ch-aviation offers you a very user friendly interface targeted at consumers, professionals and enthusiasts alike to search and analyse operator details. We have answered the most frequently asked questions below and hope this will address any immediate questions you may have on our operator section of the site:
How do I use the operator search form?
You can either search an operator by name or code or get a list of all operators in a specific country (or state). If you choose to search by name or country, start entering the operator name and we will dynamically offer you options in a dropdown list based on your entry. Alternatively you may search airports by IATA (two character) code or ICAO (three character) code If you select an operator from the dropdown list; we will take you immediately to the operator detail page. Otherwise, you will be presented with a list of search results.
What do IATA and ICAO stand for?
IATA is the International Air Transport Association and assigns two letter codes to its member operators and other carriers wishing to sell seats through the industry’s distribution channels. Some limited duplication of IATA codes is possible. ICAO is the International Civil Aviation Organization and assigns unique three letter codes for each operator in cooperation with the civil aviation authority of each country. IATA codes are generally mainly used for commercial purposes (i.e. airline reservations) while ICAO codes are used for operational purposes (i.e. air traffic control).
Does ch-aviation list every aircraft operator?
No, we do not. We aim to continuously increase the number of operators or aircraft operators listed on our site with the same level of detail as currently provided. We currently provide information for all operators providing scheduled passenger or cargo flights as well as commercial aircraft operators that operate aircraft with more than 15 seats. Selected private or business aviation operators have also been included.
How can I filter out only business aviation operators?
You can filter them out by Company Type - choose "Business/Private Charter" or by aircraft market group - choose "Global Jets, Large Jets, Light Jets, Super Midsize Jets and Very Light Jets".
Does ch-aviation have fleet list information for every Operator and aircraft type?
We only provide fleet list information for a specific set of aircraft types but cover all relevant aircraft types in commercial and business aviation service today with the exception of some regional types.
The following commercial aviation aircraft types are currently covered:
- Airbus A300/A310 / A318/A319/A320/A321 / A330/A340 / A350 / A380 / A400
- Airbus Canada A220
- Antonov An-124 / An-148/158/178 / An-22* / An-225 / An-12*
- ATR 42/72
- BAe ARJ-70/85/100 / BAe 146-100/-200/-300 / ATP / Jetstream 31* / Jetstream 32* / Jetstream 41
- Beechcraft 99 Airliner*
- Boeing B707/720 / B717 / B727 / B737 / B747 / B757 / B767 / B777 / B787
- Bombardier CRJ-100/200/700/900/1000
- Cessna 408 SkyCourier
- Concorde
- COMAC ARJ21 / C919
- Dassault Aviation Mercure
- De Havilland Aircraft of Canada DHC-8
- De Havilland Canada DHC-6 / DHC-7
- Dirgantara Indonesia N219
- Dornier 228/328/728
- Embraer EMB-120 / C123 / ERJ-135/-140/-145 / EMB-170/175/190/195 / EMB-390
- Fokker 28/70/100 / Fokker 50/60
- Ilyushin 18* / 62 / 76* / 86 / 96 / 114
- Yakovlev MC-21 / SSJ
- Lockheed L1011 / L-749 Constellation / L-1049 Super Constellation / L-188
- McDonnell Douglas DC-6 / DC-8 / DC-9 / DC-10 / MD-11 / MD-80/90
- Mitsubishi MRJ90
- Saab 2000 / 340
- Tupolev Tu-134* / Tu-154 / Tu-204/214 / Tu-334
- VFW-614
- Viking Air DHC-6-400
- Xian Aircraft Company MA-60/600
- Yak-42
The following business aviation aircraft types are currently covered:
- Adam Aircraft Industries - AdamJet
- Aérospatiale - Corvette
- Airbus – ACJ220-100 / ACJ318-100 / ACJ319-100 / ACJ319-100N / ACJ320-200 / ACJ320-200N / ACJ321-200 / ACJ330-200 / ACJ340-300 / ACJ340-500 / ACJ340-600
- Beechcraft / Hawker Beechcraft / BAe Systems / Hawker Siddeley / Raytheon Aircraft Corporation - HS-125 series 1 / HS-125 series 3 / HS-125 series 400 / HS-125 series 600 / HS-125 series 700 / BAe series 800 / Hawker 750 / Hawker 1000 / Hawker 800 / Hawker 850XP / Hawker 900XP / Hawker 4000 / Hawker 200 / Beechjet 400 / Hawker 400 / Beechcraft Premier I / Beechcraft Premier IA
- Boeing - B737-700(BBJ) / B737-8(BBJ) / B737-800(BBJ) / B737-9(BBJ) / B737-900(BBJ) / B747-8(BBJ) / B777-300ER(BBJ) / B787-8(BBJ) / B787-9(BBJ)
- Bombardier Aerospace - Global 6500 / Global 6000 / Global 5500 / Global 5000 / Global 7500 / Global Express / Challenger 300 / Challenger 350 / Challenger 3500 / Challenger 600 / Challenger 601 / Challenger 604 / Challenger 605 / Challenger650 / Challenger 800 (CRJ100) / Challenger 800 (CRJ200) / Challenger 850 / Challenger 870 / Learjet 40 / Learjet 45 / Learjet 60 / Learjet70 / Learjet 75 / Learjet 85
- Cessna Aircraft Company - Citation / Citation I / Citation II / Citation III / Citation V / Citation VI / Citation VII / Citation X / Citation Bravo / Citation Ultra / Citation Encore / Citation Excel / Citation XLS / Citation Sovereign / Citation Latitude / Citation Longitude / Citation Jet / Citation Jet 1 / Citation Jet 2 / Citation Jet 3 / Citation Jet 4 / Citation M2
