The federal government has asked the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to review the three-letter location code assigned to Osubi Airport in Delta State, as it seeks to align the airport’s identification with its official name and geographical location.
The request was made by Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development in a letter to Samuel Fatokun, IATA’s area manager for West and Central Africa.
Osubi Airport currently uses the IATA code QRW and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) four-letter location indicator DNSU. The airport is physically located in Osubi town, near Warri, Delta State, although it is often referred to as Warri Airport because it serves the wider Warri metropolitan area.Â
Keyamo said the use of QRW does not adequately reflect the airport’s official name and physical location. The government has therefore asked IATA to consider a new three-letter code with a clearer link to Osubi.
Among the alternatives proposed for consideration are OSU, OSB, SUB and QSB. However, the final designation will depend on IATA’s coding procedures and the availability of the proposed combinations.Â
The proposed change also has implications for the way the airport is identified across aviation and passenger-handling systems. The government said aligning the code with the airport’s official identity would improve consistency across ticketing, baggage handling, passenger information and other related systems.Â
As part of the directive, airlines operating flights to and from the airport have been asked to identify the facility as Osubi, Delta State on flight tickets, luggage tags, boarding passes and other passenger-facing documents.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and other relevant agencies have also been directed to reflect the Osubi designation across their systems, records, publications and operational interfaces.Â
The federal government said the clarification is not intended to change the airport’s role in serving the Warri metropolitan area, but to ensure that its geographical and operational identity is consistently represented across aviation systems.
