I was wondering if any of you could come up with others, current or in history. I suspect there are more Latin American ones out there.
I don't suppose anyone called BOAC "Bow-ack", but that was mostly before my time, so I can't say for sure. Would have been funny, though.
For the sake of standardization, let's find ones with more than two words. i.e. PanAm is too short and less interesting. (I'm not sure that even qualifies as an acronym, but for lack of anything better, I'll consider it the same category.) More than three would be even better. Also, let's avoid the humorous but unofficial derogatory ones.
Tgocean From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 22 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 11104 times:
Even more fun were the substitution acronyms given by inventive passengers. BOAC, for example, morphed into "Better on a Camel." SABENA was a juicy one, but the sequence escapes me at the moment. Anyone remember more of these?
EWRCabincrew From United States of America, joined May 2006, 5522 posts, RR: 57 Reply 3, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 11095 times:
1stfl94 From United Kingdom, joined May 2006, 1454 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 11027 times:
Quoting Tgocean (Reply 1): Even more fun were the substitution acronyms given by inventive passengers. BOAC, for example, morphed into "Better on a Camel." SABENA was a juicy one, but the sequence escapes me at the moment. Anyone remember more of these?
Sabena- Societe Belge de exploitation de navigation aerienne (i think), also known as Such A Bad Experience Never Again
Alitalia- Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali, also known as Always Late In Take Off Always Late In Arrival and Aircraft Landed in Tokyo All Luggage in Athens
Thanks, but not what I'm getting at. I'm looking for pronouncable acronyms. I don't know anyone talking about flying "Twah", "Sass", "Anna", or "Klim". I would presume people simply say "Lot" rather than "El-Oh-Tee", so that would be a qualified if bland example. VASP is a good one, if indeed people pronounced it "Vasp". If still confused, go back to my examples of "Kwant-as", "Pan-Ah-Grah", "Sah-Bee-nah", and "Va-reeg" for clarification.
Quoting Tgocean (Reply 1): BOAC, for example, morphed into "Better on a Camel."
Those would be good, but also not what I was looking for (there are legions of them), hence my original statement:
Quoting Rampart (Thread starter): let's avoid the humorous but unofficial derogatory ones.
Confuscius From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 3633 posts, RR: 2 Reply 10, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 10952 times:
AA - American Airlines
NW - Northwest
UA - United Airlines
Someone83 From Norway, joined Sep 2006, 2779 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 10922 times:
Quoting Rampart (Reply 8): Thanks, but not what I'm getting at. I'm looking for pronouncable acronyms. I don't know anyone talking about flying "Twah", "Sass", "Anna", or "Klim". I would presume people simply say "Lot" rather than "El-Oh-Tee", so that would be a qualified if bland example.
SAS is a sort of a pronouncable acronym. In all the Scandinavian countries are SAS pronounced "sass" and not "s-a-s", and even SAS officials use "sass"
Ptugarin From United States of America, joined Sep 2006, 325 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 10913 times:
These are the ones that occurred to me:
TACA - Transportes Aereos Centroamericanos
LAN - Linea Aerea Nacional
PLUNA - Primera Linea Uruguaya de Navegacion Aerea
JAT - Jugoslovenski Aerotransport
JAL - Japan Airlines
I stand corrected! Thanks. I also stand corrected for SAS. I am not corrected on AA, NW, UA, BA. pr PSA (did someone actually pronounce it "pissay"??). Those don't count. Read original post. Keep trying!
Quoting 1stfl94 (Reply 7): Alitalia- Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali
"Alitalia" is a good and obvious one I missed!
Did anyone ever pronounce the acronym CAAC, as "Caack"?
Cubsrule From United States of America, joined May 2004, 21229 posts, RR: 19 Reply 15, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 10805 times:
LOT isn't an acronym. It's an abbreviation of Polskie Linie Lotnicze which, in true creative Polish form, means Polish Airline (or, for those DL fans out there, Polish Air Line).
