Aviation and Travel Industry Codes and Terminology PDF

Need for Different Terms & Codes When one operates in a multilingual, multicultural environment, it becomes difficult to communicate with each other precisely. Languages, scripts, pronunciation may differ from people to people and yet it is needed to communicate in one single language which is simpl...

Need for Different Terms & Codes When one operates in a multilingual, multicultural environment, it becomes difficult to communicate with each other precisely. Languages, scripts, pronunciation may differ from people to people and yet it is needed to communicate in one single language which is simple to communicate and convey precise meaning. Aviation and Travel industry is a classic example of this type. It deals with people from all over the world who speak differently, write differently in different languages and yet they need to communicate precise information such as flight numbers, time, etc. Thus over a period of decades, this industry evolved simple terms and codes for its use to bring about standardization, ease of understanding to bring efficiency and preciseness in their operations. With the advent of automation, need for special terms become acute since computers would understand only standardized information codes. Thus it gave rise to standard codes which are used all around the globe. In fact, it became an important subject in Aviation & Travel industry. Code: Code is a rule for converting a piece of information, letter, word, phrase, or gesture into another form or representation, not necessarily of the same type. One reason for coding is to enable communication in places where ordinary spoken or written languages are difficult or impossible. E.g. referring to two different countries such as China and Liechtenstein, with short and a long name can be bought to a standard codes which are easy to remember and communicate, can be done by referring to them as CN & LI. Encoding is the process by which information from a source is converted into symbols. Decoding is reverse process of Encoding. It is converting these code symbols back into information understandable by a receiver. Codes were once common for ensuring the confidentiality of communications. Cable code replaces words into shorter words, allowing the same information to be sent with fewer characters, more quickly, and less expensively. Code words were chosen for various reasons: length, pronounce-ability, etc. Meanings were chosen to fit perceived needs: commercial negotiations, military terms for military codes. Acronyms and abbreviations can also be considered codes, and in a sense all languages and writing systems are codes for human thought. Occasionally a code word achieves an independent existence and meaning while the original equivalent phrase is forgotten or at least no longer has the precise meaning attributed to the code word. Terms and terminology: Terms are words and compound words that are used in specific contexts. Terminology is the study of terms of terms and their use. It is a systematic study of labelling and designating concepts particular to one subject for the purpose of documenting and promoting correct usage. Terminology studies are how such terms come to be and their interrelationships within a particular domain. Terminology is not connected to information retrieval in any way but focused on the meaning and conveyance of concepts. Terminology is based on its own theoretical principles. It also involves assigning terms to concepts, compile terms, manage terminology database, creating new terms, etc. Systematic terminology, which deals with all the terms in a specific subject field or domain of activity, is called as terminology of that activity. Aviation and Travel Terminology: Every industry has its own language. Terms and codes help travel agents to work efficiently under any situation. Travel industry is a service industry and the main objective is to make customers happy. There are various types of codes such as codes for cities, airport, airlines, aircraft, currencies, countries, etc. These codes help travel agents immensely to do their work quickly and proficiently. Travel agents are expected to be proficient at using these codes to create bookings for flights, cars, hotels, cruises, etc. as well as supply valuable and important information to airlines and request services for their customers. These codes are widely used throughout the travel industry. Without these codes the travel industry will stop working. As to identify these codes are a very complex and tedious work. One should know that these are codes for individual cities, airports, airlines, countries, currencies, states, etc. as well as special services/meals requested, miscellaneous codes, phonetic codes and more. Who creates the codes and terminology? Terminology for various industries is developed by industry leaders, associations or sometimes Governments. As far as Aviation and Travel Industry is concerned, most of the codes and terms have been developed by Global Industry Associations such as IATA, ICAO and few codes from ISO. These codes and terms are followed all over the world in the industry. Common terms & their Definitions Special Service Requested: The following service requirements codes are the most commonly used codes in the travel and tourism industry. The service information field is the part of a PNR that is used to record information that airlines must have. It is a special field used to transmit passenger-related requests and information such as the ages of child passengers, special meal requests, or an indication that passengers is