BTS Home > Programs > Airline Data and Statistics > Accounting and Reporting Directives

Codes For Nondesignated Alaska Airports

Department of Transportation, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Airline Statistics
Number 186
Issue Date: 2/14/95
Effective Date: 4/1/95
Part: 298

This Accounting and Reporting Directives directs small certificated and commuter air carriers to use the airport code ZZZ for landing areas in Alaska which do not have an official IATA or DOT airport code.

The Office of Airline Statistics and its Alaskan Aviation Field Office have been expending an increasing amount of time researching and assigning airport codes for nondesignated landing areas.  Frequently, on a scheduled flight, an Alaskan bush carrier will divert from its scheduled routing to transport passengers to a nonscheduled point, which may be a nondesignated landing area. For example, it may transport sportsmen to a hunting lodge, or lumberjacks to their work sites.  The directions [Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (14 C.F.R.) §298.61(f)(5)] to Form 298-C, Schedule T-1 Report Qf Revenue Traffic by on-Ling origin and Destination instruct carriers to assign their own airport code if there is no code found in the Official Airline Guide (OAG). Often times the carrier has mistakenly assigned a code which is already an official code for another airport.  In the past, a single carrier has made up as many as 20 codes in a single quarter for nondesignated airports. The use of the ZZZ code will save scarce DOT resources with no additional burden to air carriers.

We request carriers to combine passenger counts from the same designated airport to different ZZZ points.  For example, in a reporting quarter, a carrier transports (on its scheduled service 11 passengers from Anchorage to a nondesignated hunting lodge and 20 others from Anchorage to a nondesignated lumber camp.  The carrier would report 31 passengers carried from ANC-ZZZ on its Schedule T-1.

Please  note, the data items reported on Schedule A-1 Report of Flight and Traffic Statistics in Scheduled Passenger Operations will not be affected by the use of the ZZZ code. Carriers will continue to compute mileage statistics based on the location of the nondesignated landing area(s).

Commuter and small Certificated air carriers operating within Alaska will receive a listing of the official airport codes in the State of Alaska.

If you  have any questions concerning an airport code, please call Ms.Victoria Bradford on (202) 366-4393 or Ms. Dianna Strain an (907) 271-5147.

This directive is issued under authority delegated by 14 C.F.R. 385.27(e).

James W. Mitchell
Director