AvReg: Aviation regex match toolkit

avregex.md

AvReg: The Aviation RegEx Match Toolkit

General Tips

• The PCRE flavour of RegEx is used here.
• Append the i modifier to the end of the regex to make any pattern case-insensitive.

Aircraft

Purpose	Description	RegEx	Example
Registration	National registration	/^[A-Z]-[A-Z]{4}|[A-Z]{2}-[A-Z]{3}|N[0-9]{1,5}[A-Z]{0,2}$/	N390HA
IATA aircraft type	3-character type code	/^[A-Z0-9]{3}$/	32N
ICAO aircraft type	(Typically) 4-character type code	/^[A-Z]{1}[A-Z0-9]{1,3}$/	A32N

Airline Codes

Purpose	Description	RegEx	Example
IATA code	Commercial service mark	/^[A-Z][\d]|[\d][A-Z]|[A-Z]{2}$/	CX
ICAO code	Operational service mark	/^[A-Z]{3}$/	CPA
Ticketing prefix	eTicket operator code	/^[0-9]{3}$/	160

Airport Codes

Purpose	Description	RegEx	Example
IATA code	Commercial service mark	/^[A-Z]{3}$/	LHR
ICAO code	Operational service mark	/^[A-Z]{4}$/	EGLL
FAA code	US FAA-specific locator	/^[A-Z0-9]{3,4}$/	L67

Air Navigation & Communication

Notes:

• Privately-owned Canadian NDBs may utilize a letter and number combination.
• VFR squawk codes are generally 1200 in North America and 7000 in Europe.

Purpose	Description	RegEx	Example
NDB	Non-directional beacon identifier	/^[A-Z]{1,3}$/	TD
VOR	VHF omnidirectional range ident	/^[A-Z]{3}$/	APU
INT	Airway intersection waypoint	/^[A-Z]{5}$/	PRAWN
Squawk Code	Unique transponder octal code	/^[0-7]{4}$/	0318
Distress	If match, aircraft is in distress	/^7[567]00$/	7700
VFR Squawk	XPDR code for aircraft under VFR	/^(1200)|(7000)$/	1200
Runways	Standard runway identifiers 01-36	/^(0?[1-9]|[1-2]\d|3[0-6])[LCR]?$/	36L

Ticketing & Business Operations

Note that for PNR record identifiers, some GDS providers and operators use 5-character PNR idents, but most use 6-character ones. Additionally, for readibility purposes, some airlines and systems will skip 0, 1, I, L, and O.

Purpose	Description	RegEx	Example
PNR identifier	Passenger record locator	/^[A-Z0-9]{5,6}$/	J5XTP2
E-ticket number	Ticketing and itinerary identifier	/^[0-9]{3}(-)?[0-9]{10}$/	160-4837291830

Flight Operations

Purpose	Description	RegEx	Example
Flight number	IATA (marketing) flight number	/^([A-Z][\d]|[\d][A-Z]|[A-Z]{2})(\d{1,})$/	BA026
Callsign	ICAO (operational) flight number	/^[A-Z]{3}[A-Z0-9]{1,}$/	BAW319K

@mtowers - Thank you, I've updated the FAA identifiers per your suggestion with the exception of using $^ tokens instead of word boundaries. This is just to keep everything else in line.

@Tricky-D & @obotor - Thanks for your inputs as well. I will review & make update shortly on registration numbers. It may come down to splitting US since we can be more specific with FAA registrations.