FCA = Stratford Airways (?!)

[johnwalton]

I was just checking the Aena website (Spanish airport authority) to see if a friend had landed in Tenerife on time, and noticed that all of the First Choice flights were listed as "Stratford Airways" for instance the Birmingham flight,

18/05 19:10 BIRMINGHAN FCA888D STRATFORD AIRWAYS

Anyone any idea why?

[WHBM]

Aena also have a number of other bizarre interpretations for ICAO flight codes, seemingly for codes newly assigned this year. I would guess this (and the others) are now defunct airlines who formerly used the codes, in your case FCA. I've seen this happen in other comparable IT situations. They probably have some issue with updating their database of airlines when the code is already on the list.

[jmc757]

WHBM you are correct in your guess. Stratford Airways was a small American airline a few years back I believe, indeed operating with code FCA. First Choice also appear as Stratford Airways on then Live flight tracker websites. So whatever database these people (and AENA) are using is just a little out of date...

[Oshkosh George]

Also noticed Flybe flights show as Busy Bee on the Flight Tracker!

------and BMI Regional as West Air Centre or something.