appears on cargo paperwork.
Some airports carry a third, local code: the FAA identifier in the United States, which usually but not always equals the IATA code. Each airport page shows all the codes the source records and leaves out any it does not — nothing here is inferred from the name.
What the code tells you about a cargo shipment
On an air waybill the origin and destination airports are written as IATA codes, and the rate a forwarder quotes is airport-to-airport between those two codes unless the booking is door-to-door. Quoting the wrong code — a city code where the airline wants the airport, or the passenger airport of a city whose cargo flies from another — is one of the quieter causes of a missed consolidation.
For a US import, the airport is also a customs port of entry with its own four-digit CBP Schedule D code, which is what goes on CBP Form 7501. US airport pages here link to the matching Schedule D page where the Census list names the airport. Airlift coordinates entry filing through our licensed broker network.
Air freight is priced on chargeable weight — the greater of actual and volumetric weight — so once the airports are settled the next thing to work out is the chargeable weight of the cartons. The calculator linked from every airport page does that.
How to use this tool
Type a code or a place: BLR, VOBL, Bengaluru or Kempegowda all find the same airport. The search ranks an exact IATA code first, then an exact ICAO code, then a code prefix, then a city or airport name. Filter by country when a city name is shared — there is a Portland in Oregon and one in Maine.
Results show the codes and the country for every airport in the index. Airports with their own page carry a link to it; the per-country lists further down the page give every one of them.
Where the data comes from
Airport names, codes, coordinates, elevations, types and scheduled-service flags are from OurAirports, a community-maintained airport database released into the public domain. The index covers every large or medium airport in that list that has an IATA code and scheduled service. Codes change occasionally — airports open, close and are renamed — so confirm against your airline or forwarder before a code goes on a document.
CBP Schedule D codes are from the U.S. Census Bureau Schedule D district/port list, cross-checked against CBP’s ACE Appendix E. Lane guides, seaport pages and the air-freight service page are Airlift’s own.