It also appears like flight numbers are paired in a way that use sequential numbers odd and even for returning flights from a city pair. For instance for many years now Thai Airways flight between Bangkok and Stockholm have been designated TG960 to Stockholm and TG961 to Bangkok. Likewise there was a flight with American Airlines AA80 and AA81 to and from Stockholm-Chicago that sadly ended after 9/11. But I have been on those two flights numerous times and they can hardly be alone in being numbered this way.
@@Mmaulin12 sadly AA stopped all service to Stockholm after 9/11 and closed their office here. Everyone was let go. I liked flying with them and since we had business in the US this was a perfect flight for us. Thanks for the info though. Intresting that they kept the flight numbers.
I believe that Emirates has a certain system. Hundreds column 0 = Europe Hundreds column 1 = Turkish region Hundreds column 2 = Americas Hundreds column 3 = Asia exc. Indian Subcontinent Hundreds column 4 = Australasia Hundreds column 5 = Indian Subcontinent Hundreds column 6 = Indian Subcontinent Hundreds column 7 = Africa Hundreds column 8 = Middle East Hundreds column 9 = North Africa Thousands column 2 = Repositioning flight + flydubai codeshare Thousands column 5 = Qantas codeshare Thousands column 9 = Emirates Skycargo This is just how I see it working from my observation
I have noticed Emirates flights to INDIA starts with 5+citycode+number. For example flights to Bangalore are 5 followed by 6 and finally one digit. EK565 is one example
I didn't know my departure gate when I entered Dublin airport to return to Kerry in March as I had a pre printed online boarding pass. But a member of staff advised me to look for the flight number on the departures display screens and that's how I found it. Should have been obvious to me but it wasn't. On the issue of partnerships, I flew from Kenya on a Kenya Airways plane with a KLM flight number. I also booked an Aer Lingus Dublin to Heathrow flight on the British Airways website as my ultimate destination was a flight from Heathrow, not available directly from Dublin.
In the US I can tell you, with a few expectations on certain international routes, it's just a computer assigning the flight numbers based on certain defined criteria..ie mainline vs regional or codeshare.
@@ianlongden1449 I was on the PHX to SEA leg of the flight in May and asked the first officer about using the same flight number when deplaning. He was unable to give me a clear answer, saying that there were some "unique cases."
Not really unique to DL. If memory serves me it was done as a get around to slot controlled airports, a flight out as flight XX213 then returning back as the same flight number and often then continuing to a third city using the same number only burned up 1 slot.
First number could mean the region the flight is operating to or from… Lufthansa 4xx - North America 7xx - Asia Emirates 2xx - North America 5xx - South Asia Qatar Airways 5xx - South Asia 7xx - North America
Same with Cathay Pacific 80-99 freight routes 5xx Japan Routes 9xx China/Philippines 8xx United States Canada 1xx Australia New Zealand 3xx China 2xx Europe 4xx Hong Kong to South Korea 6xx India 7xx Middle East
@Bloboii Thanks for telling me about that. I can also do CX HKG-MNL Competitor PR 🇵🇭 flight system 1xxx & 8xx Domestic Philippines & Manila to Taiwan 1xx North America Example PR105/115 SFO-MNL 2xx Australia and New Zealand Example PR220/221 PER-MNL 7xx Europe Thailand 6xx Middle East 3xx China 5xx Manila to Singapore 4xx Japan & South Korea PR407/408 MNL-KIX. PR 484 CEB-ICN competes with KE615/616 PR Competitor MNL/CEB-ICN KE🇰🇷 001-099 North America 4xx Australia/New Zealand 3xx 5xx 2xx Freighter 6xx South Korea to South Asia 7xx South Korea to Japan 9xx South Korea to Europe. *Note CX 8xx from EWR/JFK via HKG to MNL and KE 082/086 with KE 623/621 JFK via ICN to MNL are better than PR126/127 JFK-MNL due to KE and CX 5 star while PR 4 Star Skytrax rated* SQ 001-099 Singapore to North America 2xx Singapore to Australia/New Zealand 9xx Singapore to Philippines 3xx Singapore to Europe
British Airways: 4 digit numbers (13-- or 14--) for domestic flights. The BA1/2 was famously for the Concorde to JFK, later the A318 business class only flights between JFK/LCY. The rest I don't know the order.
