Station Codes for North America, Europe, and Latin America Practice Test

IATA codes are the three-letter identifiers used by travelers on tickets, boarding passes, and baggage tags. For Madrid-Barajas, the IATA code you’ll see in those everyday contexts is MAD. That three-letter code is chosen to be easy to recognize and use for passenger-facing purposes.

In contrast, the four-letter ICAO code for Madrid-Barajas is LEMD. ICAO codes are used mainly for flight planning, air traffic control, and other operational contexts, and they differ from the IATA codes in length and purpose.

The other codes listed belong to different airports or to the ICAO system for Madrid-Barajas, not the IATA code you’d use as a passenger. For example, MDE is Medellín’s airport code, which is unrelated to Madrid. So the IATA code for Madrid-Barajas is the three-letter MAD.