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Reference

Retired airline codes

93 carriers in the open dataset no longer operate. These are the codes they flew under: 87 with an ICAO designator, 81 with a callsign on record, and 21 still present on routes in the snapshot.

Why a code outlives the airline

An IATA airline designator is two characters, which allows a few thousand combinations of which only a few hundred are practical. That is a small pool, so IATA reissues a code once its previous holder has been gone long enough. The three-letter ICAO designator has far more room and is reused much more rarely, which makes it the better identifier when you are reading an old schedule. The difference between the two systems is the subject of IATA vs ICAO codes.

That is also why a retired code is genuinely ambiguous rather than merely obsolete. A two-character code from a defunct carrier may today be flying for someone else entirely, and nothing in the code tells you which. The callsign, if there is one on record, is often the fastest way to tell the two apart: see airline callsigns.

Carriers no longer operating

Ordered by how many routes each still holds in the snapshot. A blank cell means the dataset has no value for that field, not that the airline had none.

93 carriers marked as no longer operating
IATAICAOAirlineCallsignCountryRoutes
VBBirmingham EuropeanUnited Kingdom102
HQHMYHarmony AirwaysHarmonyCanada88
2ZCGNChangan AirlinesChanganChina46
4YRBUAirbus FranceAirbus FranceFrance36
GQBSYBig Sky AirlinesBig SkyUnited States36
YITUR Avrupa Hava YollarıTuravrupaTurkey27
ILILWIllinois AirwaysUnited States25
2GCRGCargoitaliaWhite PelicanItaly21
FEWCPPrimaris AirlinesWhitecapUnited States18
K3Atlantic Air CargoUnited States17
QNARRAir ArmeniaAir ArmeniaArmenia16
F2FLMFly AirFly WorldTurkey14
M6AJTAmerijet InternationalAmerijetUnited States13
C8WDYChicago ExpressWindy CityUnited States8
3JWZPZipZipperCanada5
A8BGLBenin Golf AirBenin GolfBenin4
UYUYCCameroon AirlinesCam-AirCameroon4
E7ESFEstafeta Carga AereaMexico4
N3OMSOmskavia AirlineOmskRussia4
X7CHFChitaaviaChitaRussia2
V4REKReem AirReem AirKyrgyzstan2
YPAEFAero Lloyd (YP)Germany
M0MNGAero MongoliaAero MongoliaMongolia
DWUCRAero-Charter UkraineCharter UkraineUkraine
3XGUIAguilar ConnectMoonexpressChile
GDAHAAir Alpha GreenlandAir AlphaDenmark
2YAOWAir Andaman (2Y)Air AndamanThailand
8YPBUAir BurundiAir-BurundiBurundi
NVCRFAir CentralAir CentralJapan
4FECEAir CityAircityGermany
LDAHKAir Hong KongAir Hong KongHong Kong
MCRCHAir Mobility CommandReachUnited States
EHAKXAir Nippon Network Co. Ltd.Alfa WingJapan
8CATNAir Transport InternationalAir TransportUnited States
3NURGAir UrgaUrgaUkraine
00AirOne ContinentalEasternSlovakia
F4NBKAlbarka AirAl-AirNigeria
D4LIDAlidauniaAlidaItaly
LLGROAllegroAllegroMexico
5AAIPAlpine Air ExpressAlpine AirUnited States
1AAGTAmadeus Global Travel DistributionAmadeusSpain
0AGNTAmber AirGintaLithuania
04ABVAntrak AirAntrakGhana
5FCIRArctic Circle Air ServiceAir ArcticUnited States
MVRMLArmenian International AirwaysArmenia
OEAOTAsia Overnight ExpressAsia OvernightPhilippines
HJAXFAsian Express AirlinesFreightexpressAustralia
NOAUSAus-AirAustralia
J6AOCAVCOMAero AvcomRussia
G2VXGAvirexAvirex-GabonGabon
BOBOUBouraq Indonesia AirlinesBouraqIndonesia
R9CAMCamai AirAir CamaiUnited States
10CNNCanadian WorldCanadianCanada
C6CJACanJetCanjetCanada
W8CJTCargojet AirwaysCargojetCanada
7NCNACentaviaSerbia
MGCCPChampion AirChampion AirUnited States
WLFQRCheapFlyingInternationalCheapflyingFrance
CKCKKChina Cargo AirlinesCargo KingChina
QEECCCrossair EuropeCigogneSwitzerland
N2DAGDagestan AirlinesDagalRussia
D5DAUDauairDauairGermany
E0ESSEos AirlinesNew DawnUnited States
OWEXKExecutive AirlinesExecutive EagleUnited States
F6RCKFaroejetRockroseFaroe Islands
F3FSWFaso AirwaysFasoBurkina Faso
X9FRA AirFaGermany
GCGNRGambia International AirlinesGambia InternationalGambia
HBHARHarbor AirlinesHarborUnited States
ZUHCYHelios AirwaysHeliosCyprus
K4CKSKalitta AirConnieUnited States
K9KRIKrylo AirlinesKryloRussia
N6JEVLagun AirSpain
5VUKWLviv AirlinesUkraine WestUkraine
L2LYCLynden Air CargoLyndenUnited States
IMMNJMenajetMenajetLebanon
6NNRDNordic RegionalNorth RiderSweden
1LOSYOpen Skies Consultative CommissionOpen SkiesUnited States
DJPBNPacific BlueBluebirdNew Zealand
3DPMKPalair MacedoniaMacedonia
3CCEARegionsAirCorp-XUnited States
R0RPKRoyal AirlinesRoyal PakistanPakistan
7VROBROYAL BRITAINUnited Kingdom
07Samurai AirlinesSamPakistan
XSSITSITABelgium
6QSLLSlovak AirlinesSlov LineSlovakia
SFDTHTassili AirlinesTassili AirAlgeria
3VTAYTNT AirwaysQualityBelgium
9FTLMTramm Airlines9FNetherlands Antilles
T9TRZTransMeridian AirlinesTrans-MeridianUnited States
6ZUKSUkrainian Cargo AirwaysCargotransUkraine
5XUPSUnited Parcel ServiceUpsUnited States
VMVOAViaggio AirViaggioBulgaria