blind. Travel agents can request special services that are to be provided for their customers while on board a flight. IATA Meal Codes: The following meal codes have been developed to make it easier for travel agents/passengers to convey their meal preferences to the airlines. All meal codes have a suffix ML (for meals). HFML – High Fibre Meals LPML – Low Protein Meal ORML – Oriental Meal PRML – Low Purin Meal VJML – Vegetarian Jain Meal VOML – Vegetarian Oriental Meal AVML – Vegetarian Hindu Meal BBML – Baby Meal BLML – Bland Meal FPML – Fruit Platter Meal GFML – Gluten Intolerant Meal LFML – Low Fat Meal LSML – Low Salt Meal NLML – Low Lactose Meal RVML – Vegetarian Raw Meal VGML – Vegetarian Vegan Meal VLML – Vegetarian Lacto-ovo Meal IATA Class Codes: IATA Class Codes were created to help airlines standardize conditions of travel passenger tickets and other traffic documents. These codes are sometimes called Reservation/Booking Designators (RBD). First Class Category R Supersonic P First Class Premium F First Class A First Class Discounted Business Class Category J Business Class Premium C Business Class D Business Class Discounted I Business Class Discounted Z Business Class Discounted Economy/Coach Class Category W Economy/Coach Premium S Economy/Coach Premium Y Economy/Coach B Economy/Coach Discounted H Economy/Coach Discounted K Economy/Coach Discounted L Economy/Coach Discounted M Economy/Coach Discounted N Economy/Coach Discounted Q Economy/Coach Discounted T Economy/Coach Discounted V Economy/Coach Discounted X Economy/Coach Discounted City and Airport Codes Three-letter city codes were developed in response to a need by the travel industry to have a shortcut way to refer to cities. Hence a flight from London to New York was referred as LON-NYC flight with it number. However, as Aviation Industry grew, one city was served by more than one airport and it became little complicated. Hence the system of referring Airport Code (rather than the city code) came into being for cities with multiple airports. Thus LON airport were referred to as LHR (London Heathrow), LGW (London Gatwick), LCY (London City), LTN (London Luton), and NYC airports were referred to as John F Kennedy (JFK), La Guardia (LGA) & Newark (EWR). As there were improvements in technology, the need for standard code system increased. From ABE (Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, Pennsylvania) to ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland), airports around the world are universally known by a unique three- letter code: the “International Air Transport Association (IATA) Location Identifier” in aviation-speak. It’s obviously much easier for pilots, controllers, travel agents, frequent fliers, computers and baggage handlers to say and write ORD than the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. But how did this practise start, and why are some airports codes easy to understand (ABE and ZRH) while others seem to make absolutely no sense (ORD)? When the Wright brothers first took to air in 1930, there was no need for coding airports since an airport was literally any convenient field with a strong wind. However, the National weather Service did tabulate data from cities around the country using a two-letter identification system. Early airlines simply copied this system, but as airline services exploded in the 1930’s, towns without weather station codes needed identification. Some bureaucrat has a brainstorm and the three-letter system was born, giving a seeming endless 17 576 different combinations. To ease the transition, existing airports placed and X after the weather station code. The Los Angeles tag became LAX, Portland became PDX, and Phoenix became PHX and so on. Incidentally at the historic sand dune in Kitty Hawk where the first flight occurred, the US National Park Service maintains a tiny airstrip called FFA – First Flight Airport. Many station codes are simply the first three-letter of the city name: ATL is Atlanta, BOS is Boston, MIA is Miami, SIN is Singapore, and SYD is Sydney, Australia. The first letter(s) of multiple cities served forms other codes: DFW for Dallas Fort Worth, MSP for Minneapolis/St. Paul and GSP for Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina. Sometimes the city name lends itself to one letter for each word, such as Salt Lake City (SLC), Port of Spain in Trinidad & Tobago (POS), or even Port au Prince, Haiti (PAP). Most of the “hard to decipher” identifiers become obvious if one knows the name of the airport rather than the city served. A Louisiana example is ESF, for Esler Field in Alexandra. Orly airport (ORY) and Charles De Gaulle airport (CDG) serve Paris, France, while Tokyo, Japan has the Narita airport (NRT). When you know what the code represents, some curious acronyms become obvious: MSY is the former Moisant Stock Yards in New Orleans, CMH is Columbus Municipal Hanger, BWI is Baltimore Washington International, LGW is London Gatwick, and LHR is London Heathrow. Some special interest groups successfully lobbied the government to obtain their own special letters. The Navy saved all the new ‘N’ codes. Naval aviators learn to fly at NPA in Pensacola, Florida and then dream of going to “Top Gun” in Miramar, California (NKX). The Federal Communications Committee set aside the ‘W’ and ‘K’ codes for radio stations east and west of the Mississippi respectively. ‘Q’ was designated for international telecommunications. ‘Z’ was reserved for special uses. The Canadians made off with all of the remaining ‘Y’ codes which helps explain YUL for Montreal, YYC for Calgary, etc. (The start of the song YYZ by the band Rush