Registration marks

Registered aircraft in Australia are assigned unique registration marks.

The format includes:

• the nationality mark for an Australian aircraft 'VH' (established under the Chicago Convention)
• a hyphen
• three characters.

There are special cases where dealer marks are assigned to individuals and organisations.

Reserve a registration mark

You need to reserve a registration mark before you can apply to use it on an aircraft. If we receive a registration application and a mark hasn't been reserved, an available mark will be assigned to the aircraft.

Check the list of available marks. This list is updated every working day.

You can reserve a registration mark:

• for an aircraft which will be registered in the Australian Civil Aircraft Register within 12 months
• to change the registration mark on a currently registered aircraft.

Reservations will lapse 12 months after the day the mark was reserved if the mark has not be assigned to a registered aircraft. Extensions to reservations aren't permitted.

Change a registration mark

Submit an  Change of aircraft registration mark form 23 (pdf 158.5 KB) if you want to:

• use a different registration mark on your aircraft
• transfer your registration mark to another aircraft.

Read more about changing a registration mark.