On a historic note, when PZ was LAP, it was Lineas Aereas Paraguas
UC was Linea Aerea de Cobre
5U is Lineas Aereas del Estado
I can't decide whether I miss the tulip or the bowling shoe more
UK_Dispatcher From United Arab Emirates, joined Dec 2001, 2550 posts, RR: 33 Reply 16, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 10804 times:
Which people often assume stands for British Midland International - WRONG! It actually does not stand for anything, but I guess it still 'echoes' British Midland.
From the UK there were also:
BEA: British European Airways (merged with BOAC to become British Airways)
BOAC: British Overseas Airways Corporation (see above)
Cubsrule From United States of America, joined May 2004, 21229 posts, RR: 19 Reply 24, posted (6 years 4 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 10637 times:
Quoting Adamlaskiewicz (Reply 20): LOT is neither an acronym nor a translation of Polskie Linie Lotnicze - "lot" is the Polish word for "flight".
It's also the root of just about every word relating to flying (samolot, lotnisko, latac, etc.). And though it would be delightfully Polish to call the airline "Flight," I've never been sure that that's the intention with LOT. Otherwise, why would they capitalize it?
I can't decide whether I miss the tulip or the bowling shoe more
25 Andz: Guys.... TAP, KLM etc are not acronyms they are merely abbreviations. An acronym is an abbreviation that forms a pronouncable word. QANTAS is a good e
26 OHLHD: AUA = Austrian Airlines ( OS ) especially in german speaking countries
27 WestIndian425: No one said BWIA yet? How about COPA?
28 BN727flyr: LIAT - formerly known as Leeward Islands Air Transport
30 Rampart: Of the above mentioned acronyms, (and I looked up the definition for acronym -- a pronounceable word formed from the first letter(s) of a phrase or te
31 MEACEDAR: MEA - MIDDLE EAST AIRLINES filler filler
32 Diesel1: Not the case at all... flyBE... once British European (they weren't allowed to be BEA - I think BA still own this trade name). Of course in the past,
33 StealthZ: Another Australian Carrier- Regional Express- REX Cheers
34 LTU932: CompañÃa Panameña de Aviación. At least I hope that's what COPA means, though now it's just Copa Airlines (with Copa being a name and no longer a
35 Olympus69: I was about to post a similar explanation, and point out that you should have started out by defining "anagram". However, who knew that there were so
36 American 767: CSA: CeskoSlovenska Aerolinee KLM : Koningrijk Luchtvaart Maatschapij (it means kingdom aviation company) UTA used to stand for Union de Transports Ae
37 MH1402: and my beloved MAS - Malaysia Airlines which people pronounce as "mas" not M-A-S
38 Caribbean484: BWIA- British West Indian Airways LIAT-Leewards Islands Air Transportation
39 Caribbean484: COPA- Compañia Panameña de Aviacion
40 LTU932: I thought MAS means Malaysia Airlines System.
42 MH1402: That name was used till they change their Corporate Identity in 1987. The transition from the Red "Wau"(MH logo on its tail) to the current Red and B
43 KELPkid: Well, for any English speaker who has ever travelled Central America, it is well-known that TACA really meant "Take a Casket Along" or "Take A Chicke
44 CO777DAL: also know as BWIA- But Will It Arrive BWIA- Better Walk If Able I love Bwee. I was so sad to see it go. All part of BWIA history BSAA- British South
45 WestIndian425: You're too late, Caribbean484. Another person and I beat you to it.
47 KingAir200: Is it really? This seems to lead otherwise: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionar...sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=acronym
