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Aviation glossary

ICAO airline designator

Also: ICAO airline code, three-letter airline code, aircraft operating agency designator

Registration and rules

Three-letter designator that ICAO assigns to an aircraft operator for use in flight plans and air traffic control, such as BAW for British Airways.

What it is

Where passengers see BA, controllers see BAW. ICAO airline designators have three letters and are never duplicated: AVA is Avianca, AMX Aeroméxico, DLH Lufthansa, IBE Iberia, EZY easyJet and RYR Ryanair. ICAO publishes them together with the radiotelephony call sign that goes with each one.

The ICAO designator is combined with the flight number to identify each flight in the flight plan and on controllers' screens: BAW followed by a number is spoken on the radio as Speedbird followed by the same number. It is also used by operators that do not sell tickets, such as cargo, business aviation and aerial work companies, many of which have no IATA code.

On Vuelopedia

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

British Airways Iberia

Related terms

IATA airline designatorTwo-character designator that IATA assigns to an airline and that appears in its flight numbers, tickets and reservations, such as BA for British Airways. Call signName by which an aircraft is identified in radio communications with air traffic control, such as Speedbird or Lufthansa followed by the flight number. Flight planDetails of a flight filed with air traffic services before departure: aircraft, route, level, speed, estimated times, destination and alternate airports. ICAOSpecialised agency of the United Nations that sets the standards and recommended practices for international civil aviation. 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.
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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). ICAO airline designator. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airline-designator

MLA

“ICAO airline designator.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airline-designator. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “ICAO airline designator.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airline-designator.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) ICAO airline designator. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airline-designator (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_icao_airline_designator,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{ICAO airline designator}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airline-designator},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/icao-airline-designator}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

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

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