Which country is an aircraft registered in?

How it works

Every aircraft carries the code of its country. Under ICAO Annex 7 every registration begins with the nationality mark of the state of registry, taken from that country’s ITU radio call sign series: OH- for Finland, G- for the United Kingdom, D- for Germany, and N for the United States, which writes no hyphen. The longest mark that fits wins, so B-HNR is Hong Kong while plain B- is shared by China and Taiwan. The mark tells you the register, not the owner or where the aircraft flies.

A registration is the nationality mark followed by the aircraft’s own letters or digits. Most states write a hyphen between them (OH-LWA); the United States, Japan and South Korea leave it out (N123AB, JA8089, HL7604). Gliders and other light aircraft carry the same nationality mark as airliners.

The marks come from ICAO Annex 7 and the ITU table of call sign series, and change only when a state is given a new series. The sources and the date we last checked them are listed under the table. The tool reads the mark only: it does not look up the aircraft, its owner or its flights.