Canada still uses colored airways, as does Alaska.
Look at an Alaska/Canada enroute chart and you will see plenty of
examples. They're typically based off of NDB equipment.

Lynne

"Julian Scarfe" wrote in message ...

ICAO standard airway nomenclature used to be Red, Green, Blue and
subsequently (I think) and White and Amber. These were abbreviated to their
first letters hence, e.g. G1, Green 1, ran from Shannon across the UK east
across Europe and beyond.

In the late 1980s (IIRC) the nomenclature was changed to the phonetic
alphabet corresponding to the identifier, so G1 became Golf 1. More
recently, as RNAV became widespread and now effectively mandatory in Europe,
waypoints have multiplied like rabbits as have the routes linking them. A
different schema of L, M etc. airways was introduced for RNAV routes, which
means that now the good old airways like G1 only remain in part.

I don't know if the US ever used color airways or when V and J airways were
introduced. I'd be surprised if Canada still calls airways by their colors,
but I'd guess they follow the ICAO conventions.

Julian Scarfe