- Cirrus Aircraft - Vision Jet / Vision Jet G2
- Dassault Aviation - Falcon 10 / Falcon 100 / Falcon 20/ Falcon 50 / Falcon 900 / Falcon 2000 / Falcon 7X / Falcon 8X / Falcon 6X
- Eclipse Aviation - Eclipse 500 / Eclipse 550
- Embraer - Legacy 450 / Legacy 500 / Legacy 600 / Legacy 650 / Praetor 500 / Praetor 600 / Phenom 100 / Phenom 300 / Lineage 1000
- Epic Aircraft - Epic Elite / Epic Victory
- Gates Learjet / Lear Jet (1962) - Learjet 23 / Learjet 24 / Learjet 25 / Learjet 28 / Learjet 29 / Learjet 31 / Learjet 35 / Learjet 36 / Learjet 55
- Grob Aircraft - Grob G180 SPn
- Gulfstream Aerospace - G100 / G150 / G200 / G280 / G300 / G350 / G400 / G450 / GVII-G500 / GVII-G600 / G550 / G650 / G700
- Honda Aircraft - HondaJet / HondaJet Elite
- Israel Aerospace Industries - Jet Commander 1121 / Westwind 1123 / Westwind 1124 / Astra 1125 / Astra SPX / Astra Galaxy
- Lockheed - CL329 / Jetstar I / Jetstar II
- Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm - HFB-320 Hansa
- Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation - Diamond I / Diamond IA
- Rockwell International - Sabreliner 40 / Sabreliner 50 / Sabreliner 60 / Sabreliner 65 / Sabreliner 75 / Sabreliner 80
- SyberJet Aircraft - SyberJet SJ30
- Textron Aviation - Cessna aircraft after 2014
Please note that any other aircraft types not listed above will not be displayed in operator fleet list summaries or detail displays and by policy we will only add other aircraft types once we have the entire production list available up to ch-aviation standards. We are however constantly working on the addition of more aircraft types and will advise once they have been made available.
* Only active aircraft as of 2000 are listed.
What is a codeshare, regional partner or division?
Codesharing is a fairly common practice in the airline industry and as the word already suggests means that a flight operated by an operating carrier (that physically operates the flight) also carries one or multiple codes by other marketing carriers (that are only selling the flight operated by another carrier). The operating carrier operates the aircraft and offers its own product and gets the benefit that it is easier to sell its product through not just its own distribution channels but also through the marketing carrier. The marketing carrier can offer more destinations, connections or services on the same city pair thanks to placing its code on services operated by the partner. Maybe a controversial statement but think of it as Coca-Cola selling Coke and “Coke” (provided by Pepsi in Pepsi bottles and with Pepsi in the bottles). For example, United Airlines has a bilateral codeshare agreement with All Nippon Airways allowing the two Star Alliance carriers to offer more flights under their own code between the United States and Japan and more importantly a wide range of connections beyond their gateways on both sides of the Pacific.
Regional partnerships are either cases where operator leases not just an aircraft from a leasing company (that would be considered a Dry-Lease) but where Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance are provided by another operator either at the risk of the main operator (ACMI or Wet-Lease by the regional carrier) or the opposite where the regional carrier operates as a regional partner under a franchise agreement. So to get back to the Coca-Cola example, a case where Coke (or a product similar to Coke) is provided by subcontractor in different bottles that uses the regional brand (Wet-Lease) or a case where Coke is provided by a franchisee that sells Coke bottles under a franchise license from Coca-Cola. Operators use wet-leases for a variety of reasons, for example to make use of the better cost structure of regional carriers or to provide additional permanent or seasonal capacity, to operate an aircraft type that the operator itself does not wish to operate, etc.. United Airlines uses the services of regional carrier SkyWest Airlines for example, that operates hundreds of Bombardier regional jets on its behalf under the United Express brand and UA flight numbers. Franchise agreements allow regional carriers to use the sales and distribution processes, brand name etc. of its partner to sell seats at its own risk against a franchise fee payable to the larger partner. Scottish regional carrier Loganair operates most of its services under the Flybe. brand but at its own risk for example.
What is a virtual carrier?
ch-aviation uses the term "virtual carrier" for companies that essentially act as tour operators but operate their businesses as if they were airline except that they do not have an own air operator certificate and outsource all of the actual flights to other third party carriers that then operate the flights under their own air operator certificate. There is a fine line between a tour operator as such and one that we consider a virtual carrier that should be included in our Operators section. If the tour operator predominantly sells "flight only" packages and operates services on a fixed schedule using its own brand name for the flights and not the name of the aircraft operator, we include them in our listings.