BA + Airtours Registrations- Where do they come from?
 

Now, I have far too much time on my hands, and so recently in an attempt to kill some of it off, I have been curious as to where airlines get their registrations and registration "bits" from- for example...

BA's B777 fleet, G-VIIx

VII, Roman numerals for Seven.

G-ZZZx

ZZZ, looks like 777 (apparently).

So what about the 757 fleet? Where did BIK and BPE and CPE come from? And the 747's? BDX/CIV/BNL/AWN??? 737's G-DOCx?

Sad I know, but I have an urge to discover why these letters were chosen.

Also, Airtours regestrations never cease to perplex and confuse my simple mind. G-TMDP? G-RJGR? G-LCRC? G-PIDS? G-VOLH? G-JSJX? G-MCEA? G-TDTW? G-JALC? Where do they come from? Are the staff members initials or something?

It's just one of those things which has always interested me.

Anyone have any ideas? Not just BA and AIH, any airlines welcomed.

'ec

[ 23 July 2001: Message edited by: G-BPEC ]

You're right G-BPEC you do have 2 much time on your hands!!!! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Deeko,
I know, small things amuse small minds eh?!!!
Seriously though, it is just one of those things that makes you curious, just interested.
'ec

only kidding mate I certainly don't know!!!

Up until the 1970s, British reggies were allocated in a strict sequence.
The AWNx, BIKx and BPEx sequences just came up in that order, although the BPEx jumped ahead a bit as homage to the old Guards Vans (G-APEx). BA also avoids having concurrent planes with same 'last two'. The CPEx came about because they forgot to reserve enough in the BPEx series.
When the CAA abandoned the sequential rule, BA joined in 'making up' reggies. 777s are obvious like you say, CIVx I guess IV=4(00) , DOCx I have no idea what this is supposed to convey. I believe you are correct in Kestrel's being people's initals.

All a bit anorakkie, but this stuff either interests one (like me) or not.

Backing up the AIH intials theory, it would seem that G-MLJL is for Mike Lee, chairman of the aviation division, and his wife, Juliet Lee.

This follows in other Airtours registrations where the 2nd and 4th letters are the same, implying a family surname . . . ie MDBD, MOJO (though I doubt that one is initials!), CSVS, LCRC etc, though I have no idea what each one stands for!

Hope this helps slightly,
SFly :)

I was told that the BA regs are done that
way to reduce the chance of confusion between
idividual a/c, and also types. I was lead to
believe it was to do with a conflict (potential or actual) between the B747-136's in the G-AWNx sequence, and the B767's in G-BNWx sequence.

Rgds

T N

'PEC
BAW, GPxxx, sequential
G7, New a/c
AIH, G????? Family, Friends, Directors, etc {I cannot remember ALL the initials of Airtours peeps and the Register)
AMM GOOOA etc, sequence unless it 'Nudges' ie GOOFY!
Mon, et al "the same"! You or I can pay £250 and have our own aeroplane reg!!!!!!!!!!!
we aim to please, it keeps th cleaners happy

Ones I heard of:

GB AIRWAYS
A321s G-TTI_ (T-hree T-wo/T-wenty 1)
A320s G-TTO_ (T-hree T-wo/T-wenty 0)

BRYMON
DHC8s G-NVS_ N-oise & V-ibration Suppression (or something similar) [DHC8Qs]

BRITISH AIRWAYS
B777s G-YMM_ Y2K / Year 2000 in roman numerals

Older ones:
AIR ANGLIA
F27 G-SPUD - for Spud Murphy, former chief pilot (I believe)
F27 G-STAN - for start of AQ ops from Stansted

AIR EUROPE
Regd first half dozen B737s for founding members:
G-BMEC for Errol Cossey
G-BMHG for Harry Goodman
G-BMOR for Martin O'Regan
G-BMSM for Stephen Matthews
G-BRJP for Roy Phillips
G-DDDV for Capt Desmond de Verteuil

Can't think of any others off the top of my head...

=======
Lizard

And there was me thinking that BA's G-VIXX was just an attempt to steal some out-of-sequence registrations that Sir Richard might want one day :)

G BPEC
In the Airtours Boeing fleet, G JALC is known as Just Another Loada Cr@p, and G PIDS is Passengers In Deep Sh*t. :D

[ 25 July 2001: Message edited by: Dr Faustus ]

Dr F, I take it that wasn't concocted by company officials? :) Some interesting responses here, I thought they might all just be random letters (the reggies not the responses) Keep 'em coming!

G-BPEC

Air Anglia's F-28s were G-JCWW and G-WWJC.
WW is Wilbur Wright (no, not that one) and his co-founder was Phil Chapman (still with KLMUK I think) so I don't know where the J came from.

The JC In the Air Anglia F28 Registrations actually stood for J. G. Crampton Founder of Norfolk Airways which merged with several other companies to form Air Anglia.

BA use their 'FICO' computer system to manage their fleets, and this works on the last three characters of the registration. e.g. PEC (for G-BPEC), XAR (for G-BXAR) etc. Whenever they add a new aircraft (or fleet) they need to bear this in mind, and try to come up with something whereby the last 3 characters are (a) unique and (b) clearly identify the fleet, where possible.

e.g. 757's were IKA, IKB....then the PEA, PEB series. 747 Classics were DXA, DXB, etc.


(Edited by the spelling police!)

[ 30 July 2001: Message edited by: In trim ]

How about the Italian registered Ralleye aircraft registered in the early 80's:
I - FU*K, absoutely genuine :eek:

And I refuse to believe that the first two Concorde registrations... G-BOAA and G-BOAB were chosen without knowing what the third would be...

I bet there's a plane spotters website somewhere which deals with this extensively :)

G-BOAC wa the first BA Concorde - not the 3rd! :cool:

In-trim is right about BA trying to avoid duplicating the last three letters of any registration due to the ops system. It causes some interesting problems when the franchisee fleets conflict with BA's on that score.

The worst chosen registrations I ever saw on UK aircraft were two of TEA UK's 737-300s which were G-DIAR and G-NAFH. They apparently referred to the state of the engineering work to get it into service (Done In A Rush) and the speed at which Commercial wanted the aircraft into service (Not A F***ing Hope).

Previous authors are correct in that Airtours' aircraft registrations do mostly comprise directors and their wives' intials. There must be some exceptions - or else I'd be fascinated to know who 767 G-DIMB was registered after?

Other gems from the past included Manx ATP G-OATP (became universally known as Goat Pee).

how about EI-EIO - yes - it does(or did) exist :D