alt Hacker NewsAfter reading the article, for some reason I am finding the following fact profoundly distressing. Surely there are more than 1000 active airlines worldwide‽
> Every airline has a 3-digit IATA numeric code. 098 = Air India. British Airways is 125. IndiGo is 526. These codes predate the familiar 2-letter IATA codes (AI, BA, 6E): they were used when teletypes could not reliably transmit letters and numbers interchangeably.
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IATA-registered airlines - it seems there are 370,
Two-letter codes are assigned to anybody on request, but three-digit codes are assigned only to full IATA members.
The three-digit code is used primarily for ticketing (it's the first three digits of a ticket number), and as an airline you only really need it if you're going to do complex interop things like ticketing another airline's flights. Most low cost carriers like Ryanair are not IATA members, and even Southwest only joined last year.
Also, not every airline has a 3-digit code. e.g. Aero Republica has the two-alphanum designator P5, but doesn't have a 3-digit.
The IATA has 367 active airlines.
Bear in mind that this doesn't apply to charter airlines, only public passenger ones.
Given there are about 200 countries in the world, you'd need 5 large airlines per country, which is a lot! Most of them don't have any and rely on other countries. Still more have a single national carrier.