Why do airlines abbreviate LAGOS as LOS insteado of LAG?

They also abbreviate ABUJA as ABV instead of ABJ

That's because that's the ICAO code for the city of Lagos.
Every airport/ ccity has an ICAO code which is unique to it alone.

Example: Los Angeles is "LAX"
New York is "JFK"
Johannesburg is "JHB"

Ki lo pa Iya ijebu?

TheManOfTheYear:
That's because that's the ICAO code for the city of Lagos.
Every airport/ ccity has an ICAO code which is unique to it alone.

Example: Los Angeles is "LAX"
New York is "JFK"
Johannesburg is "JHB"

Names of the airport

ICAO codes are separate and different from IATA codes, which are generally used for airline timetables, reservations, and baggage tags. For example, the IATA code for London's Heathrow Airport is LHR and its ICAO code is EGLL. In general IATA codes are usually derived from the name of the airport or the city it serves, while ICAO codes are distributed by region and country.
Likewise the airport in Newark, USA is codenamed EWR and derived from 3 letters out of Newark.

richeeyo:

Names of the airport

Johannesburg is JNB and JHB is in Malaysia

IATA code for Dubai airport is DXB, right?