is the Morse code for the letters Y Y Z. Rush is from Toronto.) One of the special uses for ‘Z’ is identifying locations in cyberspace. What am I talking about? Well, an example is ZCX the computer address of the FAA’s air traffic control headquarters central flow control facility. ZCX is not an airport but a command centre just outside of Washington D.C., which controls the airline traffic into major terminals. The lack of these letters puts a crimp in the logic of some codes; if the city starts with an ‘N’, ‘W’, or ‘K’, it’s time to get creative. Norfolk, Virginia, ignored the ‘N’ to get ORF; Newark, New Jersey, is EWR; Newport News, Virginia, chose to use the name of the airport to get PHF – Patrick Henry Field. Both Wilmington, North Carolina and Key West, Florida followed Norfolk’s lead to obtain ILM and EYW. West Palm Beach in Florida did some rearranging to get PBI – Palm Beach International; Kansas City, Missouri became MKC and more recently the ‘new’ Kansas City airport chose MCI. (The code for Kansas City International Airport, MCI, was assigned during the early design phase of the airport when the name was going to be Mid-Continent International. Shortly before it opened, Kansas City officials decided to change the name so people would know what city it was in. It was too late to change the code.) The continued growth of aviation world-wide meant that three-letter combinations were insufficient to identify every airport. Eventually the system expanded, allowing numbers and four digit combinations; however, an airport served by scheduled route air-carrier or military aircraft always has a code comprising of only three- letters. Raleigh, North Carolina, not only has RDU (Raleigh/Durham International), but also the much smaller 5W5 (South Raleigh Airport), W17 (Raleigh East Airport), 2NC3 (Sky-5 helipad), and ONC4 (Wake Medical Centre Helicopter). The two-letter, two-number identifiers use the two-letter Post Office or supplemental abbreviation of the State for the two letters: 2ND9 is in North Dakota, 85FL is in Florida, etc. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, known as 49J when it was a general aviation airport, now has airline service and therefore a new airport identifier – HHH. There are certain cities whose names are changed but codes remained the same. For example Bombay became Mumbai but the code remained the same (BOM), Madras became Chennai and the code remained unchanged (MAA). Normally, when a city is served by only one airport, the three-letter airport code is the same as the city code. Airlines use the three-letter codes internationally in their own network, SITA for messages such as passenger loads and departure times. County Codes Country codes are developed by ISO. ISO (International Organization of Standardization) is the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards. ISO is a network of the national standards institute of 161 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes (geocodes) developed to represent countries and dependant areas, for use in data processing and communications. As there are various codes widely used for cities, airports, etc., there are two letter country codes. Each country has its two letter code; for example, US stands for United States of America, IM for India and so on. Two additional codes are used: Code XU is used to specify part of Russia east from (but not including) the Ural Mountains; Code AQ is used for Antarctica. Airline and Ticketing codes It is important to be able to communicate efficiently with airlines, car rental companies, cruise liners, etc. Working in the travel industry requires that you be skilled at using codes, as there are two letter alpha codes and two or three digit numeric ticketing codes for the airlines. IATA airline designators, sometimes called IATA reservation codes, are two-character codes assigned by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to the world’s airlines. The standard is described in IATA’s twice-annual publication, the “Standard Schedules Information Manual”. Airline designator codes are of the format “xx(a)”, i.e. two alpha-numeric characters followed by an optional alpha character. Although the IATA standard provides for three-character airline designator, IATA has to date (July 2008) not used the optional third character in any assigned code. This is because some legacy computer system, especially the so-called “central reservation systems”, have failed to comply with the standard. For example AI is the code for Air India, DL for Delta, etc. A flight designator comprises the airline designator, plus the numeric flight number. Designators are used to identify an airline for commercial purposes, including reservations, timetables, tickets, tariffs, air waybills and in airline interline telecommunications. IATA airline codes are an integral part of the travel industry, and essential for the identification of an airline, its destinations and its traffic documents. They are also fundamental to the smooth running of hundreds of electronic applications which have been built around these coding systems for passengers and cargo traffic purposes. Aircraft Codes The aerospace industry is divided into two main sectors: the civil sector and the military sector. The military sector has declines sharply since the end of the Cold War. Internationally, the market for aircraft parts in the civil aviation sector is dominated by Boeing (60 % of the global market) and the Airbus industry (30 % of the market) and 10 % by others. Civil aviation includes two major categories: Scheduled air transport, including all passenger and cargo flights