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Aircraft Registration Decoder (Tail Number Country).
Find the country and series of an aircraft registration (7T-VCC, F-GKXA, N12345), spell it in the ICAO radio alphabet, decode Mode S hex addresses and look up airline ICAO and IATA codes.
Method and limits. The text is compared with the nationality marks of ICAO Annex 7 and the national series, the Mode S address blocks of ICAO Annex 10 and the ICAO airport-code prefixes, all stored in this page. Only the format is checked: no aircraft register is consulted, so the tool cannot say whether a mark is assigned today, nor give the aircraft type, owner or operator. National series show their usual use and change over time; the national register gives the official answer. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Steps to use Aircraft Registration Decoder (Tail Number Country)
Type a registration (tail number), a six-digit Mode S hex address, a four-letter ICAO airport code, an airline code (DAH, AF) or a radio callsign (SPEEDBIRD); the country and series appear as you type. Search a country by name, ISO code or prefix to see all of its codes, or open the full list of registration prefixes. Each mark and airport code is also spelled in the ICAO radio alphabet (7T-VCC: Seven Tango Victor Charlie Charlie) with its ICAO pronunciation.
How Aircraft Registration Decoder (Tail Number Country) processes your input
Registration marks: 219 prefixes on 233 lines for 211 countries and territories, with national series (gliders, helicopters, ultralights, state aircraft, German mass classes…) compared by length, character kind and order. US N-numbers are checked with the FAA rules and converted both ways with the FAA algorithm (N1 = A00001 … N99999 = ADF7C7; all 915,399 addresses round-trip in the test). Mode S: 200 blocks of ICAO Annex 10 Vol. III. Airport codes: 258 ICAO location-indicator prefixes. Airlines: 6,243 ICAO three-letter designators with company, country and radio callsign from FAA Order JO 7340.2 chapter 3 (public domain), 967 IATA codes from Wikidata (CC0) kept only when the callsign or name and the country match; loaded from this site on demand. Country names in the page language from the browser (Intl.DisplayNames).
Aircraft Registration Decoder (Tail Number Country): worked example
7T-VCC → Algeria, civil series 7T-VAA to 7T-VZZ, spoken “Seven Tango Victor Charlie Charlie”. N12345 → United States, Mode S address A061D9; A0B1C2 → N144CD. 0A0123 → Algeria’s Mode S block 0A0000–0A7FFF. DAAG → Algeria (prefix DA). DAH → Air Algérie, IATA AH, callsign AIR ALGERIE.
Find the country of a registration
Every civil aircraft carries a registration mark: a nationality prefix given to the country by ICAO, then letters or digits chosen by the national register. Type the mark with or without the hyphen: 7T-VCC, 7tvcc and 7T VCC give the same answer. The decoder shows the country, the prefix, the usual way of writing the mark and the national series it falls in.
Example: 7T-VCC is Algerian and belongs to the civil series 7T-VAA – 7T-VZZ (7T-W… marks are military). D-AIMA is German, in the D-A… series for aircraft above 20 t maximum take-off mass. When a prefix is known but the mark is outside every listed series, the tool says so instead of guessing: old, special or new series exist.
| Prefix | Country | Example of the format |
|---|---|---|
N | United States | N12345 |
C- | Canada | C-FABC |
G- | United Kingdom | G-ABCD |
F- | France | F-GKXA |
D- | Germany | D-AIMA |
I- | Italy | I-ABCD |
EC- | Spain | EC-MXV |
VH- | Australia | VH-ABC |
JA | Japan | JA801A |
VT- | India | VT-ANA |
7T- | Algeria | 7T-VCC |
CN- | Morocco | CN-ROA |
A6- | United Arab Emirates | A6-EDA |
Open “All registration prefixes” below the tool for the complete list of 219 prefixes and their series. One prefix can serve several places: B- is used by China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, and the letters after it decide.
