Photo protected by copyright!
We live in a world with an international aviation industry. Our world's airports are filled with aircraft and airlines from around the globe. Did you ever stand on an airport and wonder from which counties all the planes came? If a particular aircraft belongs to an airline which is a national carrier you have a way to know this from the airline's name. But what if it belongs to a private airline or is owned privately? Well aircraft's registration numbers make things easier. This "aircraft registration" is painted on the back of aircraft near the tail in the same area where you will usually found an aircraft's manufacturer's name and its model if it is a large commercial jet and therefore it is sometimes refer to in the aviation industry as a tail number. You might say that you have seen these "aircraft registration" or tail numbers on aircraft. The first few letters or numbers of a tail number are a prefix or code of the country in which it is registered. Aircraft registration numbers form part of an interesting international aviation registration system for aircraft.
Aircraft registration numbers which contain country prefixes or codes are usually painted very large on aircraft and sometimes you will find the country in which it is registered flag in-frond of it, but it isn't always the case. I've tried my best to list all the countries' aircraft registration number, country prefixes or codes. Because of the fact that all such indexes are listed by the country's name in alphabetical order, I have listed these country prefixes in aircraft registration numbers as followed listed with the country's codes or prefixes in alphabetical order, with numerical numbers before alphabetical letters:
Aircraft registration or tail numbers which (country prefixes) begins with numerical numbers:
3B - Mauritius; 3D - Swaziland; 4K - Azerbaijan; 4R - Sri Lanka; 4X - Israel; 5A - Libya; 5B - Cyprus; 5H - Tanzania; 5N - Nigeria; 5R - Madagascar; 5T - Mauritania; 5U - Niger; 5X - Uganda; 5Y - Kenya; 6V - Senegal; 6y - Jamaica; 7O - Yemen; 7Q - Malawi; 7T - Algeria; 8P - Barbados; 8Q - Maldives; 8R - Guyana; 9A - Croatia; 9G - Ghana; 9H - Malta; 9J - Zambia; 9K - Kuwait; 9L - Sierra Leone; 9M - Malaysia; 9N - Nepal; 9Q - DRC; 9V - Singapore; 9Y - Trinidad & Tobago
Tail or aircraft registration numbers which (country prefixes) start with alphabetical letters:
A2 - Botswana; A40 - Oman; A5 - Bhutan; A6 - UAE; A7 - Qatar; AP - Pakistan; B - China/Taiwan; C - Canada; C2 - Nauru; C5 - Gambia; C6 - Bahamas; CC - Chile; CN - Morocco; CP - Bolivia; CR-M - Macao; CS - Portugal; CU - Cuba; CX - Uruguay; D - Germany; D2 - Angola; D4 - Cape Verde; D6 - Comoros; DM - ex East Germany; DQ - Fiji; EC - Spain; EI - Ireland; EL - Liberia; EP - Iran; ES - Estonia; ET - Ethiopia; EZ - Turkmenistan; F - France; F-O - French West Indies: G - United Kingdom; H4 - Solomon Islands; HA - Hungary; HB - Switzerland; HC - Ecuador; HI - Dominican Republic; HK - Colombia; HL - South Korea; HP - Panama; HR - Honduras; HS - Thailand; HZ - Saudi Arabia; I - Italy; J2 - Djibouti; JA - Japan; JY - Jordan; LN - Norway; LV - Argentina; LX - Luxembourg; LY - Lithuania; LZ - Bulgaria; N - USA; OB - Peru; OD - Lebanon; OE - Austria; OH - Finland; OK - Czech Republic; OM - Slovakia; OO - Belgium; OY - Denmark: P2 - Papua New Guinea; P4 - Aruba; PH - Netherlands; PJ - Netherlands Antilles; PK - Indonesia; PP - Brazil; PZ - Suriname; RA - CIS Includes Russia and some other countries which formed part of the USSR; RP - Philippines; S2 - Bangladesh; S5 - Slovenia; S7 - Seychelles; S9 - Sao Tome; SE - Sweden; SP - Poland; ST - Sudan; SU - Egypt; SX - Greece; TC - Turkey; TF - Iceland; TG - Guatemala; TI - Costa Rica; TJ - Cameroon; TN - Congo; TR - Gabon; TS - Tunisia; TU - Ivory Coast; UK - Uzbekistan; UR - Ukraine; V2 - Antigua; V5 - Namibia; V7 - Marshall Islands; V8 - Brunei; VH - Australia; VN - Vietnam; VP-F - Falklands; VR-B - Bermuda; VR-C - Cayman Islands; VR-H - Hong Kong; VT - India; XA - Mexico; YA - Afghanistan; YI - Iraq; YJ - Vanuatu; YK - Syria; YL - Latvia; YR - Romania; YS - El Salvador; YU - Serbia; YV - Venezuela; Z - Zimbabwe; Z3 - Macedonia; ZA - Albania; ZK - New Zealand; ZP - Paraguay; ZS - South Africa
