Aviation jargon is sometimes a confusing and frustrating language and full three, four or more letter acronyms which can catch out even the knowledgeable! Sometime the picture is further confused by a single acronym having a number of meanings depending on the context in which it is used. Take for example the acronym IFE, it has several meanings depending on the area of aviation it relates to, it can mean 'In- Flight Emergency', 'In-Flight Entertainment' or 'International Flight Engineers'. Confused? Hopefully you won't be with the Jargon Buster you may be able to successfully navigate the multitude of meanings.
The listing is in alphabetical order for easier navigation. We hope it helps.
Of course the list is not exhaustive (though have tried to include most things). Please feel free to contact the IFALPA Communications Officer, if you would like to benefit others by adding (or taking away from) this list please contact
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Acronym |
|
Meaning |
| SAAFEA |
|
South African Airways Flight Engineers Association |
| SAAM |
|
System for Assignment and Analysis at a Macroscopic level |
| SACAA |
|
Southern African Civil Aviation Authority |
| SAE |
|
Society of Automotive Engineers |
| SAGSTRAM |
|
Standing Advisory Group on the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material |
| SALPA |
|
Sudan Air Line Pilots Association |
| SAPA |
|
Swazi Air Line Pilots Association |
| SAR |
|
Search And Rescue |
| SARPs |
|
Standards and Recommended Practices (ICAO) |
| SAS |
|
Scandinavian Airline Systems |
| SASP |
|
ICAO Separation and Airspace Safety Panel |
| SATCOM |
|
Satellite Communication |
| SATSAR |
|
Satellite-aided Search And Rescue |
| SBAS |
|
Space Based Augmentation System (ie WAAS) |
| SC |
|
Steering Committee |
| SCA |
|
Serbian Cockpit Association |
| SCAA |
|
Swedish Civil Aviation Administration (LFV) |
| SCAT-1 |
|
Special Category One |
| SCP |
|
Spacecraft Control Processors |
| SDR |
|
Service Difficulty Report |
| SDS |
|
Sub Domain Server |
| SEAC |
|
Service d'Etat de l'Aviation Civile (French Polynesia) |
| SEC |
|
IFALPA Security Committee |
| SEIFR |
|
Single-Engine Instrument Flight Rules |
| SEOTV |
|
Sindicato Espanol de Oficiales Tecnicos de Vuelo (Spain Flight Engineers) |
| SEP |
|
Safety Equipment and Procedures |
| SEPLA |
|
Sindicato Espanol de Pilotos de Lineas Aereas (Spain) |
| SES |
|
Single European Sky |
| SESAR |
|
Single European Sky ATM Research |
| SESMA |
|
Special Event Trend Analysis |
| SETP |
|
Society of Experimental Test Pilots |
| SF |
|
Special Freighter |
| SGCAS |
|
Study Group on Certification of Automatic Systems |
| SGTOAA |
|
Study Group on Take-off Accountability Areas |
| SICASP |
|
SSR Improvements and Collision Avoidance Systems Panel |
| SID |
|
Standard Instrument Departure |
| SIPAC |
|
Sindicato Panameno de Aviadores Comerciales (Panama) |
| SIPACIP |
|
Sindicato de Pilotos Aviadores Civiles del Paraguay |
| SISG |
|
Safety Indicators Study Group (ICAO) |
| SITA |
|
Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques |
| SITNA |
|
Service Technique de la Navigation Aérienne (French technical service) |
| SLOP |
|
Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure |
| SLOVALPA |
|
Slovak Air Line Pilots' Association (Slovakia) |
| SMGCS |
|
Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems |
| SMI |
|
Special Message Identifier |
| SMR |
|
Surface Movement Radar Study Group |
| SMS |
|
Safety Management System |
| SNA |
|
Sindicato Nacional dos Aeronautas (Brazil) |
| SNOMAC |
|
Syndicat National des Officiers Mecaniciens de l'Aviation Civile (France Flight Engineers) |
| SNOWTAM |
|
Special NOTAM notifying the presence or removal of snow, ice, and slush or associated melt water from the manoeuvring areas of and aerodrome |
| SNPL |
|
Syndicat National des Pilotes de Ligne (France) |
| SOIR |
|
Simultaneous Operations on Intersecting Runways |
| SOIR |
|
Simultaneous Operations on Parallel or Near-Parallel Instrument Runways |
| SPA |
|
Suriname Pilots' Association |
| SPACDAR |
|
Specialist Panel on Automatic Conflict Detection and Resolution |
| SPAS |
|
Safety Performance Analysis System |
| SPF |
|
Svensk Pilot Forening (Sweden) |
| SPLA |
|
Syndicat des Pilotes de Ligna Algeriens (Algeria) |
| SPNT |
|
Syndicat Personnel Navigant Technique de Tunisia |
| SR&O |
|
System Requirements and Objectives |
| SRC |
|
Safety Regulation Commission |
| SRG |
|
Safety Regulation Group |
| SSA |
|
System Safety Approach |
| SSR |
|
Secondary Surveillance Radar |
| SSR Mode S WG |
|
Secondary Surveillance Radar Mode Selective WG |
| STA |
|
Scheduled Time of Arrival |
| STAP |
|
(International Civil Aviation Organisation) Statistics Panel |
| STAR |
|
Standard Terminal Arrival Route |
| STCA |
|
Short Term Conflict Alert |
| STDMA |
|
Self-organising Time Division Multiple Access |
| STVAC |
|
Sindicato dos Tecnicos de Voo da Aviacao Civil (Portugal Flight Engineers) |
| SWET |
|
Swedish NEAN Project Team |
| SWIM |
|
System Wide information Management |
| Swissalpa |
|
Swiss Air Line Pilots' Association |
