Flight number


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. For example, "BA 98" is a British Airways service from London-Heathrow to Toronto-Pearson. 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. 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. 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.
Flight numbers of less than three digits are often assigned to long-haul or otherwise premium flights. For example, flight number 1 is often used for an airline's "flagship" service.
Four-digit numbers in the range 3000 to 5999 typically represent regional affiliate flights, while numbers larger than 6000 are generally codeshare numbers for flights operated by different airlines or even railways.
Likewise, flight numbers larger than 9000 usually refer to ferry flights; these carry no passengers and are used to relocate aircraft to or from a maintenance base, or from one air travel market to another in order to start new commercial flights. Flight numbers starting with 8 are often used for charter flights, but it always depends on the commercial carrier's choice.

Codeshare

In a codeshare, airlines shares its aircraft with another airline, resulting in the flight having more than one flight number on the same sector, and either the same or different flight numbers on joined sectors.
As a hypothetical example, flight QQ1234 may fly from airport AAA to BBB to CCC. The AAA-BBB segment may be serviced by airline QQ, and the BBB-CCC segment by airline RR, on a different aircraft. The same flight may also be sold as RR3210, and by a third airline SS as SS2345. Also, the individual flight legs may have multiple flight numbers: AAA-BBB may be QQ12, RR23, and SS45.
For example, Alaska Airlines flight AS61 flies from Juneau to Yakutat to Cordova to Anchorage. A ticket for the Yakutat to Anchorage segment is specified as AS61 YAK-ANC. It is even possible for a given flight number to cover a sequence beginning and ending at the same airport.

List of flight number 1 by airlines

Most flights are non-stop from A to B, and few are from A to B then to C. Aircraft type may change due to operation need.
AirlineIATA Flight NoICAO Flight NoFromToThen to Aircraft Type
AeroméxicoAM1AMX1Mexico CityMadridBoeing 787
Air CanadaAC1ACA1Toronto PearsonTokyo HanedaBoeing 777-300ER
Air Canada ExpressQK1 AC8001JZA1 ACA8001KingstonToronto PearsonDe Havilland Canada DHC-8-300
Air New ZealandNZ1ANZ1London HeathrowLos AngelesAucklandBoeing 777-300ER
Air Tahiti NuiTN1THT1Los AngelesPapeeteBoeing 787-9
AirAsia JapanDJ1WAJ1NagoyaSapporo ChitoseAirbus A320-200
AirAsia XD71XAX1Kuala LumpurOsaka KansaiHonoluluAirbus A330-300
Alaska AirlinesAS1ASA1Washington ReaganSeattleBoeing 737-800
All Nippon AirwaysNH1ANA1Washington DullesTokyo NaritaBoeing 777-300ER
American AirlinesAA1AAL1New York JFKLos AngelesAirbus A321
American EagleCP1CPZ1San FranciscoLos AngelesEmbraer 175
Biman Bangladesh AirlinesBG1BBC001DhakaLondon HeathrowBoeing 777-300ER
British AirwaysBA1BAW1London CityShannonNew York JFKAirbus A318
China AirlinesCI1CAL1HonoluluTaipei TaoyuanAirbus A350-900
Delta Air LinesDL1DAL1New York JFKLondon HeathrowAirbus A330-200/300
DHL Aero ExpresoD51DAE1MiamiPanama CityBoeing 757-200PCF
El AlLY1ELY1Tel AvivNew York JFKBoeing 787
EmiratesEK1UAE1DubaiLondon HeathrowAirbus A380-800
Etihad AirwaysEY1ETD1Abu DhabiFrankfurtBoeing 777-300ER
FedEx ExpressFX1FDX1London StanstedMemphisBoeing 777-200LR
FinnairAY1FIN1HelsinkiLos AngelesAirbus A350-900
Hawaiian AirlinesHA1HAL1Los AngelesHonoluluAirbus A330-200
Japan AirlinesJL1JAL1San FranciscoTokyo HanedaBoeing 777-300ER
Japan Transocean AirNU1JTA1Osaka KansaiNahaBoeing 737-800
JetBlue AirwaysB61JBU1New York JFKFort LauderdaleAirbus A321
Jin AirLJ1JNA1Seoul IncheonBangkok SuvarnabhumiBoeing 737-800
Korean Air LinesKE1KAL1Seoul IncheonTokyo NaritaHonoluluAirbus A330-300
LATAM ChileLA1LAN1SantiagoPuerto BoriesAirbus A320
LOT Polish AirlinesLO1LOT1WarsawChicago O'HareBoeing 787-8
LufthansaLH1DLH1HamburgFrankfurtVarious
Malaysia AirlinesMH1MAS1London HeathrowKuala LumpurAirbus A380-800/A350-900
Peach AviationMM1APJ1Osaka KansaiSeoul IncheonAirbus A320-200
QantasQF1QFA1SydneySingaporeLondon HeathrowAirbus A380-800
Qatar AirwaysQR1QTR1DohaLondon HeathrowBoeing 777-300ER
Scandinavian AirlinesSK1SAS1LuleaStockholmBoeing 737 or Airbus A320neo
Singapore AirlinesSQ1SIA1San FranciscoHong KongSingaporeBoeing 777-300ER
Skymark AirlinesBC1SKY1Tokyo HanedaNahaBoeing 737-800
Southwest AirlinesWN1SWA1Dallas LoveHouston HobbyVarious destinations after DAL-to-HOUBoeing 737-800
SpiceJetSG1SEJ1ChennaiColomboBoeing 737-800
Spirit AirlinesNK1NKS1Fort LauderdaleChicago O'HareAirbus A321
Turkish AirlinesTK1THY1IstanbulNew York JFKBoeing 777-300ER
United AirlinesUA1UAL1San FranciscoSingaporeBoeing 787-9
UPS Airlines5X1UPS1Hong KongCologne/BonnBoeing 747-400
Virgin AustraliaVA1VOZ1SydneyLos AngelesBoeing 777-300ER
WestJetWS1WJA1CalgaryLondon GatwickBoeing 787-9

Flight number changes

Flight numbers are often taken out of use after a crash or a serious incident. For example, following the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, the airline changed the flight number for subsequent flights following the same route to 229. 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 the September 11 attacks. 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. There are at least four instances of flight numbers that have suffered two serious accidents: Flight 253 of Linea Aeropostal Venezolana, Flight 869 of United Arab Airlines, Flight 800 of TWA, and Flight 383 of American Airlines. As of October 2019 the most recent flight number change due to an accident was from Aeroflot Flight 1492 to Aeroflot Flight 1316.

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. 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, or in other cases carriers have assigned a single flight number to a multi-leg flight.

Flight designator

Note that, although 'flight number' is the term used colloquially, the official term as defined in the Standard Schedules Information Manual published annually by the International Air Transport Association Schedules Information Standards Committee, is flight designator. Officially the term 'flight number' refers to the numeric part 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 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.