How is the ICAO code different?

The ICAO code is a three-letter designator from the International Civil Aviation Organization — BAW for British Airways, DAL for Delta, UAE for Emirates. ICAO codes are used in air traffic control and flight plans, and they’re the basis of the radio callsign (BAW is spoken as “Speedbird”). IATA codes are the ones travellers see on tickets and boards; ICAO codes are what you’ll spot on flight trackers and ATC.

How do I find the airline from a flight number?

The letters (or letter-and-digit) at the start of a flight number are the airline’s IATA code, and the digits after are the specific flight. So “LH456” is Lufthansa flight 456 and “AA100” is American Airlines flight 100. Type just the code into the search above to identify the carrier. Note that codeshare flights can carry several numbers from different airlines for the same physical flight.

Why doesn’t the code always match the airline’s name?

Because IATA usually lets an airline keep its code even after it rebrands. The classic example is AZ — it belonged to Alitalia for decades and passed to its successor ITA Airways, so the code outlived the name. Finnair’s AY comes from its original name Aero O/Y. That’s why a code lookup is genuinely useful: the two letters don’t always spell out who you’re flying.

Is this every airline?

No — this is a curated selection of the major airlines travellers most often encounter, covering the big network carriers and low-cost airlines worldwide. There are over a thousand carriers with assigned codes, and codes shift as airlines merge, rebrand or shut down. For the complete and authoritative list, use IATA’s official airline and airport code search, which is linked in the tool.

🛫 Tool

Airline Code Lookup

Which airline is that code? Search by IATA or ICAO designator — or by name — to identify the carrier on a ticket, flight number, departure board or baggage tag.

Free, no sign-up
Works worldwide
Instant results

Search by airline name or code (IATA or ICAO)

Try one:

IATA (2 chars) · ICAO (3 chars)

A selection of major airlines — not all 1,000+ carriers. Codes can change when airlines merge, rebrand or cease. For the complete, authoritative list, use IATA’s official code search.

By SK KutubuddinReviewed May 2026

Quick Answer

Which airline is that code?

Type an airline’s IATA code (two characters, like BA or 6E), its ICAO code (three letters, like BAW or DLH) or its name into the search above. The matching carrier appears with both codes and its home country — handy for decoding a flight number, a board or a baggage tag. It covers the major airlines worldwide; IATA’s full directory is linked for the rest.

2 characters

IATA

3 letters

ICAO

BA = British Airways

Example

leading letters

In a flight no.

Methodology: Each entry is an airline’s IATA two-character designator and ICAO three-character designator, with its name and home country, drawn from the published IATA/ICAO assignments for well-established carriers. Search matches exact codes first, then names and countries, and handles accents. This is deliberately a curated selection of major airlines rather than the full 1,000-plus list — codes change as airlines merge, rebrand or cease, so the tool links to IATA’s official code search for the complete, authoritative directory rather than risk presenting stale or obscure entries as definitive. How we test & calculate.

Two letters, one airline

Airline codes are everywhere once you start looking — the BA in front of a flight number, the DL on a baggage tag, the EK on a departure board. Most of the time you can guess the airline, but not always: codes are assigned by IATA and ICAO and don’t always spell out the name. This lookup turns any code back into the carrier it belongs to, showing both the IATA and ICAO designators side by side.

IATA vs ICAO — which is which

The short two-character code (BA, DL, EK) is the IATA designator — the one travellers meet on tickets, flight numbers and boards. The three-letter code (BAW, DAL, UAE) is the ICAO designator, used in flight plans and air traffic control, and it’s the root of the spoken callsign — BAW is “Speedbird”, DLH is “Lufthansa”. If you’re reading a flight tracker you’ll usually see the ICAO code; on your boarding pass, the IATA one.

Reading a flight number

A flight number is just the airline’s IATA code plus a number: LH456 is Lufthansa 456, QF1 is the famous Qantas London service. Type the leading letters into the search to see who operates it. One wrinkle: a single physical flight can be sold under several numbers through codeshares, so the airline on your ticket isn’t always the one whose aircraft you board — the flight tracker shows what’s actually flying.

When the code outlives the name

The reason a lookup beats guessing is that IATA usually lets airlines keep their code through a rebrand. AZ was Alitalia’s for decades and now belongs to its successor ITA Airways; Finnair’s AY dates back to its founding name, Aero O/Y. This is a curated set of the major carriers worldwide — for the full thousand-plus directory, including smaller and regional airlines, follow the link to IATA’s official code search in the tool above.

Frequently Asked Questions

An IATA code is the two-character designator the International Air Transport Association assigns to an airline — BA for British Airways, DL for Delta, EK for Emirates. It’s the code you see at the start of a flight number (BA117), on your ticket and on baggage tags. A few use a letter-and-digit combination, like easyJet’s U2 or IndiGo’s 6E, because the all-letter combinations ran out.