Unique, fixed customer codes were used by

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is a division of The Boeing Company. It designs, assembles, markets, and sells jet airliners and business jets ( Boeing Business Jets), and also provides product-related maintenance and training to customers wo ...

to denote the original customer for airframes produced as part of Boeing's 7x7 family of commercial aircraft from 1956 (except for the

Boeing 787 Dreamliner The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American Wide-body aircraft, wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Boeing Sonic Cruiser, Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced th ...

), starting with the introduction of the 707, followed by the

Boeing 717 The Boeing 717 is an American five-abreast single-aisle airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The twin-engine airliner was developed for the 100-seat market and originally marketed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95. It was a shor ...

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpor ...

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am w ...

Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maid ...

Boeing 767 The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified on ...

and

Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap bet ...

up until 2016. The codes are in the form of two letters and/or digits which are appended to the aircraft's model designator, as seen in the following examples: *A Boeing 707-100 ordered by

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founde ...

with customer code 38 would be designated as 707-138. *A

ordered by Hawaiian Airlines with customer code 2A would be designated as 717-22A. *A Boeing 727-100 and 727-200 ordered by United Airlines with customer code 22 are designated as 727-022 (not -122) and 727-222 respectively. *A Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 ordered by

Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...

with customer code H4 would be designated as 737-7H4 and 737-8H4 respectively. *A

Boeing 747-200 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, to ...

Boeing 747-400 The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeting ...

, Boeing 747-8I and Boeing 747-8F ordered by Korean Air with customer code B5 would be designated as, 747-2B5B, 747-4B5, 747-8B5 (not 747-8B5I) and 747-8B5(F) respectively. *A

Boeing 747SP The Boeing 747SP (for ''Special Performance'') is a shortened version of the Boeing 747 wide-body airliner, designed for a longer range. Boeing needed a smaller aircraft to compete with the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar ...

ordered by Saudia with customer code 68 would be designated as Boeing 747SP-68 instead of 747-168(SP). *A

SR ordered by

All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had m ...

with customer code 81 would be designated as Boeing 747SR-81, instead of 747-181(SR). *A

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maide ...

ordered by Delta Air Lines with customer code 32 would be designated as Boeing 757-232. *A

Boeing 767-300ER The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified o ...

ordered by

GECAS GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Services) was an Irish–American commercial aviation financing and leasing company. AerCap acquired the company from GE Capital on November 1, 2021. GECAS was the largest commercial airline leasing/financing company in ...

with customer code 6N would be designated as Boeing 767-36N(ER). *A Boeing 777-200LR, 777-300, 777-300ER & 777F ordered by

Emirates Emirates may refer to: * United Arab Emirates, a Middle Eastern country * Emirate, any territory ruled by an emir ** Gulf emirates, emirates located on the Persian Gulf ** Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the individual emirates * The Emirat ...

with customer code 1H would be designated as Boeing 777-21H(LR), Boeing 777-31H, Boeing 777-31H(ER) and 777-F1H (not 777-21H(F)) respectively. The codes do not change if the aircraft is subsequently sold, such as if a passenger aircraft is owned and operated by another airline or converted into a freighter. Several examples are several 777-300s originally built for

with customer code 1H and subsequently sold to

Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have sc ...

are still designated at 777-31H, and a

Boeing Dreamlifter The Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter (LCF) is a wide-body cargo aircraft modified extensively from the Boeing 747-400 airliner. With a volume of it can hold three times that of a 747-400F freighter.Hanson, Mary et al"Boeing Selects EGAT ...

that was originally built as a 747-400 passenger aircraft for China Airlines with customer code 09 subsequently sold to will be designated as 747-409(LCF) (instead of the original 747-409). Although in some cases if an airline cancelled or sold their order before Boeing had commenced building the airframe, the customer code would be changed to that of the new purchaser. One such example is the order for sixteen 737-800s taken over by

from

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

after the September 11 attacks in 2001 - these aircraft were delivered with Qantas' 38 code rather than 23 for American. Also, 2 747-200Bs purchased by British Airways were sold while under construction, to Malaysian Airline System and remained 747-236Bs. Another case is a situation where Boeing sells experimental aircraft to an airline, one example being the first two 777-300ERs built initially as experimental aircraft for Boeing which were subsequently sold to Japan Airlines had their codes changed from 777-300(ER) to 777-346(ER). Before the 707, Boeing used a generally similar system to identify the presence of detailed variations or options requested by particular customers, but the codes were not customer-specific. In 2016, Boeing announced that they would no longer apply customer codes to any aircraft produced after a certain point, which would lead to their designators being the "generic" type for the model. The codes were removed from the type certificates for each model with effect from the production line number shown below: *

Boeing 737 Next Generation The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boeing ...

: line number 6082 *

Boeing P-8 Poseidon The Boeing P-8 Poseidon is an American maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft developed and produced by Boeing Defense, Space & Security, and derived from the civilian Boeing 737-800. It was developed for the United States Navy (USN). ...

: line number 6020 *

Boeing 747-8 The Boeing 747-8 is a wide-body airliner formerly developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and the largest variant of the 747. After introducing the 747-400, Boeing considered larger 747 versions as alternatives to the proposed double-deck ...

: line number 1534 *

: line number 1102 *

: line number 1422 Furthermore, customer codes have never been used for Boeing airplane models launched after the termination of customer codes, namely the 787,

737 MAX The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with th ...

and 777X.

List

Boeing generally allocated new codes in sequence, with the exception of 01 to 19 being issued after 21 to 99. Code number 20 itself came to be reserved for Boeing's own use, though this was only ever formally the case for the 707. *21 to 99 - First Sequence *01 to 19 - Second Sequence *A0 to Z9 - Third Sequence *0A to 9Z - Fourth Sequence *AA to ZZ - Fifth and final sequence Airlines in ''italics'' are defunct. Please note that the list of aircraft types for each airline is only those produced with that of the airline's code, and is not intended to reflect their complete operational history.

List

First sequence

Second sequence

Third sequence

Fourth sequence

Fifth and final sequence

References

Bibliography