48 Shuggie: It's always been pronounced Fly Be when I've flown with them!
49 Amberair732: I'm not sure what JMC stood for, but the F/A's used to call it Just Might Crash !
50 LVHGEL: Hey what about UPS (United Parcel Service) and FedEx (Federal Express) though cargo airlines, airlines nonetheless. (BTW I don't know if Federal Expre
51 Birdwatching: TAME of Ecuador. I don't know if English speakers pronounce it "tame" as in "not wild", but in Spanish it is pronounced as a word, pronounced like "Ta
52 Rikkus67: A couple of former airlines here in Canada: TCA (Trans-Canada Airlines, now Air Canada) PWA (Pacific Western Airlines) ACL (VERY small AC connector: A
53 BuyantUkhaa: Acronyms: SATA (Azores) MIAT (Mongolia) TAAG (Angola) Rex (Australia) SANSA (Costa Rica) Winair (Windward Islands Airways) (N Antilles) DAT (Denmark)
54 Cubsrule: Well, as long as we've opened the floodgates of whimsical ones... Don't Ever Leave The Airport Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive (They're both unfair in
55 FlyPBA: PBA - Provincetown-Boston Airline, Inc.
56 HikesWithEyes: Which means "The copper airline". This was due to its ties to the mining industry in Chile.
57 CF188A: my history teacher said it was Queensland Tasmania .... that is where the name Qantas spawns
58 WestJetYQQ: These are all what we call 'abbreviations', not acronyms. Cheers Carson
59 NWADC9: LAN, VASP, TRIP, TAF, BRA, TAP, and LOT can stay, because they can form words. Some more: LAM REX LACSA SANSA SAT
60 PM: "Vernon'll meet me when the boac lands; keys to the MG will be in his hands..." Montego Bay by Bobby Bloom 1970 http://www.superseventies.com/sl_mont
61 FlyTPA: I believe ATI would qualify. Alitalia used to operate it as a domestic subsidiary before bringing all the flights under the Alitalia name in 1994. ATI
62 AlexPorter: In the U.S. - (Pronouceable ones only) The only acronym is/was ATA, but that's not pronouceable as a word. However, many U.S. airlines have "adopted"
64 StealthZ: Your history teacher was mistaken and Rampart is absolutely correct. (Photo: QANTAS Historical Collection) Cheers[Edited 2007-04-24 07:03:03]
69 DEVILFISH: Well, here's a classic that fits both. Before they shortened it to two words, then to just the country's name, PAL as it still is often called today,
70 Rampart: " target=_blank>http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionar...ronym I'm going to stop correcting people who continue to submit unpronounceable abbreviations
71 LTU932: How do you know LTU is not an acronym? It stands for Lufttransportunternehmen or as it was at first, Lufttransportunion (though for many years it was
72 LHRBFSTrident: That seems odd, as Birmingham Executive Airways was allowed to parade around in its billboard livery complete with BEA titles on their a/c - maybe th
73 United319: Actually a lot of people do pronounce ANA as, well, ANA, not A-N-A. and heres my example.... LACSA
75 Philb: Quite amazing how many people don't know and couldn't be bothered to find out what an acronym is before posting. QANTAS is an acronym as it is used as
76 Philb: Just how do you pronounce the "word" LTU in German, English or any other language. LTU is an abbreviation based on the three lead letters of the cons
77 Philb: Who lifted it and modified it from my contribution to a competition in a certain aviation magazine about 40 years ago - Queer Australians Never Trave
78 EKSkycargo370: SABENA:Such a bloody experience never again Emirates:English management,Indian run,Arabs take enormous salary
79 LVHGEL: Well I think is easier to use LTU in the color scheme; imagine using Lufttransportunternehmen like PA and VASP used theirs, not even in an A340-600..
80 Cumulus: BOAC - Better On A Camel (as already said!) PAN AM - PAN HAM TWA - Try Walking Across BA - Bloody Awful SAS - Sex And Service SABENA - Such A Bad Expe
81 Diesel1: IIRC correctly, British European couldn't add the 'Airways' to their name, presumably the abbreviation BE was acceptable, whilst BEA wasn't. As far a
82 Viasamsy: VIASA = Venezolana Internacional de Aviacion Sociedad Anonima
83 Razza74: CAAC - Crashing All Around China MMA - Mickey Mouse Airlines For those who may wonder MMA Macrobertson Miller Airlines was the forerunner to Airlines
84 Ptugarin: I always thought it was Transportes Aereos Centroamericanos
85 Wingedarrow: The name ALITALIA came out by pure chance when, in 1946, the company's employee who was in charge to register the new airline had to abbreviate the or
86 Rampart: We may be having a disconnect between German and English. Sorry for my bias. In English, "LTU" would never be an acronym. It's an abbreviation for th
87 Buck3y3nut: PIA - Pakistan International Airlines
88 Rampart: I thought of a couple not mentioned yet. In the tradition of PanAm (word-wise, if not operationally): WestPac was the commonly used acronym for Wester
89 Philb: "Bowack" was certainly used by airline staff and sounded like many acronyms from WW2 that the staff in the 40s/50s/60s would have been familiar with.
