Hi!

Well the title says it all, I know I'm stupid and haven't asked before 'cause I was sure I'd figure it out, but nope

Ernie

There are several regulatory organisations involved in air transportation. International Air Transport Association and International Civil Aviation Organization are a couple of the most usual ones, and they have developed codes for such things as airlines, airports, etc. "B6" is the IATA code assigned JetBlue, "JBU" is the ICAO code. THe non-standardisation is the same for airports: B6 hubs out of JFK, according to IATA, but according to ICAO, they fly out of KJFK.

"IATA Airline Designator Information

Two digit Airline Designator - The designator is used to identify an airline for all commercial purposes. the two character airline designator is assigned by IATA in accordance with the provisions of Resolution 762. The two character airline designator listed are for use in reservations, timetables, tickets, tariffs, air waybills, schedules publications and in airline interline telecommunications, as well as for the airline industry applications. IATA assigns three types of two character airline designators. Unique, numeric/alpha and controlled duplicate." (Airline Codes Web Site)

More, not to mention lots of codes, at the Airline Codes Web Site.

Oh!

Thanks! Said it was a stoopid question. I'd just never heard of one with a number before - just the usual, AA, UA, QF, NZ, etc etc

Thanks!

Jet Airways (an Indian airline) uses 9W

Well, the problem is there are just too many airlines, so they ran out of lettercodes at some point. Then they added the numbers, though that's probably also just a stop-gap solution if the business keeps growing like it has been. That's why some airlines have switched to ICAO codes, like EZY - Britain's Easyjet.

What doesn't help the issue is that there are still some legacy codes in the system that have not been reassigned yet. Like SR - Swissair. The new SWISS is using LX.

Always good to ask. Just remember, there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers.

I'm sure JetBlue wanted to use "JB" but that's already taken up by Helijet International of Canada.

... which does have an IATA code -- it's just that they don't publicize it much. EasyJet is U2. (I actually wonder why they don't put a marketing message around it -- it's not exactly hard to remember, and although they probably can't afford to hire Bono for commercials, you'd think you'd get a 'you too can fly easyJet because it's so cheap even you can afford it' message out of there.)

Or as I paraphrase it: There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.

(BTW: I often count myself as one of them!)

Ernie

Interesting. I didn't know that - you do learn something new every day on FT!

Indeed, that is weird. I'll have to mention that to my marketing professor - he'll have a field day with that one, I'm sure...