How many airlines still name their aircraft?

[AnthonyGA]

Prompted by something in another thread, I find myself wondering: How many of today's airlines still name their aircraft, as opposed to simply using registration numbers or whatever?

I know that at least some Virgin Atlantic aircraft have names as well as numbers, and I know that in the glory days of Pan Am the airline named many (all?) of its aircraft, but who else is doing it today? And what kinds of names are they giving to their aircraft?

An extension of this question is how many airlines choose their registration numbers for meaning, i.e., choosing G-HOST instead of G-18773T. Some registration numbers I see seem pretty obviously chosen for meaning, but I don't know how widespread the practice is.

[Avman]

All aircraft carry registration markings. Not in any way connected but in addition to this, some airlines choose to name all or some of their aircraft. It's still quite a common practice.

[chiglet]

Writ [very] large.....
Jet2MANCHESTER
Jet2YORKSHIRE
Slightly smaller [under the cockpit]
Alicante, Malaga....etc
watp,iktch

[seacue]

Southwest Airlines (USA) names some of its planes and specially paints them.
Shamu One, Two & Three look like this (Shamu the killer whale)
http://www.southwest.com/images/photo_gallery/shamu1.jpg
Lone Star One (Texas state flag)
http://www.southwest.com/images/photo_gallery/lonestar1.jpg
There must be dozen by now.

[DrKev]

Aer lingus still do, all named after saints. BA used to until recently, possibly sometime 2005 they stopped doing it?

[vinayak]

many in india do too.. air india gives it names of states rivers, etc. spice jet gives it names of different spices of india... and so on... wondering what kingfisher names its airplanes!

[Avman]

I deliberately didn't mention any that do because, in fact a great many still do. It would make a very long list!

[Dan Winterland]

All Virgin aircraft have names and the registrations usually match. eg, 'Lady Penelope' is G-VFAB, 'Pretty Woman' is G-VROY and 'Hot Lips is G-VLIP. When an aircraft arrives, a compatition is usually held amongst the company employees, the chosen name's suggester wins tickets. Although, when I was working for the company, the engineering projects dept's suggestion of G-VDUM, "The Blonde Bombshell', named after the cabin crew didn't win!

BA's aircraft have names - usually after towns. Dull.

[Rainboe]

They also had them named after 'Rivers of England', and the 757 series were named after 'Castles of England'. There were so many of the things they ended up scraping the barrel a bit- eventually they had to include 'Winchester Castle', which sadly is not much of a castle- it's Council offices, and not very impressive at that!

[paulc]

G-BPEI was the aircraft called 'Winchester Castle' and being a resident of said City it is not an impressive building to see (or work in) :eek:
There was also a 747 named City of Winchester though (BDXD)

BA also had Tristars named after Roses (flowers not the chocolates). Some Bac 1-11 were named after counties. British Airtours 737's were named after birds (callsign was Kestrel at the time)

[Rainboe]

Good Heavens, to know all that, you have the worst case of 'Spotteritis Extremis' I have seen all week! You must take a tranquiliser and go and log every aeroplane registration at your nearest airport all day.

[Skipness One Echo]

British Airtours called as "Airtours", Kestrel are ( were ) Airtours PLC now MyTravel soon to Thomas Cook "TopJet".

[Rainboe]

Not callsigns! Aircraft names! Listen boy! You are not concentrating! 100 lines!

[nickaussie]

qantas have named their aircraft after many different things. from greek gods with the flying boats, to birds in the 80's, to inspirational names in the 90's, to names of places in australia nowadays, and the fleet for A380's will be named after aviation pioneers/influential people.

N

[paulc]

Guilty as charged :) - no need to take a tranquiliser though, any time spent at SOU has the same result.

Aircraft name info obtained from old copy of CAM found after clearing some of late fathers stuff from attic.

[Ian L]

All airlines should name there 'planes on a nationalistic basis. Furthermore, all airlines should be made, by law, to paint at least 1 aircraft of each type operated in a retro colour scheme! I think a BEA A321 would look rather sexy.

