Many New Yorkers would consider Newark Liberty International Airport one of the city’s three major airports, despite the fact that it’s in New Jersey across the Hudson River on the mainland, as has the International Air Transport Association, which is responsible for technical standards for airlines and airports.
IATA is in charge of three-letter airline codes, airport codes, and city codes, such as AAL for American Airlines and JFK for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, not to mention EWR for Newark Liberty International Airport, which is the second busiest airport in the New York metropolitan area after JFK. Newark, incidentally, got the EWR abbreviation when airport codes switched from two letters to three and the U.S. Navy reserved all codes that started with the letter “N.” Newark’s code then became what it is today, using other letters in the word nEWaRk.
Currently, all three New York-area airports operate under the IATA city code NYC under current rules for so-called for “Multi-Airport Cities,” a term used for cities with multiple airports and/or other intermodal locations such as a train station.
Starting October 3 of this year, however, the rules for this are changing and some airport codes currently part of multi-airport city codes will become standalone city codes and the change impacts Newark. On that date, EWR will no longer belong to the city code NYC.
The change means that passengers won’t be able to easily make changes in itineraries between Newark and the two New York City airports without either having the fare repriced or obtaining a waiver, which might be applicable in the case of irregular operations.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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