Flight number

Flight numbers on a split-flap display (Frankfurt airport)

In the aviation industry, a flight number or flight designator is a code for an airline service consisting of two-character airline designator and a 1 to 4 digit number.[1] For example, "BA 98" is a British Airways service from Toronto-Pearson to London-Heathrow. A service is called "direct" if it is covered by a single flight number, regardless of the number of stops or equipment changes. For example, "WN 417" flies from Jacksonville to Baltimore to Oakland to Los Angeles. A given flight segment may have multiple flight numbers on different airlines under a code-sharing agreement. Strictly speaking, the flight number is just the numerical part, but it is commonly used for the entire flight designator.

The flight designator of the operating carrier of a commercial flight is used as a call sign.[2] This is distinct from the aircraft's registration number, which identifies a specific airplane.

Conventions

A number of conventions have been developed for defining flight numbers, although these vary widely from airline to airline, and are increasingly being modified.[3] Eastbound and northbound flights are traditionally assigned even numbers, while westbound and southbound flights have odd numbers. Other airlines will use an odd number for an outbound flight and use the next even number for the reverse inbound flight. For destinations served by multiple flights per day, numbers tend to increase during the day. Hence, a flight from point A to point B might be flight 101 and the return flight from B to A would be 102, while the next pair of flights on the same route would usually be assigned codes 103 and 104.

3자리 미만의 비행 번호는 장거리 또는 다른 프리미엄 항공편에 할당되는 경우가 많다. 예를 들어, 1번 항공편은 종종 항공사의 "플래그쉽" 서비스에 사용된다(아래 '항공사별 1번 항공편 목록' 참조). 그러나 중국 본토에 있는 항공사의 경우 한 자릿수와 두 자릿수의 숫자가 관리 헌장용으로만 지정돼 있다. 게다가, 캐세이 퍼시픽은 화물 항공편의 경우 100개 미만의 항공편 번호를 할당한다.

3000-5999 범위의 네 자리 숫자는 일반적으로 지역 제휴 항공편을 나타내며, 6000보다 큰 숫자는 일반적으로 다른 항공사 또는 심지어 철도에 의해 운영되는 항공편의 코드쉐어 번호다.

마찬가지로, 9000편 이상의 항공편 번호는 보통 여객선 비행을 가리킨다. 여객선은 승객을 수송하지 않으며 새로운 상업 비행을 시작하기 위해 항공기를 정비 기지 또는 한 항공 여행 시장에서 다른 곳으로 이전하는 데 사용된다. 8번으로 시작하는 항공편 번호는 전세 항공편에 자주 사용되지만, 항상 상용 항공사의 선택에 따라 달라진다.

코드쉐어

주요 기사: 코드쉐어 협정

코드쉐어에서는 항공사가 다른 항공기와 항공기를 공유하여 항공편은 동일한 구역에서 두 개 이상의 비행 번호를 가지며, 결합 구역에서 동일하거나 다른 비행 번호를 갖는다.

가상의 예로서 QQ1234 항공편은 공항 AAA에서 BBB로, CCC로 비행할 수 있다. AAA-BBB 부문은 항공사 QQ가, BBB-CCC 부문은 항공사 RR가 다른 항공기에서 서비스할 수 있다. 또한 동일한 항공편을 RR3210으로 판매하고, 제3 항공사 SS에 의해 SS2345로 판매할 수 있다. 또한 개별 비행 다리의 비행 번호는 여러 개일 수 있다. AAA-BBB는 QQ12, RR23 및 SS45일 수 있다.

예를 들어 2018년 6월 현재 알래스카 항공 AS61편은 주노(JNU)에서 야쿠타트(YAK)로, 코르도바(CDV)에서 앵커리지(ANC)로 운항하고 있다. 앵커리지로 가는 야쿠타트 구간의 티켓은 AS61 YAK-ANC로 지정된다. 주어진 비행편 번호가 같은 공항에서 시작하고 끝나는 순서를 커버하는 것도 가능하다.

항공사별 1번 항공편 목록

대부분의 항공편은 A에서 B까지 논스톱이며, A에서 B로 가는 항공편은 거의 없으며, C로 가는 항공편은 거의 없다(A-B와 B-C 모두 1편이다). 운영상의 필요에 따라 항공기 유형이 변경될 수 있다.