[Maude Charlee]

Norwegian Air Shuttle have the fins painted with the names of famous Norwegians. Fortunately it's a small fleet. :}

Flybe have occassional a/c named after random people/places, mostly painfully dull.

Even Easyjet have a couple of a/c with names, even though when they named the 1st one it was meant to be a one-off and for 12 months only.

[DrKev]

you have the worst case of 'Spotteritis Extremis' I have seen all week

Or a memory. :}

If flew BA/Airtours a lot as a kid and now the he mentions it, he's absolutely right. It brings back a lot of great memories too. Thanks!

[Just a spotter]

Yeup, EI still name their's after Christian Saints, with the names placed just below the cockpit windows on each side, in English eg St. Patrick, on the port and Irish/Gaelic eg Pádraig on the starboard.

I think Jethro has all the names included in the fleet listing ...

Didn't BA name one of their AC "Frank Whittle"?

JAS

[Max Angle]

Yeup, EI still name their's after Christian SaintsAnd many years ago they had a simulator named St. Thetic, may still have for all I know.

[EC-YKA]

Lufthansa still name their aircrafts after German cities.

Spanair does give names to their aircrafts and the most I've seen and flew with had a name beginnig with "sun----" eg: sunburst, sunbreeze, ...

[merlinxx]

BEA (British) Airtours callsign was "BEETOURS" as owner BEA was "BEELINE"

And it was not owned by the tour operator Airtours of MAN! How do I know, I was one of the original 1970 Beetours members!!!

[Avman]

merlinxx,

Pay attention at the back! This thread is about aircraft names, not callsigns. :)

[FlightDetent]

CSA gives A/C town names all complete with heraldry sticker at the front door and "baptism" ceremony with the mayor involved. A single exception was the "Skyrider" named in the honour of Czech-Slovak Battle of Britain hero servicemen in the presence of the late Frantisek Fajtl, Grand-Croix Légion d'Honneur, DFC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franti%C5%A1ek_Fajtl), the first ever non-British citizen to command a RAF squadron (122 - City of Bombay).

Strangely enough, the largest aircraft to bear a Czech town name is a KLM 777 PH-BQL "Litomyšl Castle" (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1047024/M/) and the latest batch of CSA A320 bear the names of moutain ranges that confine the Czech Republic plateau.
FD
(the un-real)

[DrKev]

KLM, Iberia, and TAP. All named after famous people, though KLM choose them from all over the work, Iberia and TAP only from Spain and Portugal respectively.

[Marra123]

Two of Easyjets 737-700s have names not sure on the A320s G-EZKE is named 'Daniel Swaddle' in memory of a young lad from Newcastle Airport training acadamy lost his life. The other is G-EZJZ named 'Ray Webster' after one of EZYs CEOs I believe.

[Leezyjet]

BA stopped naming their a/c when the new livery came out.

British Midland used to name their a/c after famous diamonds back in the day's of the Diamond Service.

:}

[LN-KGL]

Both SAS and Braathens (today under the umbrella of SAS Norway) have named their aircraft.

SAS named their aircraft with a first name and the last name Viking - here is Steinar Viking (LN-RRA) and where the name is placed.

http://www.plane-spotter.com/Jpegs/415/SAS/2P_wave.jpg

Up until the last decade or so only male first names were used, but now you will also find female name in the fleet, like the latest 737 addition LN-KKB Cecilia Viking.

Braathens named originally their aircraft after viking kings that had lived around 1000 year ago, like Harald Hårfagre (you probably know him as Harold Fairhair). You will find these viking king names on 737-505s and 737-405s. With the new -705s the names of viking queens were used.

Kurt

[WHBM]

Names for aircraft, often with a fleet "theme", do seem to come and go with operators over time. Since the advent of jetways, with few pax now seeing the nose of the aircraft, they do seem to have a limited function.

Another aspect is they do not seem to last, almost all which get applied end up being changed or removed long before the aircraft is finally sold. BA had several goes with different name patterns on the same aircraft in its fleet, others have done the same. Even Pan Am, which used its "Clipper" name sequence through to the end, used to cycle them round rather than leave them be.