These are 2 different coding systems for airports. ACEO uses IATA (3 letters) and I was wondering is it possible to display ICAO (4 letter) code or maybe both codes in game.
Personally I can recognize roughly where airport is located by ICAO codes.
IATA code was selected as that is the more common system used from a passenger perspective (luggage tags, boarding cards, flight booking). ICAO is more used with ATC and pilots.
I could understand Fredrik’s decision to go with IATA, however if you create an airport only focused on General Aviation, this would not make sense as these small airfields do not have IATA codes (f.e. Schwabisch Hall Airport, EDTY). Though it is just a minor thingy.
IATA. Much more widely used, understood and accessible. ICAO has no relevance to most people and the codes are often far less intuitive. For example, here are some of Scotland’s airports with both codes (IATA then ICAO) which I hope shows how different and ICAO can be.
Glasgow - GLA or EGPF
Edinburgh - EDI or EGPH
Aberdeen - ABZ or EGPD
Inverness - INV or EGPE
Islay (made famous by Airport CEO) - ILY or EGPI
If we use ICAO, there’s the real risk that people spend their life looking up obscure codes - (who can honestly say they know where DBBB is - without looking it up?). And it will put people off.