W
Welcome to this the
second part of the series.
We will be taking a look this
time at the codes that
airlines use. As a passenger
we are familiar with the
Airport Departure and Arrival Boards that
give us information about our flights but
where do these letters and numbers come
from ?
A typical flight destination board
IATA airline designator
IATA airline designators, sometimes called IATA reservation codes, are two-character codes
assigned by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to the world's airlines. The
standard is described in IATA's Standard Schedules Information Manual and the codes
themselves are described in IATA's Airline Coding Directory. (Both are published twice-
annually.) Airline designator codes follow the format xx(a), i.e., two alphanumeric characters
(letters or digits) followed by an optional letter. Although the IATA standard provides for
three-character airline designators, IATA has not used the optional third character in any
assigned code.
This is because some legacy computer systems, especially the "central reservations systems",
have failed to comply with the standard, notwithstanding the fact that it has been in place for
20 years. The codes issued to date comply with IATA Resolution 762, which provides for only
two characters.
These codes thus comply with the current airline designator standard, but use only a limited
subset of its possible range.
There are three types of designator: unique, numeric/alpha and controlled duplicate.
A - Z of Flight
June 2017
www.alliance-airways.net
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