Garuda Indonesia assign the flight numbers as follows: 1. GA1 and GA2 for VIP flight (President and Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia) 2. GA72/73 and GA74/75 to Bandar Lampung 3. GA86/87 to London, England (this flight is no longer exist due to a controversy that lingering around the then-CEO of Garuda Indonesia, Mr. Ari Askhara, that led to his dismissal) 4. GA88/89 to Amsterdam, Netherlands 5. GA100-699 for the domestic flight inside Indonesia. It then divided again according to the area served by the airline, like GA146/147 flight to Banda Aceh and GA644/645 to Gorontalo 6. GA700-799 for flights to Australia 8. GA800-899 for flights to ASEAN and East Asian destinations 9. GA900-999 for flights to the Middle East 10. GA11xx/12xx (Makassar), GA21xx/22xx (Banda Aceh), GA31xx/32xx (Medan), GA33xx/34xx (Padang), GA41xx/42xx (Balikpapan), GA51xx/52xx (Lombok), GA61xx/62xx (Surakarta), GA73xx/74xx (Jakarta) and GA81xx/82xx (Banjarmasin) is special flight number for Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and it divided according to the airport embarkation as marked on parenthesess along with how many flight group per embarkations, like Banda Aceh that had 12 flight group, Jakarta had 49 (only by Garuda, excluding Saudia) and Surakarta which had 99 (yes, you read it right).
For Philippine Airlines, PR 1 is reserved when transporting the Philippine president. Aircraft being flown in or out of Manila (whether from the aircraft factory or for storage), from what I know, is in the PR 5xxx range (sometimes 5001-5004). Cebu Pacific, on the other hand, uses 5J + (numeric part of the RP-Cxxxx reg) to identify an aircraft move (e.g. flight to an airport relative to return to the lessor).
Besides the Philippine president the following are used North America🇺🇲🇨🇦 1xx examples PR106/107 MNL-LAS PR104/114 SFO-MNL competes with UA191 EWR-MNL via SFO Eastern Time Zone PR118/119 YYZ-MNL PR126/127 JFK-MNL Australia 🇦🇺 2xx like PR223/224 PER-MNL PR211/212 SYD-MNL competes with QF19/20 QF1-99 International Australia QF1xx domestic China Hong Kong 3xx example PR300/301 HKG-MNL competitor CX uses 9xx China and Philippines Japan South Korea 4xx like PR488/489 CEB-ICN competes with KE615/616 KE 6xx South East Asia to ICN🇰🇷 No competition PR407/408 MNL-KIX 5xx Singapore Malaysia and Indonesia example PR507/508 SIN-MNL competes with SQ918/910 SQ uses 9xx SIN to regional South East Asia Region 6xx Middle East Example PR685 DOH-MNL competes with QR 9xx Doha to the Philippines 7xx Manila🇵🇭 to Thailand 🇹🇭 PR730/731 competes with TG 623/624 TG 6xx BKK to Regional Southeast Asia 8xx Manila to Taiwan PR890/891 MNL🇵🇭-TPE 🇹🇼competes with CI701 CI7xx TPE to Southeast Asia BR271/272 BR 2xx TPE to South East Asia 1xxx Domestic Philippines *For the Philippine Airlines International routes I mentioned have some form of competition that is better than them in terms of service* Examples are MNL-NRT/HND take JL & NH🇯🇵 CEB/MNL-ICN take KE & OZ🇰🇷 MNL-BKK TG🇹🇭 MNL-TPE BR & CI🇹🇼 MNL-HKG CX🇭🇰 MNL-SYD QF🇦🇺 MNL-KUL MH🇲🇾 MNL-EWR via SFO UA MNL-DOH QR and lastly MNL-SIN SQ
You possibly missed out on the most relevant flight numbering criterion namely that northbound flights are even whereas southbound flight numbers are odd numbers.
HX: 0xx - long haul (discontinued) 1xx - to southern China (but HX128/129 is to HGH) 2xx - to eastern China and Taiwan 3xx - to northern China 4xx - to western China 6xx - to Japan and Korea 7xx - to South-East Asia UO: 0xx - US territories (no flights atm) 1xx - Taiwan 2xx - China 5xx - Vietnam 6xx and 8xx - Japan and Korea 7xx - rest of South-East Asia
I swear these people deliberately screw with everyone. 1281, 1231, 1261 all coming out at the same time. It just causes extra confusion with ATC. I remember one time an airline was asked to change 772 and 782 since they both went from the hub to IAH and DFW and obviously were with each other for a while. Those jokers changed it to 872 and 882.