You might say that you have some money in your piggy-bank and that you want to buy an aircraft. You live in county-X and want to know with which prefix or country code your aircraft registration number on it is going to start with? So here is this index the other way around, with the prefixes or country codes in these registration numbers, listed with the country in alphabetical order:
Afghanistan - YA; Albania - ZA; Algeria - 7T; Angola - D2; Antigua - V2; Argentina - LV; Aruba - P4; Australia - VH; Austria - OE; Azerbaijan - 4K; Bahamas - C6; Bangladesh 2S; Barbados - 8P; Belgium - OO; Bermuda - VR-B; Bhutan - A5; Bolivia - CP; Botswana - A2; Brazil - PP; Brunei - V8; Bulgaria - LZ; Cameroon - TJ; Canada - C; Cape Verde - D4; Cayman Islands - VR-C; Chile - CC; China/Taiwan - B; CIS - RA; Colombia - HK; Comoros - D6; Congo - TN; Costa Rica - TI; Croatia - 9A; Cuba - CU; Cyprus - 5B; Czech Republic - OK; Denmark - OY; Djibouti - J2; Dominican Republic - HI; DRC - 9Q; Ecuador - HC; Egypt - SU; El Salvador - YS; Estonia - ES; Ethiopia - ET; ex East Germany - DM; Falklands - VP-F; Fiji - DQ; Finland - OH; France - F; French West Indies - F-O; Gabon - TR; Gambia - C5; Germany - D; Ghana - 9G; Greece - SX; Guatemala - TG; Guyana - 8R; Honduras - HR; Hong Kong - VR-H; Hungary - HA; Iceland - TF; India - VT; Indonesia - PK; Iran - EP; Iraq - YI; Ireland - EI; Israel - 4X; Italy - I; Ivory Coast - TU; Jamaica - 6Y; Japan - JA; Jordan - JY; Kenya - 5Y; Kuwait - 9K; Latvia - YL; Lebanon - OD; Liberia - EL; Libya - 5A; Lithuania - LY; Luxembourg - LX; Macao - CR-M; Macedonia - Z3; Madagascar - 5R; Malawi - 7Q; Malaysia - 9M; Maldives - 8Q; Malta - 9H; Marshall Islands - V7; Mauritania - 5T; Mauritius - 3B; Mexico - XA; Morocco - CN; Namibia - V5; Nauru - C2; Nepal - 9N; Netherlands - PH; Netherlands Antilles - PJ; New Zealand - ZK; Niger - 5U; Nigeria - 5N; Norway - LN; Oman - A4; Pakistan - AP; Panama - HP; Papua New Guinea - P2; Paraguay - ZP; Peru - OB; Philippines - RP; Poland - SP; Portugal - CS; Qatar - A7; Romania - YR; Russia - see CIS; Sao Tome - S9; Saudi Arabia - HZ; Senegal - 6V; Serbia - YU; Seychelles - S7; Sierra Leone - 9L; Singapore - 9V; Slovakia - OM; Slovenia - S5; Solomon Islands - H4; South Africa - ZS; South Korea - HL; Spain - EC; Sri Lanka - 4R; Sudan - ST; Suriname - PZ; Swaziland - 3D; Sweden - SE; Switzerland - HB; Syria - YK; Taiwan - B; Tanzania - 5H; Thailand - HS; Trinidad and Tobago - 9Y; Tunisia - TS; Turkey - TC; Turkmenistan - EZ; UAE - A6; Uganda - 5X; Ukraine - UR; United Kingdom - G; Uruguay - CX; USA - N; Uzbekistan - UK; Vanuatu - YJ; Venezuela - YV; Vietnam - VN; Yemen - 7O; Zambia - 9J; Zimbabwe - Z
So there you have it! I bet you will now look differently to aircraft and their registration / aviation tail numbers which contain a country code in their registration. There is only one thing that I am not sure about in terms of these country codes and that is that the world had change a lot politically around 1991 with the downfall of communism. New countries were born while others were no more. Did aircraft which were build before this time and are still in service in the areas of the world that had gone though these changes held on to their original aircraft registration numbers or did they get new ones? I see for instance that Russia don't has its own country code or prefix but shares one with the whole CIS which consist out of most of the area of the formal USSR. Was the "RA" country code used in the past by the USSR's aircraft registration registry? At the other hand you will also see that the aircraft registration country code "DM" was used by East Germany, are there still aircraft in service which registration begin with this code?
