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.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.