Do ICAO and IATA codes ever change for airports in time? If they do, how often does it occur? I am developing an app for airports and I am thinking of setting the uniqueness of an airport through ICAO or IATA codes.
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$\begingroup$ The app you're developing, I'm assuming that you'll probably be using some sort of a database to get the ICAO codes. That said, the database admin will probably handle the updates. $\endgroup$ – RaajTram Oct 4 '17 at 5:12
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2$\begingroup$ This might be straying into software development, but whereas those codes might make good unique indexes they might not make good primary keys. You mention the former, but I worry you actually mean the latter $\endgroup$ – Jamiec♦ Oct 4 '17 at 15:32
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$\begingroup$ We're just a few months away from IST changing from LTBA to LTFM en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_New_Airport $\endgroup$ – Florian Jun 10 '18 at 18:16
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Yes it does happen.
A city can build a new airport, in which case it will usually get a new ICAO code, but will get the original IATA (city) code. For example, Oslo changed from Fornebu to Gardemoen - Fornebu is ENFB, Gardemoen is ENGM; the OSL code was Fornebu but uis now Gardemoen.
A city can rename its airport for political reasons, so again the codes are liable to change. Example 1 is New York - Idlewild KIDL was change to John F Kennedy KJFK Example 2 is Johannesburg - Jan Smuts International was FAJS, then renamed to Oliver Tambo International FAOR.
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Yes. It's a pretty big deal so it won't happen often.
Changing the major airport for a city is a big reason. I think both Denver and Austin did this (new airport opened with a different code, then took over the old airport code).
Renames can also happen. JFK used to be IDL.
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$\begingroup$ Another example would be Hong Kong... $\endgroup$ – UnrecognizedFallingObject Oct 5 '17 at 0:13
