Shedding The Raj

The prefix for the tail number on Indian aircrafts is still VT, which stands for Viceroy’s Territory. The international registration by the International Civil Aviation Organization is designed to identify the nation of origin of aircrafts and the VT code was assigned to British India in 1944. Pakistan had its tail number changed to AP after independence, as did many other colonies, such as Fiji, which got DQ. India did not seek a change until the BJP came to power, when it requested the code BM or BH for Bharat Mata and Bharat, but the B code had already been assigned to China. The I code was likewise taken by Italy.

India’s civil aviation minister told parliament recently the that country will seek a “code that can stand for something we want, something to do with India.”