90 Viscount724: Just a minor correction re TCA. It was Trans-Canada Air Lines (Air Lines two words, like DL today).
91 LVISA: Hi, Going back memory lane... AER = Aerotransportes Entre Rios ALA = Aerotransportes Litoral Argentino FAMA = Flota Aerea Mercante Argentina ZONDA = Z
92 Rikkus67: Viscount 724, Well, with a nicname like that, I imagine you would know better than I.... TCA became Air Canada in 1965, IIRC.... two years before I wa
93 Thegooddoctor: Oh, you mean "COntinental's Panamanian Airline"....
94 LTU932: Indeed. In German, we tend to put together two words into one word for simplicity reasons (as long as the complete word makes sense). Sometimes this
95 IADCA: The definition I used is this, quoted directly from Merriam-Webster online: acronym One entry found for acronym. Main Entry: ac·ro·nym Pronunciatio
96 Rampart: Actually, that form of grammar allows me to understand German better, though I would have to pause to figure out how to spell or pronounce a word. I
97 Stirling: Puerto Rico International Airlines PRINAIR Part of it is at least an acronym.
98 CO777DAL: I have always heard it pronounced as Bowack.(from the Caribbean & at my university) I did not hear people call it B-O-A-C. I have to say the oddest o
99 Philb: As this is an English Language forum let's go to the definitive fount of knowledge when it comes to words and their meaning - the Oxford English Dict
100 AirEMS: Can we count: Pan AM - Pan American Panagra - Pan American Grace Airways Isn't El Al sort of a acronym? -Carl
101 Rampart: My Merriam Webster's gives me roughly the same as your definition ("initial letter or letters..."). "Letters" in your definition is poorly defined. L
102 Philb: On the contrary it is perfectly defined, i.e. Initial letters - initial meaning the first. Thus the initial letter is the first letter of each word.
103 WestIndian425: Hehe...that's funny. LOL!!! You know how Caribbean people like short cuts. "Bee - double you - eye - ay" takes too much energy and breath. View Large
105 Rampart: Initial letterS, meaning a plural of letters, meaning the first one or two (or three). Webster's is a better definition, and more precise ("letter or
106 Parisien: There is a FAT air in Asia (Taiwan ?) Far east Air Transport I think. dont know if they actually pronounce it fat air .....
107 S5FA170: We called TWA "Tee-Way" and the Chautauqua 145s at TWE "Tee-Wee" birds ... but I don't know of any passengers that actually did that...
108 Philb: I'm afraid the OED is accepted world wide as the final arbiter when it comes to English definitions. Websters hasn't improved, it has changed the sen
109 IADCA: This is all correct. I'm sorry I didn't think to check the OED as well, but I do feel compelled to point out a few things. First, the OED is a histor
112 SingaporeBoy: When i was young i used to say Bow-ack(BOAC),Mas(MAS) and Jal(JAL) and so forth and people knew what i meant.Oddly though...SIA(SQ) was never referred
113 PM: You're much too much, and just too "very, very" To ever be in Webster's Dictionary. And so I'm borrowing a love song from the birds To tell you that
114 Rampart: Very nice! No "mis" about it, I'm simply interpreting, as you are. We all have to follow some arrived set of rules. You are enamored with Oxford, fin
115 LHRBFSTrident: you have jogged my memory and you are completely correct! That whole BirmEx, BrumEuropean, Maersk thing happened all at once in my mind... ...well th
116 SwissA330: you forgot the A. Societe Anonyme Belge.... Yes, they DO call it 'SASS' . Some people however say es-ai-es. Also a good one is TAP, which is usually
117 Philb: Well, in 51 years I've always heard it referred to as "tap" and I'm English. I'm not enamoured with the OED and I'm not interpreting anything - I'm q
118 PM: Tsk, tsk. I want you both to write out 100 times "enamoured of, enamoured of, enamoured of..." (Rampart - yes, you can write "enamored of...")
