IATA Code
 

I've been attempting to find out convincingly what the 'F' of QF in the IATA code stands for.

Lots of airlines are obvious - BA, AA, IB, AF etc. I know Virgin atlantic is VS because the full name is Virgin Atlantic AirwayS and Finnair is AY for 'airline company' in Finnish.

The only conclusions I have come to is that it simpy means 'Flight' or it's to do with Sir Hudson Fysh, as a founder?

Just wondering if anyone actually does know!

I love researching stuff like this - as in Chicago O'Hare is ORD because it was originally called Orchard Field etc.

And while we're at it, why is it QFA for the ICAO code?

Thanks - I'm flying QF next on August 17th in J to SIN :D

I understand that it refers to Qantas Flight.

What an awful way to fly LHR-SIN -- those short legs via DXB turn a pleasant LHR-SIN non-stop into a nightmare. Or if flying from Oz, the SIN services are sub-standard now on QF. In any case nothing like it used to be, so not the best choice no matter what the routing. Perhaps SQ didn't appeal as an IATA code? Or CX for that matter :)

The "F" in QF means the same as the "X" in CX, or the "Q" in SQ, or the "G" in TG, or the "H" in MH etc etc etc...in short, nothing at all. If the "obvious" abbreviation is not available, they just use something arbitrary.

IATA airline codes generally don't mean anything. Most older airlines (such as BA, AA) got "preferred" codes as those codes were available at the time they were assigned.

What did "DJ" have to do with "Virgin Blue"? Nothing.

The only aviation codes that actually mean something are ICAO assigned airport and aircraft codes.

The codes are just that. Something used to identify the "object" it has been assigned to. They don't mean anything.

Indeed, what Hi said

Not only that , but codes get reused once freed up such as BR which was the code for British Caledonian and now is code for Eva Air

On top of that there are codes that have numbers in them, such as A8 and B9 and even K9

Some codes do fit in with airline abbreviations and those that got in early may well have had one that nicely matched the airline name

..and closer to home, the old TAA (Trans Australia Airlines) used TN. It was then swallowed into Qantas. Now TN is used by Air Tahiti Nui.

I imagine first come first served? Unless there are more sinister reasons for allocating codes to airlines.

South African Airways (1934) predates Singapore Airlines (1972 as independent entity), so SAA got first divs on SA.

Air China (as CAAC, 1949) got head start on China Airlines (1959) but not Air Canada (1936) so the allocations were AC, CA and CI.

Canadian Pacific (1942) predates Cathay Pacific (1946) so got first divs on CP? I have no idea why Cathay went for the X when P was not available - perhaps the other obvious choice (A?) also became unavailable due to CAAC application so Cathay management thought what the hell? Might also have something to do with one of the founders being from the land of XXXX.

Diversion of topic to airport codes. Doesn't look like these are change-able very easily.

I imagine it must burn up the Chinese no end for Beijing Capital airport to still be 'PEK' and ditto the Indians for Mumbai / BOM.

The Canadians must have been feeling very pure when they agreed for ?all their airports to be in the format Yxx, sometimes with hints of the city involved (YVR - Vancouver), sometimes not (YYZ = Toronto Lester Pearson).

Ho Chi Minh City remains SGN despite renaming from Saigon to HCMC after the end of the Vietnam War.

Personally I agree with IATA's names more than the new names imposed by governments trying to be politically correct.

But if I'm using my first-come-first-served theory, no one is likely to have beaten Qantas to QA (or QN or QE)...unless Qantas didn't want them (Qantas really wanted Qantas Flight as first div)

Found this website on IATA historical codes search: http://www.avcodes.co.uk/airlcodesearch.asp

You understand wrong.

Dave

Then what?

Haven't you seen thadocta's signature quote? :D

That was the one I was trying to think of! :D

thanks for all the responses!

It just seems that most airlines I fly seem to make sense.

Also, my understanding was 'X' meant international - such as LAX, BHX...

I'm flying SYD-SIN-LHR (no DXB for me!)

And with the airports, the vast majority are names after colonial/empire times - BOM, MAA, SGN etc.

QF seems right for Qantas. When an announcement is made in a terminal for "all passengers please go to gate to board Qantas Flight 1", it seems fair to call Qantas Flight 1 QF1.

Hence QF seems a fair code to use for Qantas.

But announcements for all airlines are of nature "passengers for XXX flight N" ; don't see that meaning anything

"Passengers for Emirates Flight 412...." for example

And then you have the canadian x airports

Don't you mean "y" - such as YYZ, YUL, YVR

Older airfields (1930s) used to use the 2 letter abbreviation of their weather station. When they started needing more codes, they added another letter.

Aaah, but the "H" in MH means "Hospitality" ;) :p :)


Another example for both of these, a couple of years ago I flew YM out of TGD. It wasn't my first flight on YM, I had a few flights on YM many years earlier around 1990/1. (YM= Montenegro Airlines now and many years ago it was Compass a long since dead airline in Australia). TGD is Podgorica, Montenegro, which used to be called Titograd.