Thread

Two American Airlines Flights End Up with the Same Flight Numbers

62 points · 34 comments · samch

gausswho · 1791058733 · focus · HN ↗
I'd like to hear more from someone in the industry about the resolution to this problem. As I understand it, we're trading a small non-zero risk of mistaken identity for the streamlined communication of using four digits rather than five (which carries its own non-zero benefit to safety). This has become a problem because airline consolidation means some of them operate so many flights per day that their limited pool of numbers dictate that they reuse them for either direction.
Could we resolve this by swapping one number for a letter? 26 options instead of 10 raises the pool substantially. Letters A-J indicate inbound, K-Z outbound? Or westbound/eastbound.
1. xenadu02 · 1791059678 · focus · HN ↗
  The format is SSIM defined by IATA - the international association of transport airlines. It specifies two letter airline code followed by four digit flight.
  I'm sure various ATC systems also assume this.
  Changing it would be an industry-wide effort.
2. ycan · 1791059932 · focus · HN ↗
  Alphanumeic call signs are already used around the world [0], it's just that the US (like many other aviation fields) is behind the times.
  [0] <a href="https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviation-explainer-series/clearing-up-call-sign-confusion/" rel="nofollow">https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviation-explainer-series...
3. [deleted] · 1791060660 · focus · HN ↗
  [deleted]
4. pbhjpbhj · 1791075384 · focus · HN ↗
  Which airlines have 10,000 flights in progress at time?
  ChatGPT says AA have the most, 1500 planes - 4 digits is plenty.
  1. gausswho · 1791076656 · focus · HN ↗
    From TFA:
    "Major U.S. airlines such as American operate between 6,000 and 7,000 flights every day, making available flight numbers a limited resource.
    Additionally, not every number is available for standard passenger flights.
    Typically:
    Flight numbers 1 through 2949 are assigned to mainline operations. Flight numbers 2950 through 6099 are commonly reserved for regional services. Flight numbers 9000 through 9999 are generally used for ferry or repositioning flights.
    Airlines must also reserve thousands of additional numbers for codeshare agreements with partner carriers."
5. burnt-resistor · 1791098543 · focus · HN ↗
  Too much complexity. It would be simpler for IATA to approximate GA conventions of using partial registration numbers, perhaps 2 to 4 suffix characters depending on traffic conditions. It's overly verbose and slower to announce the brand or callsign of an airline followed by the low density decimal flight number.

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