operating on regularly-scheduled routes; and General aviation (GA), including all other civil flights, private or commercial. The ICAO airline designator is a three-letter designation code assigned by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to aircraft operating agencies, aeronautical authorities and services. The codes are unique by airline. Each aircraft operating agency, aeronautical authority and services related to international aviation is allocated both a three-letter designator and a telephony designator. Below is a list of IATA Aircraft Type Codes with ICAO tie-ups used in Airline Computer Reservation Systems, Timetables & Airport Information Systems. Aircraft Registration Codes An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies an aircraft, is similar fashion to a license plate on an automobile. In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation all aircrafts must be registered with a national authority (such as FAA or Transport Canada), and furthermore, they must carry proof of this registration in the form of a legal document called a Certificate of Registration at all times when in operation. Most countries also require the aircraft registration to be imprinted on a permanent fireproof plate mounted on the fuselage for the purposes of post-fire/post-crash aircraft accident investigation. Because airplanes typically display their registration numbers on the aft fuselage just forward of the tail, in earlier times more often on the tail itself, the registration is often referred to as the “tail number”. The registration number is used to identify civilian aircraft and is comparable to a military tail code or even an automobile license plate number. All types of civilian aircraft are required to have a registration number including commercial airlines, business jets, personal aircraft, helicopters, former military planes in private ownership, gliders, ultra lights, seaplanes, airships, blimps, and balloons. Even the new breed of privately-owned spacecraft like spaceShipOne is required to have a registration number. Although each aircraft registration is unique, some (but not all) countries allow it to be re-used when the aircraft has been sold, destroyed or retired. The rules governing aircraft registration are decided upon by a multinational body called the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICOA). This group dictates the first portion of a registration code that is known as the prefix or international prefix. This prefix is typically two or three characters in length but can be as few as one or as many as four. The prefix is special to a particular nation or region and is usually followed by a dash then a suffix made up of one to five characters. The structure of the suffix is typically determined by that country’s aviation regulatory agency, such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States. Most nations have relatively simple rules for determining the suffix. This portion of the registration is most often made up of three or four letters. Some countries instead prefer four or five numbers while a few use a mixture of letters and numbers. In the Unites States, the registration number is also referred to as an “N- number”, as it starts with the letter N. The advantage of the international prefix codes is that the registration number immediately identifies the nation of origin. Though many of the codes do not appear logical, the ICAO does make an attempt to base the prefix on the name of the country in its native language. Some of the most obvious examples include OE for Austria (Oestereich), F for France, D for Germany (Deutschland), I for Italy, JA for Japan, and G for the United Kingdom (Great Britain). It is not entirely clear why N was originally chosen for the United States when U and US were available and would seem more logical choices (A for America might also be a good choice, but was used for Austria for some period of time). The prevailing theory as to why N was chosen dates back to the days of Morse code when an international conference agreed to identify various nations by a one-letter designation to avoid confusion. Since the US Navy had already been using N to identify its stations, it is believed that this letter was chosen to represent the entire United States. Many of these wireless communication codes were later adopted for aviation as well, so the N was carried over and has been retained to the present day. Even the logic behind few codes such as VT for India is rather interesting. One may notice that numerous countries and regions have codes starting with V, and many of these are now or once were British colonies. When the prefix code system was implemented by the ICAO, British possessions were given codes starting with V to indicate their status as part of the British Empire. The letter V was chosen to represent Viceroy, the title given to a colonial governor. Even after these nations gained their independence, many have retained the V prefix codes to the present day. Aside from India, the most recognisable example is probably Australia’s VH. Exception include Pakistan, which gained the new prefix AP after splitting from India in 1947, and Hong Kong, which traded in its former VR for B upon its return to China. It is also noteworthy that a movement has been underway in India to request a prefix code change from the ICAO to something better representing the independent nation. In addition to the international prefix codes in use today, many others have been discontinued. One example shown below is the CCCP (or SSSR in the Latin alphabet) once used by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A