what do varients mean???

No, even when modified the plane keeps its original designation, but often letters are added.

Take for instance KLM’s original short upper fuselage B747-206.
They had their upper deck stretched changing them to B747-206SUD.
After that they where modernised making them B747-206SUD/M.

Same goes for many B737-200. Many where modernised after which A. or Adv. was added behind the original code.

Originally posted by Airline owner
thanks so if a plane is delivered in 1979 for example as a ?36 and that airline then goes bust and gets sold to an airline across the globe and goes on to different airlines every other year up until 2004 and it would still remain a ?36

Exactly.

Unless the aircraft gets modified… then I think it looses it original suffix

thanks so if a plane is delivered in 1979 for example as a ?36 and that airline then goes bust and gets sold to an airline across the globe and goes on to different airlines every other year up until 2004 and it would still remain a ?36

Originally posted by EGNM

Boeing 737-2T5 – (?)

The 2T5’s were originally delivered to Orion Airways 🙂

Originally posted by Jeanske_SN
So leased aircraft also carry codes of the lessor?

If the Lessor had that aircraft from new yes.

Say for excample Ba lease a 737 to KLM, it will still be a 737-436
even if they sold it to KLM, it would remain a 436.

yea – for example look at some of the Ryanair aircraft (the -200srs).

Over the years all the below have operated for them…

Boeing 737-230 – Originally ordered by Lufthansa,
Boeing 737-204 – Orginally ordered by Britannia,
Boeing 737-2K2 – Originally ordered by Transavia
Boeing 737-2T5 – (?)

All were ordered by the above companies and have over time been aquired by Ryanair – this may be through a bulk purchase, such as the ex-Lufthansa machines, or picking up one or two machines at differant times. This can prove probmental as many smaller comapnies find, as the aircraft all have differant features, and i know from some of our machines, had differant modifications by previous owners, so some items are located in differant places in the cockpit, and made by differant companies – main features i notice are weather radar scopes and TCAS. All the basics are in the same places tho… i hope!

Originally posted by Jeanske_SN
So leased aircraft also carry codes of the lessor?

The aircraft gets assigned a code based on the first owner of the plane. Some of the most common codes are those of the larger leasing companies as most airlines lease their planes from leasing companies. The most common codes in the world are those of GPA (#Y0), ILFC (#Q8) and GECAS (#6N) code.

So leased aircraft also carry codes of the lessor?

Originally posted by SOFTLAD
Its the customer code in a word.Each letter relates to a certain customer and how the a/c is configured.

Bingo.

The reason is simple, no two airlines want their aircraft configured in the same way. Each airline has its own needs for confguring the interior. Lavatories, power points, galleys etc.
In order to differentiate, Boeing have assigned all their customers a code, BA for example is 36
So the BA boeing fleet is:

757-236
777-236
747-436

etc, etc.

Yes but they were originally delivered to many different airlines.

all of those i stated were all from go

Jeanske, absolutely wrong.

Y0 = GPA Group
6Q = Boullioun Aviation
Q8 = ILFC
3A = Ansett Worldwide
6N = GECAS
L9 = Maersk Air

29 was Sabena / Sobelair.

Source is jp airline-fleets 2002 – 2003

Oh, and btw, the first number is the variant, so here a series 300.

YO is just a customer code – they may specify they want a more powerful engine such as a 22k CFM over a 20k.

Examples…

-?36 – British airways ordered the aircraft.
-?3V – Easyjet ordered aircraft.
-?AS – Ryanair ordered aircraft.
-?77 – Ansett Ordered aircraft.
-?04 – Britannia Ordered Aircraft.
-?1K – Airtours/MyTravel ordered aircraft.

Just a few examples – there customer codes only apply to boeing aircraft.

the Y0 refers to a more powerful engine. I don’t now which letter says that.

Its the customer code in a word.Each letter relates to a certain customer and how the a/c is configured.