Anyone who travels to New York City frequently (or lives there) knows that the area has three major airports. When booking a plane ticket, it’s sometimes easier to enter “NYC” as the airport code in order to check prices for flights to all three airports at once. However, according to a Lufthansa Group memo, Newark is being separated from the rest of “NYC.”
The memo notes the International Air Transport Association (IATA) “has introduced a new standard for ‘Multi-Airport Cities,'” which are metropolitan areas with multiple airports that are united under one IATA city code. According to the memo, Newark will operate under a separate pricing structure from JFK and LaGuardia. It might become cheaper to fly into New Jersey than New York — or vice versa. Although the memo now indicates changing destinations from Newark to JFK or JFK to Newark, may result in repricing whereas right now, airlines may allow those changes without an additional cost.
In the case of the New York metro, all three airports are currently listed under the city code NYC, though each has its own airport code as well: EWR, JFK, LGA. But IATA’s new standard, which is due to go into effect on Oct. 3, will remove Newark from the NYC city code.
Booking engines can independently decide to still display flights to Newark when “NYC” is searched, but the pricing, taxes and fees can be drastically different.