119 Philb: Not guilty teacher !!! I was quoting Rampart's words back at him. Yes he can write enamored because, whilst the direct root is the French amour, the
120 PM: I wonder how far off topic and how far into Pedants' Paradise we have to stray before the mods delete this exchange!
121 Philb: Don't know but I'm for free speech and the airing of differences is instructive and interesting for both sides. Back on topic, a few more I forgot: TA
122 Cainanuk: Wrong. I work for BD and I can oficially tell you that believe it or not, bmi does not actually stand for anything. When they rebranded it was said t
123 Ferengi80: Correct. When the livery was first changed from British Midland to BMI, it was actually BMi with a small i, to reflect the British Midland. They chan
124 Ferengi80: JMC stood for John Mason Cook, who was Thomas Cook's son. Thus, as Thomas Cook owned the airline, they were keeping things within the family!
125 LHStarAlliance: TAME : Transportes Aereos Militares Ecuatorianos
126 UK_Dispatcher: Well actually all the letters were (and still are) lower case: bmi At first it was 'bmi british midland', then in 2003 the british midland part was f
127 C010T3: Totally forgot about that checkmark checkmark checkmark No prob! I always remember it, since I have so much fun mocking them because of that.
128 Sprout5199: Just to get nit-picky, RADAR stands for RAdio Detection And Ranging, So the Oxford English Dictionary is either using a "wrong" word for an acronym o
129 Philb: That's an interesting point and one which I'll drop a line to the compilers about. In fact Radar is an American word. Sir Robert Watson Watt never use
130 Philb: Just found the full version: Pity Sir Robert Watson-Watt, Strange target of this radar plot And thus, with others I can mention, the victim of his own
131 Rampart: Sheesh! Both of you must have been absolutely charming in class. Give yourselves gold stars for language proficiency. Given "Radar", I now fully stan
132 Philb: Had a lie in in the Garden State this morning have we? Welcome back. Don't know how much more we can get from this but it's been fun so far!
133 IADCA: Sorry, Queen's/King's English is American slang for English English. Didn't realize it had a varied connotation (I assume meaning upper-class) on you
134 Philb: Point taken. The OED is at fault by its own rules, and you are correct about the connotation though the relevance is less than 50 or even 25 years ag
135 Rampart: LOL! Yes, I come away with many more fun airline names and nicknames than I thought possible, and some big surprises concerning BOAC, Dan-Air, and di
136 Nzrich: Hi it actually stands for Tasman Empire Airways Limited
137 VC10DC10: He's not arguing about the pronunciation... he saying that FlyBE was never allowed to be called BEA! I always thought it was related to the Evergreen
138 Mika: As already said above, SAS is actually pronounced like a word ("Sass") in the nordic countries. However i do know that some people still choose to ca
139 Jgarrido: When I lived in the Caribbean the joke was that LIAT stood for "Leave Island Any Time"
140 Areopagus: Are there any circularly recursive or self-referential airline names or abbreviations? I used to think there were two, until I gained greater clarity.
141 Jgarrido: Not an airline per se, but there is the Navy callsign NALO (pronounced nail-o), which stands for Navy Air Logistics Office.
142 Philb: Which thre Shanwick HF operators invariably pronounce as NAYLOR
143 WildcatYXU: Incorrect. While they tried to tailor it this way, CSA stands for CeskoSlovenske Aerolinie. After Czechoslovakia split, they kept the abbreviation an
144 Spacecadet: I'm a little late here, but I didn't see anybody reply to this: It is, and in fact ANA refer to themselves this way. Both JAL and ANA are pronounced a
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