Changing ICAO callsign
 

Who is the first point of contact if you are looking to change your company callsign, ICAO or the national authority? If it is ICAO, then any details as to who should be contacted would be great.

The outfit I am with has a callsign that conflicts with another local operator, hence the question.

Cheers

I have done it many times. A request has to be submitted to your civil aviation authority who will request ICAO for a designation. However before you choose a callsign, get hold of ICAO doc 8585(Aircraft Operating Agency) in order not to duplicate the callsign. You have to provide the name of the Aircraft Operating Agency i,e. "Happy Hour Airline", the three letter designator, i.e. "HHA" followed by the flight number and the telephony designator, i.e. "Happy"

You can PM me for a template:ok:

I don't think this is quite right.

I think the State CAA or whatever decides or agrees a callsign with the operator in accordance with some rules which say 'mustn't be confusing' etc., and then notifies ICAO of the assignment.

First port of call in the UK used to be the NATS Comms Centre at LHR. I think there used to be an AIC on the topic too. Don't know if things have changed in the last few years though.

That is why the request must go through the State's Civil Aviation authority. Even if NATS Comm center is doing it, it has to go through the UK CAA to ICAO.