Aircraft callsigns
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Aircraft callsigns
I've been casually wandering what determines a commercial aircraft callsign. Many flights use their flight number, eg: EZY 8552. However many aircraft have a callsign different to their flight number with letters thrown in. Eg: EZY 8AB (flight number EZY 5478). What determines the aircraft callsign and why is it frequently a mixture of letters and numbers?
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Callsigns are often designed to prevent confusion with each other. For example Aer Lingus 148 and Speedbird 148 arriving together might cause confusion. Therefore some callsigns are changed to, for example, alpha-numeric so that the two mentioned above might become Aer Lingus 14XM and Speedbird 14TN.
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Morris 542
being the anorak I am I like to keep a list of these alpha-numeric flights. I currently have a list 2200 flights long. The EZY flights are relatively easy because, as you mention, they ofetn have part of the flight number in them. RYR, TCX and TOM are a little more complicated and bare little relation to the flight number. WZZ however often really confuse me. They used to be relatively simple but have recently become more complicated. I think a flight has a callsign assigned according to the base of the aircraft used and the day of the week.
If anyone else knows how they work them out please let me know.
Andy S
being the anorak I am I like to keep a list of these alpha-numeric flights. I currently have a list 2200 flights long. The EZY flights are relatively easy because, as you mention, they ofetn have part of the flight number in them. RYR, TCX and TOM are a little more complicated and bare little relation to the flight number. WZZ however often really confuse me. They used to be relatively simple but have recently become more complicated. I think a flight has a callsign assigned according to the base of the aircraft used and the day of the week.
If anyone else knows how they work them out please let me know.
Andy S
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The callsign, in whichever format, refers to the route to be flown at a particular time. Flight plans for regular flights are stored on ATC computer systems so they do not refer to a particular aircraft. Airlines sometimes change the type at short notice but the callsign will remain the same. For example BA 1234 will always be the Shuttle service from A to B but for callsign purposes it will use "Shuttle 1 X-ray irrespective of the aircraft type used (not genuine numbers but merely to demonstrate).
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I currently have a list 2200 flights long
Logic threw up the issue of having BMA1, BMA51, BMA411, BMA331 and BMA81 all stacking at Bovingdon in the first wave of arrivals. Way too many similarities and ones !
