Aircraft registration prefix: how to look up PT, PR, PS and what it reveals
Two letters before the hyphen tell more of a story than they let on: the era of the registration, the type of operation, and the trail to the operator.
Five letters painted on the fuselage carry more information than they look like they do: the era of the registration, a clue to the type of operation, and the thread that leads to the company that owns the aircraft. Once you learn to read a registration prefix, you never look at an airport ramp the same way again.
The prefix on a Brazilian aircraft (such as PT-ABC, PR-XYZ or PS-JET) is its registration in the RAB, Brazil's civil aircraft registry (ANAC): the first two letters are Brazil's nationality mark, the three that follow identify the individual registration. Looking it up is free: type the prefix into ANAC's public lookup or into Jet Tracker's search.
The anatomy of a registration
The nationality mark. PP, PT, PR, PS and PU belong to Brazil; the series tells the era and type of the registration.
The aircraft's individual registration in the RAB, unique in the country. It can be drawn at random or chosen (and reserved) by the titleholder.
The hyphen is just formatting. What matters are the two blocks: the series (the first two letters) and the individual mark. And the series tells a story, because Brazil opened new ones as the old ones ran out:
| Series | What it indicates | Practical reading |
|---|---|---|
| PP | Historical series, from the registry's earliest decades | Older aircraft, or a traditional mark kept in the family |
| PT | The country's most numerous series | The bulk of the fleet registered through the 2000s |
| PR | Opened when PT was running out | Registrations from the last two decades |
| PS | The newest series, opened in 2020 | A new aircraft, a recent import, or a hand-picked mark |
| PU | Ultralights and light sport aircraft | Recreational aviation, outside the business aviation world |
A PS registration on a business aircraft almost always means money in motion: a new airplane, an import, or a custom mark.
Three ways to look up a prefix
The official route: the RAB lookup on ANAC's website returns the registration record: model, series, owner, operator, status. How to read each field without fooling yourself is the subject of our complete guide to the RAB lookup.
The indexed route: Jet Tracker's search also works in reverse: you start from the company name, the model or the city and arrive at the registrations. The official lookup only runs in one direction; the index runs in both.
The live route: if the aircraft is flying with its transponder visible, it shows up right now on the live fleet map, with the prefix on its label.
"Whose airplane is that?": what the prefix delivers (and what it does not)
The prefix leads to the registry, and the registry shows whose name the aircraft is under. Except in Brazilian business aviation, the answer is almost never an individual: in Jet Tracker's July 2026 census, only 3 turbine business aircraft were registered directly to an individual. Everything else sits inside a CNPJ (Brazil's corporate registration number): holding companies, operating companies, certified air taxi (RBAC 135, akin to Part 135) carriers.
In other words: the prefix answers "which company?", and the question becomes "who owns that company?". That second layer requires cross-referencing the CNPJ with Brazil's federal corporate ownership records, the cross-reference that Jet Tracker runs automatically on every operator's page. One limit is non-negotiable: individual data follows Brazil's LGPD (its data-protection law), and Jet Tracker does not name individuals on public pages.
Three prefix facts that surprise even industry insiders
The mark belongs to the registry, not to the owner. An aircraft can change hands and keep its mark; and it can change its mark without changing hands. A registration movement and a change of registered owner are different events.
The same airplane can have more than one mark associated with it. One operational mark, plus reservations linked to the same serial number. That is why any serious fleet count deduplicates by serial number, never by prefix (the standard behind every count published in analytics).
There is a queue of marks waiting for an owner. Surnames, company initials and vanity combinations get reserved before the aircraft even exists in the registry. That queue is one of the best thermometers of market demand, and it has its own dedicated article.
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Frequently asked questions
How do you find out who owns an aircraft from its prefix?
Look up the registration in ANAC's RAB: the registry shows the owner and operator. When the titleholder is a company (the case for almost the entire business fleet), identifying the economic group requires cross-referencing the CNPJ with Brazil's federal corporate ownership records, a cross-reference Jet Tracker automates. Individual data is protected under Brazil's LGPD.
What is the difference between PT, PR, PS and PP?
They are all Brazilian nationality marks. PP and PT are the historical series, used since the earliest registrations. PR began being issued once the PT series was running low, and PS is the newest series, opened in 2020. PU identifies ultralights and light sport aircraft.
Does the prefix change when the aircraft changes owner?
Not necessarily. The registration belongs to the registry, not to the owner. A registry movement can keep the same mark. What usually triggers a new mark is a new registration in the country, an import, or a request for a custom mark through a reservation.
Sources
- ANAC, Brazilian Aeronautical Registry (RAB)
- ICAO, Annex 7: Aircraft Nationality and Registration Marks