few other prefixes no longer in use are FC for the Free France movement during World War II, DDR for East Germany, RV for Persia (now Iran), J for Japan, 4YB for the Arabic Federation (Iraq and Jordan), M and X for Mexico, HMAY for Mongolia, CH for Switzerland, and YE for Yemen prior to its breakup in 1990. Phonetic Language Phonetics (from the Greek: “sound”, “voice”) is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds (phones), and the processes of their physiological production, auditory reception, and neurophysiologic perception. Phonetic transcription is a universal system for transcribing sounds that occur in spoken language. The most widely known system of phonetic transcription, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), uses a one-to-one mapping between phones and written symbols. The standardized nature of the IPA enables its users to transcribe accurately and consistently between different languages. It can also indicate common pronunciations of words. The phonetic code or alphabet was developed by ITU in 1927. This alphabetical formation contributed to the aviation industry, especially during World War II. The main reason phonetic code was constructed is to differentiate between alphabets that sound similar, such as “B” and “D”. Therefore, phonetic code helps to avoid such confusion. Now, phonetic code is largely used in the aviation industry. In the world of Aviation, there is a different way of learning your ABC’s. The Phonetic Alphabet is not only used by the military, but also by Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, and Customer Service Agents within the Airlines. It is a great way to make sure you are understood (since a B, P, T and V sound hauntingly similar when spoken), and an appropriate introduction to Aviation Lingo. Your guide has listed the letters and their corresponding words for you. A – Alpha N – November B – Bravo O – Oscar C – Charlie P – Papa D – Delta Q – Quebec E – Echo R – Romeo F – Foxtrot S – Sierra G – Golf T – Tango H – Hotel U – Uniform I – India V – Victor J – Juliet W – Whiskey K – Kilo X – X-ray L – Lima Y – Yankee M – Mike Z – Zulu Currency Codes The world economy is a very complex system. Most countries have their own form of currency, and even those countries that share a currency often have a local form of money as well. Whether you are just crossing the border into another country, or travelling overseas, exchange rates can be confusing and potentially very unfair. Added to this confusion is the fact that many countries give their money the same names as other countries, yet their values are completely different. If you say “dollar” are you talking about the United Stated dollar, the Australian dollar, the Liberian dollar, or any of the other 30 or so countries that use the word “dollar” to describe their unit of currency. Below is a reference for the major, official currencies of the world and their currency codes. There are a lot of currencies in the world. A few have special symbols to represent them but most use the first letter of the currency name – currency code. Although the first letter of the currency describing a local currency, in an international context it leads to confusion. Does P20 mean Pesetas, Pesos, Pounds, Pataca, Pa’anga or something else? And if it means 20 Pesos, are they Argentinean Pesos, Bolivian Pesos, Chilean Pesos, Colombian Pesos, or some other variety of Pesos? For this reason there is a standardized way of referring to each currency. ISO 4217 in the international standard describing three-letter codes (also known as the currency code) to define the names of currencies established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The ISO 4217 code list is the established norm in banking and business all over the world for defining different currencies, and in many countries the codes for the more common currencies are so well known publicly, that exchange rates published in newspapers or posted in banks use only these to define the different currencies, instead of translated currency names or ambiguous currency symbols. ISO 4217 codes are used on airline tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes (which are also used as the basis for national top-level domains on the Internet) and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself. The ISO code for India is IN so the code for Indian Rs is INR. Japan’s currency code becomes JPY – JP for Japan and Y for Yen. Likewise, the code for Malaysia is MY so Malaysia Ringgits (Dollars) are coded as MYR. In the same fashion, the UAE is coded as AE, so Emirati Dirham’s are coded as AED. This eliminates the problem caused by the names dollar, franc, and pound being used in dozens of different countries, each having significantly deferring values. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency code’s last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. In some cases, the third letter is the initial for “new” in that country’s language, to distinguish it from an older currency that was revalued; the code sometimes outlasts the usage of the term “new” itself (for example, the code for the Mexican Peso is MXN). Other changes can be seen, however; the Russian Ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB, where the B comes from the third letter of the word “ruble”. Miscellaneous Codes English is a common language used in the travel industry and English abbreviations are used in an effort to create a common standard, which makes communicating requests and information easier and more efficient. The most commonly used miscellaneous abbreviations are as follows.