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While browsing through Wikipedia I came across this photograph:

enter image description here

It's description says (emphasis mine):

SAS DC-9, interior of cabin, service on board. Air hostess Kirsten Andersen and Birthe Bymose both CPHCV serves lunch to Elisabeth Pinske CPHKA and Torben Wittrup CPHZC-S. 1960s

I was wondering what these codes are used for or that is their meaning.

trejder
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    CPH = Copenhagen / København? – DeltaLima Jul 24 '20 at 19:49
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    My guess would be some sort of technical employment titles. The CPH part is definitely for Copenhagen. CV could be for Cabin ... something? KA could be Kunde Ansvarlig (responsible for customers) or something. ZC-S ... no idea. S could be for Sales maybe – 60levelchange Jul 25 '20 at 09:49
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    https://www.flickr.com/photos/sas-museum/48768143153/ – 60levelchange Jul 25 '20 at 09:56
  • Seems like first three letters are indeed for denoting Copenhagen (as SAS had and have more than just one hub) and the remaining one seems to be Dutch designation for some sort of level, employment etc. The real question (now) in here is -- whether such question has any value or should be closed? It seems not possible to answer it. – trejder Jul 27 '20 at 06:06

1 Answers1

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I emailed the SAS museum in Oslo to inquire about the acronyms in this photo description. It took awhile, but I finally got the following reply:

I'm a retired SAS-captain volunteering at our museum. These codes are IATA communication codes. CPH is Copenhagen airport, CV is the name of a SAS-sub group, the cabin attendant's group there. So if I were to send a old fashioned telex to that group, I would include a NAME with address CPHCV. Similarly, my former address would be my NAME, OSLOA. These addresses were used within almost all airline companies, an external message to me would be addressed NAME, OSLOASK, where SK denotes SAS.

CPHKA is the address of the administrative SAS-department in charge of all SAS stations within Denmark. CPHZC-S is unknown to me, but -S indicates a further sub-division.

We used to have mail departments at all SAS stations, and this type of addressing was extensively used on envelopes and in phone-directories. These days, we still have mail departments, but these are greatly reduced since e-mail has taken over communication.

You'll find more info on internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IATA_airport_code and: https://www.iata.org/en/services/codes/

Best of luck with your studying.

Leif Leren, at the SAS-museum at OSL.

Bianfable
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Aaron Holmes
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