I heard this somewhere, but I'm not sure if this is true or not. The IATA in this day and age will assign 2-character codes at random due to the airline abbreviation codes all being taken, but if an airline wants a "vanity" code, they'd have to request it, and that may have costs involved. If you're starting an airline in this day and age, a matching IATA code is probably not very high on your list of things to spend money on.