For Cathay Pacific 1xx Australia New Zealand 2xx Europe🇩🇪🇳🇱 9xx China/Philippines 3xx China 4xx South Korea 8xx North America 🇨🇦🇺🇲 5xx Japan🇯🇵 Middle East India South Asia 6xx & 7xx Philippine Airlines 4xx Japan 3xx Hong Kong China 8xx domestic International Taiwan 2xx Australia New Zealand 7xx Europe Middle East Southeast Asia Thailand 1xx North America example was PR106/107 Manila to Las Vegas Nevada 1xxx Domestic 5xx Manila to Singapore
How do US* Airlines order their flight numbers. There, I fixed it for you. Also, these are very vague assumptions. Many airlines don't follow these "rules".
Also airlines tend to retire flight numbers that are asosiated with craches that involved fatalities.
MH370 is now MH318 but used to be MH360
It also appears like flight numbers are paired in a way that use sequential numbers odd and even for returning flights from a city pair. For instance for many years now Thai Airways flight between Bangkok and Stockholm have been designated TG960 to Stockholm and TG961 to Bangkok. Likewise there was a flight with American Airlines AA80 and AA81 to and from Stockholm-Chicago that sadly ended after 9/11. But I have been on those two flights numerous times and they can hardly be alone in being numbered this way.
Some are also something like “VS3” and “VS4”
UA 163 and UA 164 is service to Madrid from Dulles and back to the US from the Spanish capital on United, or at least it was in 2023.
AA80/81 are now DFW-LHR and LHR-DFW
@@Mmaulin12 sadly AA stopped all service to Stockholm after 9/11 and closed their office here. Everyone was let go. I liked flying with them and since we had business in the US this was a perfect flight for us. Thanks for the info though. Intresting that they kept the flight numbers.
I believe that Emirates has a certain system.
Hundreds column 0 = Europe
Hundreds column 1 = Turkish region
Hundreds column 2 = Americas
Hundreds column 3 = Asia exc. Indian Subcontinent
Hundreds column 4 = Australasia
Hundreds column 5 = Indian Subcontinent
Hundreds column 6 = Indian Subcontinent
Hundreds column 7 = Africa
Hundreds column 8 = Middle East
Hundreds column 9 = North Africa
Thousands column 2 = Repositioning flight + flydubai codeshare
Thousands column 5 = Qantas codeshare
Thousands column 9 = Emirates Skycargo
This is just how I see it working from my observation
0-200 is europe, not just turkey for 100, many flights such as EK151, EK145, EK147, EK157 operate to Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Stockholm
@@Denden16995EK use single digits and Double digits to the UK EK3 The London service EK39 DXB - BHX A380 EK37 DXB - BHX 77W
I have noticed Emirates flights to INDIA starts with 5+citycode+number. For example flights to Bangalore are 5 followed by 6 and finally one digit. EK565 is one example
Same with Qatar Airways… QR 540/541 Doha-Kolkata-Doha
This was VERY helpful and informative. Thank You .
Very interesting. I had occasionally wondered about this while scanning departure boards. so it is nice to know. Thanks.
Can you do more videos on flight 'identifiers'. For example, transponders and, more confusingly, SELCAL codes.
I didn't know my departure gate when I entered Dublin airport to return to Kerry in March as I had a pre printed online boarding pass. But a member of staff advised me to look for the flight number on the departures display screens and that's how I found it. Should have been obvious to me but it wasn't. On the issue of partnerships, I flew from Kenya on a Kenya Airways plane with a KLM flight number. I also booked an Aer Lingus Dublin to Heathrow flight on the British Airways website as my ultimate destination was a flight from Heathrow, not available directly from Dublin.
I've seen airlines do eastbound flights with even numbers and westbound flights as odd numbers.
Sometimes airlines can be cheeky with their flight numbers. Case in point, Alaska 500, Seattle to Indianapolis. INDY 500
United has a daily flight between SFO and IND that uses 500 also
Question: Just flew on IB6170, operated by Iberia. Why does it start with 6?
Usually the smaller number in commercial flight numbers are international destinations
In the US I can tell you, with a few expectations on certain international routes, it's just a computer assigning the flight numbers based on certain defined criteria..ie mainline vs regional or codeshare.
Some have hidden meanings, like today 7/16 AA has flight 1776 RT BOS-PHL. Also AA has 1492, RT DFW-CMH (Columbus, OH)
AA 1776 is not just on 7/16, it's a daily flight.
@@kendalldad I know, but it’s the city pair, 2 of the most important cities in the American Revolution Boston and Philadelphia.
@@raidger4 Indeed the cities are the relevant part.
Delta 1661 may be unique. It flies from SEA to PHX using that flight number then "recycles" it flying back from PHX to SEA.
