UN/LOCODE is the United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations, a five-character code identifying ports, airports, and terminals worldwide. It combines a two-letter ISO 3166 country code with a three-character location code, so USNYC means New York in the United States and NLRTM means Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

How is a UN/LOCODE structured?

The first two characters are the ISO 3166 country code and the last three identify the place, usually derived from its name. The location part uses the letters A to Z and, in rare cases, the digits 2 to 9, but never 0 or 1 to avoid confusion with the letters O and I.

Who maintains the list and how often does it change?

UN/LOCODE is maintained by UNECE, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and is republished about twice a year. New locations are added and obsolete ones retired, so production systems should sync against the latest official register rather than a fixed snapshot.

Why does this tool show only some locations?

The full register contains more than 100,000 entries, which is too large to embed in a browser tool. This lookup curates the most-used ports and airports for quick reference; a well-formed code that is not listed may still be valid in the complete UNECE dataset.

What does the function column mean?

Each UN/LOCODE carries function flags describing what the location does, such as a seaport, airport, rail terminal, or road terminal. The function column summarises those roles so you can tell at a glance whether a code refers to a port, an airport, or a multimodal hub.

UN/LOCODE Port & Location Code Lookup

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What this tool is for

This lookup helps you identify and validate UN/LOCODEs, the standard five-character codes used across shipping, customs, and logistics to name a port, airport, or terminal. You can search by code, city, or country, and confirm that a code you have is well-formed and points to the location you expect.

How it works

A UN/LOCODE is built from two parts. The first two characters are the ISO 3166 country code, and the last three are a location code usually drawn from the place name. For example, SGSIN resolves to Singapore in Singapore and DEHAM to Hamburg in Germany. To avoid ambiguity, the location characters use letters and, rarely, the digits 2 to 9, deliberately skipping 0 and 1 because they look like O and I.

When you enter a full five-character code, the tool first checks it against that format with a pattern, then looks it up. Partial searches instead filter the list by code, city, or country. Each result shows the location’s function flags, summarising whether it acts as a seaport, airport, rail terminal, or road terminal.

Tips and notes

The official register, maintained by UNECE and republished roughly twice a year, holds over 100,000 entries, so this tool curates the busiest ports and airports for fast reference. A code that passes the format check but is not listed here may still be valid in the complete dataset, so for authoritative validation in production sync against the latest UNECE release. Remember that UN/LOCODEs are not the same as IATA airport codes or ISO port codes, even though they sometimes coincide.