항공사 IATA 항공편 번호 ICAO 항공편 번호 보낸 사람 에게 다음으로 (해당되는 경우) 항공기 유형
아에로멕시코 AM1 AMX1[4] 멕시코 시티 마드리드 보잉 787
에어캐나다 AC1 ACA1[5] 토론토 피어슨 하네다 도쿄 보잉 777-300음.정말
에어캐나다 익스프레스 QK1[6] AC8001 JZA1 ACA8001 킹스턴 토론토 피어슨 데 하빌란드 캐나다 DHC-8-300
에어 뉴질랜드 NZ1 ANZ1[7] 런던 히드로 로스앤젤레스 오클랜드 보잉 777-300음.정말
에어 타히티 누이 TN1 THT1[8] 로스앤젤레스 파페테 보잉 787-9
에어아시아엑스 D71 XAX1[9] 쿠알라룸푸르 오사카 간사이 호놀룰루 에어버스 A330-300
알래스카 항공 AS1 ASA1[10] 워싱턴 레이건 시애틀 보잉 737-800/에어버스 A321neo
전일본공수 NH1 ANA1[11] 워싱 덜레스 도쿄 나리타 보잉 777-300음.정말
아메리칸항공 AA1 AAL1[12] 뉴욕 JFK 로스앤젤레스 에어버스 A321
아메리칸 이글 CP1 CPZ1 샌프란시스코 로스앤젤레스 엠브라에르 175
비만 방글라데시 항공 BG1 BBC001[13] 다카 런던 히드로 보잉 777-300음.정말
중화항공 CI1 CAL1[14] 호놀룰루 타이베이 타오위안 에어버스 A350-900
델타항공 DL1 DAL1[15] 뉴욕 JFK 런던 히드로 Airbus A330-200/300/767-400ER 보잉
DHL 에어로 엑스포 D51 DAE1 마이애미 파나마시티 보잉 757-200PCF
엘알 LY1 엘리1[16] 텔아비브 뉴욕 JFK 보잉 787
에미레이트항공 EK1 UAE1[17] 두바이 런던 히드로 에어버스 A380-800
에티하드 항공 EY1 ETD1[18] 아부다비 프랑크푸르트 보잉 777-300음.정말
페덱스 익스프레스 FX1 FDX1 런던 스탠스테드 멤피스 보잉 777F
핀에어 AY1 FIN1 헬싱키 로스앤젤레스 에어버스 A350-900
하와이안항공 HA1 HAL1[19] 로스앤젤레스 호놀룰루 에어버스 A330-200
일본항공 JL1 JAL1[20] 샌프란시스코 하네다 도쿄 보잉 777-300음.정말
일본 트란소션 항공 뉴원 JTA1 오사카 간사이 나하 보잉 737-800
제트블루 항공 B61 JBU1[21] 뉴욕 JFK 포트 로더데일 에어버스 A321-200/에어버스 A320-200
진에어 LJ1 JNA1[22] 서울인천 방콕수아나부미 보잉 737-800
대한항공 KE1 KAL1[23] 서울인천 도쿄 나리타 호놀룰루 에어버스 A330-300
란항공 LA1 LAN1[24] 산티아고 푸에르토 보리스 Airbus A320
LOT Polish Airlines LO1 LOT1[25] Warsaw Chicago O'Hare Boeing 787-8
Lufthansa LH1 DLH1[26] Hamburg Frankfurt Various (319/320/321)
Malaysia Airlines MH1 MAS1[27] London Heathrow Kuala Lumpur Airbus A380-800/A350-900
Peach Aviation MM1 APJ1[28] Osaka Kansai Seoul Incheon Airbus A320-200
Qantas QF1 QFA1[29] Sydney Singapore London Heathrow Airbus A380-800
Qatar Airways QR1 QTR1[30] Doha London Heathrow Boeing 777-300ER
Scandinavian Airlines SK1 SAS1[31] Lulea Stockholm Airbus A320neo[32]
Singapore Airlines SQ1 SIA1[33] San Francisco Hong Kong Singapore Boeing 777-300ER
Skymark Airlines BC1 SKY1 Tokyo Haneda Naha Boeing 737-800
Southwest Airlines WN1 SWA1[34] Dallas Love Houston Hobby Various destinations after DAL-to-HOU Boeing 737-800
SpiceJet SG1 SEJ1[35] Chennai Colombo Boeing 737-800
Spirit Airlines NK1 NKS1[36] Fort Lauderdale Chicago O'Hare Airbus A321
Turkish Airlines TK1 THY1[37] Istanbul New York JFK Boeing 777-300ER
United Airlines UA1 UAL1[38] San Francisco Singapore Boeing 787-9
UPS Airlines 5X1 UPS1 Hong Kong Cologne/Bonn Boeing 747-400F or Boeing 747-8F
Virgin Australia VA1 VOZ1[39] Sydney Los Angeles Boeing 777-300ER
WestJet WS1 WJA1[40] Calgary London Gatwick Boeing 787-9

A notable former flight number 1 was British Airways flight BA1, operated by the Concorde between London Heathrow and New York's John F. Kennedy airport. After the retirement of Concorde in 2003 the flight number was retired with it, however in 2009 it was given to the all business class A318 flight between London City Airport and New York JFK via Shannon in Ireland. This route ceased operation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and British Airways has since announced it will not be restarting the service.