Yes, that is weird. I just looked it up on Flight Radar. I wonder why?
@@ianlongden1449 I was on the PHX to SEA leg of the flight in May and asked the first officer about using the same flight number when deplaning. He was unable to give me a clear answer, saying that there were some "unique cases."
Delta does the same with DL 2510 both ways from SLC-CLT.
@@RogueSamus27 Interesting. Could be a Delta thing that no other airline engages in.
Not really unique to DL. If memory serves me it was done as a get around to slot controlled airports, a flight out as flight XX213 then returning back as the same flight number and often then continuing to a third city using the same number only burned up 1 slot.
When did it start to that US main carriers flew their own flights with 4 digit codes at all?
First number could mean the region the flight is operating to or from…
Lufthansa
4xx - North America
7xx - Asia
Emirates
2xx - North America
5xx - South Asia
Qatar Airways
5xx - South Asia
7xx - North America
Same with Cathay Pacific
80-99 freight routes
5xx Japan Routes
9xx China/Philippines
8xx United States Canada
1xx Australia New Zealand
3xx China
2xx Europe
4xx Hong Kong to South Korea
6xx India
7xx Middle East
Interesting 👍
@@EpicThe112I APPROVE THIS!!!
@@EpicThe112but what about the 7xx from Singapore and Indonesia
@Bloboii Thanks for telling me about that.
I can also do CX HKG-MNL Competitor PR 🇵🇭 flight system
1xxx & 8xx Domestic Philippines & Manila to Taiwan
1xx North America Example PR105/115 SFO-MNL
2xx Australia and New Zealand Example PR220/221 PER-MNL
7xx Europe Thailand
6xx Middle East
3xx China
5xx Manila to Singapore
4xx Japan & South Korea
PR407/408 MNL-KIX. PR 484 CEB-ICN competes with KE615/616
PR Competitor MNL/CEB-ICN KE🇰🇷
001-099 North America
4xx Australia/New Zealand
3xx 5xx 2xx Freighter
6xx South Korea to South Asia
7xx South Korea to Japan
9xx South Korea to Europe.
*Note CX 8xx from EWR/JFK via HKG to MNL and KE 082/086 with KE 623/621 JFK via ICN to MNL are better than PR126/127 JFK-MNL due to KE and CX 5 star while PR 4 Star Skytrax rated*
SQ
001-099 Singapore to North America
2xx Singapore to Australia/New Zealand
9xx Singapore to Philippines
3xx Singapore to Europe
The fun one: AirTran's call sign was "Critter".
There was also Citrus and Cactus
Inherited from ValuJet.
British Airways: 4 digit numbers (13-- or 14--) for domestic flights. The BA1/2 was famously for the Concorde to JFK, later the A318 business class only flights between JFK/LCY. The rest I don't know the order.
When it was still AMERICA WEST, the first flight of day from Phoenix to Las Vegas was flight 711. At least someone had a sense of humor.
Interesting
1:50 Their plane and crew are from a different airline.
Garuda Indonesia assign the flight numbers as follows:
1. GA1 and GA2 for VIP flight (President and Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia)
2. GA72/73 and GA74/75 to Bandar Lampung
3. GA86/87 to London, England (this flight is no longer exist due to a controversy that lingering around the then-CEO of Garuda Indonesia, Mr. Ari Askhara, that led to his dismissal)
4. GA88/89 to Amsterdam, Netherlands
5. GA100-699 for the domestic flight inside Indonesia. It then divided again according to the area served by the airline, like GA146/147 flight to Banda Aceh and GA644/645 to Gorontalo
6. GA700-799 for flights to Australia
8. GA800-899 for flights to ASEAN and East Asian destinations
9. GA900-999 for flights to the Middle East
10. GA11xx/12xx (Makassar), GA21xx/22xx (Banda Aceh), GA31xx/32xx (Medan), GA33xx/34xx (Padang), GA41xx/42xx (Balikpapan), GA51xx/52xx (Lombok), GA61xx/62xx (Surakarta), GA73xx/74xx (Jakarta) and GA81xx/82xx (Banjarmasin) is special flight number for Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and it divided according to the airport embarkation as marked on parenthesess along with how many flight group per embarkations, like Banda Aceh that had 12 flight group, Jakarta had 49 (only by Garuda, excluding Saudia) and Surakarta which had 99 (yes, you read it right).
This is not a world wide concept. You just explained regarding American flight numbers.
yeah, and a generally very pointless video
Which is weird, considering they are British.
