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Registration

What Do Aircraft Registration Codes Mean?

· 4 min read

Every aircraft wears a registration — a unique tail code like N123AA or G-EUOB. The first part tells you the country it's registered in. Here's how to read one.

Every civil aircraft in the world wears a registration — a short string of letters and numbers usually painted near the tail, which is why people also call it a tail number or tail code. Examples: N123AA, G-EUOB, JA873A, B-18901. It works like a licence plate for the airframe: unique, permanent, and tied to the physical plane rather than the flight it happens to be operating today.

The prefix tells you the country

The most useful thing a registration reveals is instantly readable: the first character or two identifies the country where the aircraft is registered. These prefixes are handed out by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), so they are consistent worldwide.

A few common ones:

  • N — United States (e.g. N123AA)
  • G — United Kingdom (e.g. G-EUOB)
  • D — Germany (e.g. D-AIMA)
  • F — France (e.g. F-GKXA)
  • JA — Japan (e.g. JA873A)
  • B — China and Taiwan (e.g. B-18901)
  • VH — Australia (e.g. VH-OQA)
  • VT — India (e.g. VT-ANB)
  • HL — South Korea (e.g. HL7612)

So the moment you see a tail beginning with D, you know it’s a German-registered aircraft, wherever in the sky it happens to be.

How the rest is built

After the country prefix comes the individual identifier, and its format varies by country. The United States uses an N-number: N followed by up to five digits and letters, like N747BA. Many European countries use a single prefix letter, a dash, then four letters — G-EUOB, D-AIMA, F-GKXA. Japan uses JA plus four characters, China and Taiwan use B plus a number block.

The registration is assigned by the country’s aviation authority and stays with the airframe for life — unless the aircraft is sold abroad and re-registered under a new country’s prefix, which is why a used jet can change tail codes when it changes owners.

Registration vs the hex code

Alongside the visible registration, every aircraft also broadcasts a 24-bit ICAO hex code — a six-character hexadecimal address like A12B34 baked into its transponder. That code is what ADS-B receivers pick up electronically, and it also maps to a country by its numeric range. Trackers translate the hex code back into the human-readable registration you’d see painted on the tail.

What you’ll see on the radar

On the FlyOverhead radar, the registration is one of the surest ways to know an aircraft’s country of origin — far more reliable than guessing from the livery, since airlines lease and codeshare across borders. Pair it with the callsign to see who’s operating the flight, and the ICAO type code to know exactly what model is passing overhead.

Frequently asked

What is an aircraft registration code?

A registration is a unique identifier painted on an aircraft, usually near the tail — for example N123AA or G-EUOB. It works like a car licence plate: every civil aircraft in the world carries exactly one, and it stays with that airframe (not the flight or the airline) unless the plane is re-registered in another country.

How do I tell which country an aircraft is from by its registration?

Read the prefix. Each country is assigned one or more starting characters by the ICAO: N is the United States, G is the United Kingdom, D is Germany, JA is Japan, VH is Australia, B covers China and Taiwan. So a tail starting with F is French, one starting with VT is Indian, and so on.

Is the registration the same as the callsign or flight number?

No. The flight number is the commercial label on your ticket, the callsign is the radio identity, and the registration identifies the physical airframe. A single aircraft keeps its registration across thousands of different flights, while flight numbers and callsigns change every trip.