Flight number changes

Flight numbers are often taken out of use after a crash or a serious incident. For example, following the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the airline changed the flight number for subsequent flights following the same route to MAH 318. Also, American Airlines Flight 77, which regularly flew from Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, to Los Angeles International Airport, was changed to Flight 149 after it crashed into the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks. After the crash of Air France Flight 447, a regular scheduled flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was changed to Air France Flight 443. On the other hand, other considerations may lead an airline not to change a flight number; for instance, the aforementioned "flagship" American Airlines Flight 1 retains its designation despite a major accident in 1962 and two other accidents in 1941 and 1936. There are at least four instances of the same flight numbers that have suffered two serious accidents: Flight 253 of Linea Aeropostal Venezolana (both in 1956, the first in June, and the second in November), Flight 869 of United Arab Airlines (the first in 1962 and the second in 1963), Flight 800 of TWA (the first in 1964 and the second in 1996), and Flight 383 of American Airlines (the first in 1965 and the second in 2016). As of October 2019 the most recent flight number change due to an accident was from Aeroflot Flight 1492 to Aeroflot Flight 1316.[41]

Flight number conservation

Airline mega mergers, in markets such as the United States, have made it necessary to break conventional flight numbering schemes. Organizations such as IATA, ICAO, ARC, as well as CRS systems and the FAA's ATC systems limit flight numbers to four digits (0001 to 9999). The pool of available flight numbers has been outstripped by demand for them by emergent mega-carriers. As such, some carriers use the same flight number for back-and-forth flights (e.g., DCA-PBI-DCA), or in other cases carriers have assigned a single flight number to a multi-leg flight (e.g., ICT-DAL-HOU-MDW-OMA-DEN-ABQ-LAS-BDL).[42]

Flight designator

Although 'flight number' is the term used colloquially, the official term as defined in the Standard Schedules Information Manual (SSIM) published annually by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Schedules Information Standards Committee (SISC), is flight designator. Officially the term 'flight number' refers to the numeric part (up to four digits) of a flight code. For example, in the flight codes BA2490 and BA2491A, "2490" and "2491" are flight numbers. Even within the airline and airport industry, it is common to use the colloquial term rather than the official term.

Spacecraft

Flight numbers are also sometimes used for spacecraft, though a flight number for an expendable rocket (say, Ariane 5 Flight 501) might more reasonably be called the serial number of the vehicle used, since an expendable rocket can only be launched once. Space Shuttle missions used numbers with the STS prefix, for example, STS-93. SpaceX uses sequential numbers for flights of reused boosters. As an example, Crew-2 used booster B1061.2 (the second flight of booster B1061).

See also

References

  1. ^ IATA Passenger Glossary of Terms (15 June 2018) [www.iata.org/whatwedo/passenger/.../IATA-Passenger-Glossary-of-Terms.xlsx]
  2. ^ ICAO, "Glossary" [1]
  3. ^ Peter Newell, "Flight Numbering Alternatives", Ascend: A Magazine for Airline Executives, issue 2, 2014 [2]
  4. ^ "AeroMéxico (AM) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  5. ^ "Air Canada (AC) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  6. ^ "Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map".
  7. ^ "Air New Zealand (NZ) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  8. ^ "Air Tahiti Nui (TN) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  9. ^ "AirAsia X (D7) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  10. ^ "Alaska Airlines (AS) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  11. ^ "All Nippon (NH) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
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  13. ^ "Bangladesh Biman (BG) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  14. ^ "China Airlines (CI) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  15. ^ "Delta (DL) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2019-02-07.
  16. ^ "El Al (LY) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  17. ^ "Emirates (EK) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  18. ^ "Etihad Airways (EY) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  19. ^ "Hawaiian Airlines (HA) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
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  21. ^ "JetBlue (B6) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  22. ^ "Jin Air (LJ) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  23. ^ "Korean Air Lines Co. (KE) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  24. ^ "LAN Airlines (LA) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  25. ^ "Lot - Polskie Linie Lotnicze (LO) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  26. ^ "Lufthansa (LH) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  27. ^ "Malaysia Airlines (MH) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  28. ^ "Peach Aviation (MM) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  29. ^ "Qantas (QF) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  30. ^ "Qatar Airways (QR) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  31. ^ "SAS (SK) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  32. ^ "Flight history for SAS flight SK1". Flightradar24. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  33. ^ "Singapore Airlines (SQ) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  34. ^ "Southwest (WN) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  35. ^ "SpiceJet (SG) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  36. ^ "Spirit Airlines 1". FlightAware. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  37. ^ "Turkish Airlines (TK) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  38. ^ "United (UA) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  39. ^ "Virgin Australia (VA) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  40. ^ "WestJet (WS) #1 ✈ FlightAware". FlightAware. Retrieved 2019-08-03.
  41. ^ ""Аэрофлот" сменил номер московского рейса после катастрофы в Шереметьево". Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  42. ^ "The Science behind Flight Numbers". southwestaircommunity.com. June 9, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2019.