For Philippine Airlines, PR 1 is reserved when transporting the Philippine president. Aircraft being flown in or out of Manila (whether from the aircraft factory or for storage), from what I know, is in the PR 5xxx range (sometimes 5001-5004).
Cebu Pacific, on the other hand, uses 5J + (numeric part of the RP-Cxxxx reg) to identify an aircraft move (e.g. flight to an airport relative to return to the lessor).
Besides the Philippine president the following are used
North America🇺🇲🇨🇦 1xx examples PR106/107 MNL-LAS PR104/114 SFO-MNL competes with UA191 EWR-MNL via SFO Eastern Time Zone PR118/119 YYZ-MNL PR126/127 JFK-MNL
Australia 🇦🇺 2xx like PR223/224 PER-MNL PR211/212 SYD-MNL competes with QF19/20 QF1-99 International Australia QF1xx domestic
China Hong Kong 3xx example PR300/301 HKG-MNL competitor CX uses 9xx China and Philippines
Japan South Korea 4xx like PR488/489 CEB-ICN competes with KE615/616 KE 6xx South East Asia to ICN🇰🇷 No competition PR407/408 MNL-KIX
5xx Singapore Malaysia and Indonesia example PR507/508 SIN-MNL competes with SQ918/910 SQ uses 9xx SIN to regional South East Asia Region
6xx Middle East Example PR685 DOH-MNL competes with QR 9xx Doha to the Philippines
7xx Manila🇵🇭 to Thailand 🇹🇭 PR730/731 competes with TG 623/624 TG 6xx BKK to Regional Southeast Asia
8xx Manila to Taiwan PR890/891 MNL🇵🇭-TPE 🇹🇼competes with CI701 CI7xx TPE to Southeast Asia BR271/272 BR 2xx TPE to South East Asia
1xxx Domestic Philippines
*For the Philippine Airlines International routes I mentioned have some form of competition that is better than them in terms of service* Examples are MNL-NRT/HND take JL & NH🇯🇵 CEB/MNL-ICN take KE & OZ🇰🇷 MNL-BKK TG🇹🇭 MNL-TPE BR & CI🇹🇼 MNL-HKG CX🇭🇰 MNL-SYD QF🇦🇺 MNL-KUL MH🇲🇾 MNL-EWR via SFO UA MNL-DOH QR and lastly MNL-SIN SQ
You possibly missed out on the most relevant flight numbering criterion namely that northbound flights are even whereas southbound flight numbers are odd numbers.
Air Nostrum operates flights for Iberia with numbers 8xxx
1:08 is the examples
HX:
0xx - long haul (discontinued)
1xx - to southern China (but HX128/129 is to HGH)
2xx - to eastern China and Taiwan
3xx - to northern China
4xx - to western China
6xx - to Japan and Korea
7xx - to South-East Asia
UO:
0xx - US territories (no flights atm)
1xx - Taiwan
2xx - China
5xx - Vietnam
6xx and 8xx - Japan and Korea
7xx - rest of South-East Asia
It still doesn’t explain why all airlines don’t use 808 as one of their Hawaii flight numbers… (I know WN and AS do)
I swear these people deliberately screw with everyone. 1281, 1231, 1261 all coming out at the same time. It just causes extra confusion with ATC. I remember one time an airline was asked to change 772 and 782 since they both went from the hub to IAH and DFW and obviously were with each other for a while. Those jokers changed it to 872 and 882.
If only you linked the videos you recommend, to hard to do
Emirates is EK
Hello
THEY REMEMBER KMS AND FUEL
For Cathay Pacific
1xx Australia New Zealand
2xx Europe🇩🇪🇳🇱
9xx China/Philippines
3xx China
4xx South Korea
8xx North America 🇨🇦🇺🇲
5xx Japan🇯🇵
Middle East India South Asia
6xx & 7xx
Philippine Airlines
4xx Japan
3xx Hong Kong China
8xx domestic International Taiwan
2xx Australia New Zealand
7xx Europe Middle East Southeast Asia Thailand
1xx North America example was PR106/107 Manila to Las Vegas Nevada
1xxx Domestic
5xx Manila to Singapore
First
🥇 😊
How do US* Airlines order their flight numbers. There, I fixed it for you.
Also, these are very vague assumptions. Many airlines don't follow these "rules".
well the codshare rule is pretty universsl in that I've never seen a codshare number that didn't include four digits.
They don't its sll random generated numbers done by AI
AMERICA TO AUSTRIA INTEL THEY HAVE MAPS CHINA TO PAKISTAN HEIGHTS THEY HAVE MAP SRILANKA BANGLA INDIA THEY HAVE MAP