Why Nairobi is abbreviated as NBO and not NBI, NRB

Nairobi, Kenya’s bustling capital and East Africa’s commercial powerhouse, is known globally by its three-letter code NBO.

To many Kenyans, this abbreviation seems puzzling. After all, common short forms of the city’s name such as NBI or NRB feel more intuitive.

So, why NBO? Digging into history, the abbreviation is directly linked to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), previously known as Nairobi International Airport.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which regulates these codes globally, allocates unique three-letter identifiers for airports to avoid confusion across the world’s thousands of destinations.

NBO is Nairobi’s official IATA airport code, assigned to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). According to sources, when the code for Nairobi was being assigned, NBI was already taken by Enfidha–Hammamet International Airport in Tunisia before it switched to the current NBE.

Furthermore, JKIA could not adopt the abbreviation NRB because it was already assigned to Naval Station Mayport (NS Mayport) in Florida.

NS Mayport, which is a military base in Florida, US, with the capacity of handling aircraft, was built in 1942, three years before the idea of constructing an airport in Kenya was conceived. Kenya then had to be assigned NBO to prevent overlap.

Over time, NBO extended beyond aviation as logistics firms, international organizations, and tech systems adopted the same three-letter abbreviation for data consistency. Today, NBO appears on shipping labels, hotel booking systems, and even digital currency platforms to identify Nairobi.

IATA, a trade association for the world’s airlines is tasked with working together with airlines across the world to promote their reliability and safety. It was founded in 1945 and represents some 300 airlines.

The organisation was also responsible for abbreviating Kenya Airways to KQ instead of KA. Kenya Airways was converted from East African Airways after Korea Airways had already been assigned the KA abbreviation.

Also Read: GKA, GKB & GKC: Meaning of Government number plates