Where retired carriers were based

Countries with the most retired carriers in the dataset
CountryRetired carriers
United States21
Canada5
Russia5
Germany4
Ukraine4
United Kingdom2
China2
France2
Turkey2
Italy2

Route and carrier data comes from the OpenFlights open dataset, regenerated here on . It is a historical snapshot of scheduled connections, not a live schedule, and it includes codeshare listings, so some carriers shown may no longer operate the route or exist. How we build this · Data and sources.

Frequently asked questions

What is a retired airline code?

A retired code is an IATA or ICAO designator that belonged to a carrier that no longer operates. The code itself does not disappear: IATA reassigns two-character codes after a waiting period, so a code you remember from one airline may today belong to another. This page lists 93 carriers the open dataset marks as no longer operating.

Do IATA airline codes get reused?

Yes. There are only a few hundred usable two-character combinations, so IATA reissues a code once the previous holder has been gone long enough. ICAO's three-letter designators are reused far more rarely, which is why an old ICAO code is usually a safer identifier when you are looking at historical schedules.

Why do these airlines still appear on route pages?

The route half of this dataset is an OpenFlights snapshot, not a live schedule. A carrier that stopped flying after the snapshot was taken still appears on the routes it flew at the time. Route pages mark those carriers as no longer operating rather than removing them, because deleting them would silently rewrite the snapshot.

How many airlines in this dataset are still flying?

983 of the 1,105 carriers in the dataset are marked active. The rest are legacy entries, of which 93 have enough on record (a code, a callsign or routes) to be worth listing here.

Sources and review

Written and maintained by the FlyCodes editorial team at FusionStudios. Last reviewed end to end on . Found an error? Tell us and the correction goes in with the next regeneration.