List of Boeing customer codes


Unique, fixed customer codes were used by Boeing Commercial Airplanes to denote the original customer for airframes produced as part of Boeing's 377 Stratocruiser and later 7x7 families of commercial aircraft until 2016.

History

Boeing first used customer codes for the 377-10 Stratocruiser.
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: line number 6082
  • Boeing P-8 Poseidon: line number 6020
  • Boeing 747-8: line number 1534
  • Boeing 767: line number 1102
  • Boeing 777: 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 and 777X.

Format

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:
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 Emirates with customer code 1H and subsequently sold to Cathay Pacific are still designated at 777-31H, and a Boeing Dreamlifter 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.
Exceptions existed, such as 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 Qantas from American Airlines 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 to 777-346.

List of Stratocruiser customer codes

Customer codes used for the 377 Stratocruiser did not carry over into the 7x7 series.
CodeCustomerAircraft
CodeCustomer377
19Boeing377-10-19
26Pan American World Airways377-10-26
377-10-26S
377-28-26
27Transcontinental & Western Air377-10-27
28Scandinavian Airlines System377-10-28
29American Overseas Airlines377-10-29
30Northwest Orient Airlines377-10-30
32British Overseas Airways Corporation377-10-32
34United Air Lines377-10-34
39Cubana de Aviación377-17-39

List of 7x7 family customer codes

Boeing generally allocated new codes in sequence, with the exception of 00 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.
  • 20 to 99 - First sequence
  • 00 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.

First sequence

Second sequence

Third sequence

Fourth sequence

Fifth and final sequence