What is KWYS?

KWYS is the airport code for Yellowstone Airport located in Montana, USA.  Under the ICAO or International Civil Aviation Organization, each airport in the world is given some type of location indicator.  In the case of Yellowstone Airport, the code given is KWYS.

ICAO codes like KWYS is unique and has a regional structure.  This simply means that codes given to airports will not ever be duplicated somewhere else.  If a particular airport is already given the four-digit code then this code cannot be used by another airport in another town, city, or country.  In the case of KWYS, the K actually represents a whole region.  In this particular case, K represents the whole of the US.  The remaining three letters typically represents the identification codes for the airport.  In the case of West Yellowstone, the YWS is given.  In some coding structure, Yellowstone Airport may be listed as “WYS” rather than the complete ICAO code of “KWYS”. This three-letter code is the one used by IATA or the International Air Transport Association.

Yellowstone Airport is classified as a public airport that is located just one mile away from the town of West Yellowstone in the state of Montana.  This airport operates only in the months of June up to September. It is only during this time that this airport can serve commercial flights for the people that live nearby West Yellowstone.  Yellowstone Airport only has one runway and is being served by only one airline which is Delta Connection.  The same airline operates only in the summer months.  With very minimal flights to and from this airport, it is categorized by the US government as non-primary commercial service airport.  This simply means that this airport was deemed at providing non-essential commercial service and so is part of the national airport integration plan which is expected to be completed by 2015.