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Aviation glossary

Call sign

Also: callsign, radiotelephony call sign, telephony designator

Registration and rules

Name by which an aircraft is identified in radio communications with air traffic control, such as Speedbird or Lufthansa followed by the flight number.

What it is

For airline flights, the call sign combines the company's telephony designator with the flight number. Many airlines simply use their own name, such as Lufthansa, Iberia or Avianca, while others keep traditional words of their own: British Airways is Speedbird and Aer Lingus is Shamrock. In the flight plan and on controllers' screens the same call sign appears with the three-letter ICAO designator, for example BAW.

Private aircraft usually identify themselves by their registration, spoken in the phonetic alphabet, so G-ABCD becomes Golf Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta. To avoid confusion between flights with similar numbers on the same frequency, some airlines use alphanumeric call signs that differ from the commercial flight number.

On Vuelopedia

An airline page shows its call sign alongside its IATA and ICAO codes.

British Airways

Related terms

ICAO airline designatorThree-letter designator that ICAO assigns to an aircraft operator for use in flight plans and air traffic control, such as BAW for British Airways. Flight numberCombination of an airline code and a number of up to four digits that identifies a particular air service in timetables, tickets and airports. Air traffic controlThe service that keeps aircraft safely apart and orders traffic on the ground and in the air through clearances and instructions passed by radio. RegistrationCombination of letters and numbers that identifies an aircraft with the state in which it is registered and must be painted on its exterior. TransponderAn on-board device that answers secondary radar interrogations with an identity code, its altitude and, in Mode S, a unique 24-bit address.
Whole glossary

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Call sign. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/call-sign

MLA

“Call sign.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/call-sign. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Call sign.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/call-sign.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Call sign. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/call-sign (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_call_sign,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Call sign}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/call-sign},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/call-sign}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/call-sign |title=Call sign |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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