Definition
Monroe Regional Airport is a public, towered airport located in Monroe, Louisiana, serving as a regional hub for general aviation, commercial, and military operations. Its ICAO identifier is KMLU and its FAA location identifier is MLU. The airport is used in the Instrument Procedures Handbook as an example for approach briefings and instrument procedures.
Plain English
An airport in Monroe, Louisiana. KMLU is its four-letter code, used on charts, in flight plans, and on instrument approach plates.
Context Anchor
Seen during approach briefings, on instrument procedure charts, in flight planning, and when selecting Monroe Regional Airport in an aircraft navigation system.
Derivation
Airport identifiers in the contiguous United States start with 'K' under the ICAO system. 'MLU' is the three-letter FAA identifier for Monroe, Louisiana. Adding the 'K' makes it the international form: KMLU. The 'K' tells anyone reading the code that the airport is in the lower 48 U.S. states.
Why Pilots Care
Pilots use airport identifiers to file flight plans, load procedures into avionics, and brief approaches. Using the wrong identifier can load the wrong airport into a GPS or send a flight plan to the wrong destination, so accuracy matters.
Intuition Check
Do not treat KMLU as a spoken airport name or as a navigation aid. It is the four-letter airport identifier for Monroe Regional Airport.
Example Sentence 1
We filed direct KMLU and briefed the ILS approach using the example shown in the handbook.
Example Sentence 2
The flight plan showed KMLU as the intended destination.