ICAO & IATA codes
Would it not be better and more efficient if ICAO and IATA could get together and devise a way of having their codes the same. If they do need to differentiate between 4 letter ICAO and 3 letter IATA this could be achieved by simply adding country code letter (as current) to whatever 3 letter code is chosen. An example of having two completely different codes which confused the passengers was back in the 90s when a Gen Aviation operator was authorised to fly scheduled flights daily northbound from Hervey Bay, Qld to two other Qld Airports. I can't remember where the aircraft (a 6 seater) commenced the journey but it was due to depart Hervey Bay for Bundaberg and onto Gladstone. Great idea but when the operator sent a copy of his schedule (for me as handling agent) and for distribution to to the public the routing was shown with times and only a 3 letter code instead of full names. So what went wrong, he chose the last 3 letters of the ICAO code for advising the public where the aircraft was going. OK, not the brightest thing to do (why not put the full name and not a code) but it ended up with a routing of ??? (can't remember where it started) to HBA, BUD and GLA. Now members of the public could probably know at least some IATA codes but I doubt very many would know the equivalent ICAO code. This schedule to those using the IATA code would be a flight from Hobart to Budapest and on to Glasgow (ICAO YHBA, YBUD, YGLA). These scheduled flights lasted just over a week and only one inbound passenger into Hervey Bay and then the service ended because the expected passengers were just not there. Be interested in your thoughts/reasons why the two codes could not be the same.