ch-aviation offers you a very user friendly interface targeted at consumers, professionals and enthusiasts alike to search and analyse aircraft details. We have answered the most frequently asked questions below and hope this will address any immediate questions you may have on our aircraft section of the site:

How do I use the aircraft search form?

You have four different search and aircraft/fleet list display options to choose from:

• Search by Airline: Define your search criteria in the Quick or Full search form. You need to define at least one search option to be able to search.
• Search by Register: Select the country for which you would like to display all aircraft registered by aircraft operators in that country.
• Search by Production Line: Select the production line you would like to display from the dropdown list. A production line may include one or multiple aircraft types, for example the A330 and A340 aircraft by Airbus are coming off the same production line and construction numbers are shared between the two types. The production line view will display all aircraft by construction number in ascending order.
• Get direct access to Aircraft Data: Select an aircraft type from the Aircraft Data list to display details about an aircraft type and its operators.

What are the Current Operator, Former Operator and Delivery Customer checkboxes for?

If you search the database with an airline defined (either by typing in the airline name in the Airline field or by  selecting a country and then an airline from the dropdown list, you may make use of the Current Operator, Former Operator and Delivery Customer checkboxes:

• Current Operator: Will return all aircraft currently operating for the airline selected.
• Former Operator: Will return all aircraft whose last operator before the current operator or storage/part out/scrapping/accident was the airline selected.
• Delivery Customer: Will return all aircraft that have originally been delivered to the airline selected.

You can also use any combinations of the three search criteria.

How do I use the Aircraft Type filters?

If you would like to filter by aircraft type, you need to first select a manufacturer and then all aircraft by this manufacturer in the ch-aviation database will be available as a choice. Then you can drilldown further to use either the type or model as a filter.

What are registrations and what about C/N and MSN?

Every aircraft is assigned a registration when it is added to the civil aircraft register of a country that is a combination of a country prefix and a registration/tail number. For example, A6 is the country prefix for the United Arab Emirates; A6-ETD is a registration of a Boeing 777-300ER of Etihad Airways.

C/N stands for construction number, for most manufacturers these numbers are assigned in ascending order by production date. Some manufacturers such as Boeing also assigned a Manufacturer Serial Number in addition that is used for internal purposes.

How do the Display Options work?

You can choose to include Supplementary Information in Aircraft search results. By default the "Former Operator(s) option is selected displaying additional columns by aircraft for the previous operator, previous registration and operator the aircraft was originally delivered to.

When you select Date Built, the first flight or delivery date (whichever is first) will be displayed for each aircraft in your search results.

When you select Engine Details, the engine type will be displayed.

You may Group search results by carrier to display the search results grouped by airline or aircraft operator and can choose whether you want to include aircraft without an operator and/or not yet delivered in your search results.

How can I check for recent updates?

Just click on the show latest updates shortcut to display updates made in the last 15 days.

Does ch-aviation have fleet list information for every airline and aircraft type?

We only provide fleet list information for a specific set of aircraft types but cover all relevant aircraft types in commercial airline service today with the exception of some regional types. The following aircraft types are currently covered:

• Airbus A300/A310 / A318/A319/A320/A321 / A330/A340 / A350 / A380 / A400
• Antonov An-124 / An-148/168 / An-225
• ATR 42/72
• BAe ARJ-70/85/100 / BAe 146-100/-200/-300 / ATP / Jetstream 41
• Boeing  B707/720 / B717 / B727 / B737 / B747 / B757 / B767 / B777 / B787
• Bombardier CRJ-100/200/700/900/1000 / Dash 7 / Dash 8
• Concorde
• Dassault Aviation Mercure
• Dornier 328/728
• Embraer EMB-120 / ERJ-135/-140/-145 / EMB-170/175/190/195
• Fokker 28/70/100 / Fokker 50/60
• Ilyushin 62 / 86 / 96
• Lockheed L1011
• McDonnell Douglas DC-8 / DC-9 / DC-10 / MD-11 / MD-80/90
• Saab 2000 / 340
• Shanghai Aircraft Company ARJ21
• Sukhoi SuperJet 100
• Tupolev Tu-154 / Tu-204/214 / Tu-334
• VFW-614
• Viking Air DHC-6-400
• Xian Aircraft Company MA-60/600

Please note that any other aircraft types not listed above will not be displayed in airline fleet list summaries or detail displays and by policy we will only add other aircraft types once we have the entire production list available up to ch-aviation standards. We are however constantly working on the addition of more aircraft types and will advise once they have been made available.

Are all aircraft ordered but not yet delivered displayed in the fleet overview per carrier?

It is ch-aviation policy to only start displaying aircraft in fleet lists of carriers once either the construction number (c/n) or manufacturer serial number (MSN) is known, so the answer is no. The time period before delivery when we typically learn about the c/n and/or MSN assignments for aircraft orders varies by manufacturer.

What does MTOW stand for?

MTOW stands for maximum take-off weight.

How can I report errors found or updates I would like to provide to the ch-aviation team?

We are maintaining records for tens of thousands of aircraft and use a wide range of very different types of sources throughout the world to keep them as up to date as possible. Should you still come across an error, omission or have an update for us, you can simply click on the envelope behind each aircraft to immediately send the responsible fleet list editor at ch-aviation a message.

What are the abbreviations (opf, opb etc.) in the Remarks column about?

ch-aviation uses abbreviations used throughout the airline industry to disclose dry and wet lease agreements between airlines. We do not currently provide information relating to lease agreements between airlines and leasing companies such GECAS or ILFC. The abbreviations are used as follows:

• for: The aircraft will be delivered to this operator in the future. A future registration may already be known.
• lsf: Leased from (Dry-Lease)
• lst: Least to (Dry-Lease)
• opb: Operated by (Wet-Lease)
• opf: Operated for (Wet-Lease)