Mode S hex addresses and US N-numbers
Transponders and ADS-B receivers identify an aircraft by a 24-bit address written as six hexadecimal digits, for example 0A0123. ICAO gives each State a block of addresses: Algeria has 0A0000 – 0A7FFF, Germany 3C0000 – 3FFFFF, the United States A00000 – AFFFFF. Type an address to see the block, its decimal and octal values.
In the United States the address follows from the N-number. The tool converts both ways: N1 = A00001, N12345 = A061D9, N99999 = ADF7C7, and A0B1C2 = N144CD. It also checks the FAA rules: N, then one to five characters starting with a digit from 1 to 9, at most two final letters, never I or O. Other countries hand out addresses from their block without a public formula, so only the country is shown. To convert hexadecimal by hand, use the number base converter.
Airport codes and country search
A four-letter ICAO airport code starts with a regional letter and a country letter: DAAG starts with DA, Algeria; LFPG with LF, France; EGLL with EG, United Kingdom. A few countries use a single letter: K for the contiguous United States (KJFK), C for Canada and Y for Australia. The tool gives the country, not the airport name.
The second box finds a country by its name in your language or in English, its ISO code or its registration prefix (“Algeria”, “DZ” or “7T”) and lists all of its codes at once: registration prefixes and series, Mode S blocks and airport-code prefixes. Planning a long flight? See the jet lag calculator and the time zone converter.
Questions about Aircraft Registration Decoder (Tail Number Country)
How do I say a registration on the radio?
Each letter and digit is read with the ICAO spelling alphabet, without the hyphen: 7T-VCC is “Seven Tango Victor Charlie Charlie”, F-GKXA “Foxtrot Golf Kilo X-ray Alfa”. The tool shows the words and the ICAO pronunciation (TANG-go, TREE for 3, FIFE for 5, NIN-er for 9) under each result.
Can the tool tell me the aircraft type, owner or airline?
No. It checks the format of a mark against the national series and does not consult any aircraft register, so it cannot say whether a mark is assigned today or who flies it. The national register of the country (for example the FAA register for N-numbers) gives that answer.
Why does my registration say “prefix recognised, but this format is not in the known series”?
The prefix belongs to a country, but the rest does not fit the series listed for it. For example Algeria uses 7T-V… for civil and 7T-W… for military aircraft, so 7T-ABC is flagged. It may still exist in an older or special series: check the national register.
Why can a Mode S address be turned into a registration only in the United States?
The FAA links each N-number to one address with a fixed formula, which the tool applies in both directions. Most other countries assign addresses from their block one by one, without a public formula, so the address only tells the country.
Does it decode airline codes such as AFR or DAH?
Yes. Type a three-letter ICAO designator (DAH, AFR), a two-character IATA code (AF) or a radio callsign (SPEEDBIRD): the tool shows the company, the country, the callsign used on the radio and the IATA code. The 6,243 designators come from FAA Order JO 7340.2, which reproduces the ICAO list; the IATA codes come from Wikidata and are kept only for operators still active. The table is loaded from this site only when needed.
Is what I type sent anywhere?
No. All the tables are in the page and the decoding runs in your browser. The text is only kept in the page address after # so you can share a result.
Is Aircraft Registration Decoder (Tail Number Country) free, and do I need an account?
Yes. This tool is free to use in your browser without an account. Processing takes place on your device.
What are the limits and what should I check?
Format check only: no aircraft register is consulted, so the aircraft type, owner, operator and whether a mark is in use today are not shown. Mode S blocks follow the ICAO table amended to 2013 (no separate blocks for Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan or Kosovo). Airline designators follow FAA Order JO 7340.2 (effective 9 July 2026); IATA codes come from Wikidata and can be missing. Nothing is uploaded. Review the result before using it in your work.
Is my input sent to a server?
Your input is processed in your browser and is not uploaded by this tool. Files and pasted text are cleared when the page is refreshed. Normal website requests are still required to load the page and its libraries. Read the privacy explanation.