What makes up a Flight number?

[Guest united777]

Hey, I am just wondering if anyone can tell me who or what makes up a flights number. This is something that I've been wondering for a while. thanks!"... AND I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!"[b/]

[Guest united777]

Hmm. Odd. Oh well. :-lol. maybe it was bumped down to fast. well here's a sort of bump.thank you very much to anyone who can answer this question for me, your assistance is greatly appreciated :-)."... AND I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!"[b/]

[Guest Maul]

Well, I'm not exactly sure, but when an airline starts up, the numbers usually just come along with it. I fly for Midwest Express Virtual and they have flight numbers like YX1, YX2, etc. These flights are to and from La Guardia. If I had to assume, I'd have to say that their first flights were to and from La Guardia. Plus, roundtrip flights correspond to eachother as well. Like Northwest flies 10 roundtrips from MSP to ORD a day. So for example, one flight might be, NW123 to Chicago and the return flight might be NW124 and so on and so forth. Hope this sheds some light on your question.Eric

[Guest united777]

I have noticed that UA950 KIAD-EBBR.... UA951 EBBR-KIAD.. Maybe it's just for simplistic forms.. so yo udon't have like UAL 531 and UA532 at the same time in the same area.. thanks bud!"... AND I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!"[b/]

[Guest]

It varies from airline to airline obviously and each company has a different reason for what they do, but usually certain blocks of numbers are set aside for different types of flights. Many airlines use numbers 1 and 2 and their premiere service (United's round the world flights used 1 and 2 i believe) I also think the Concorde flights are single digit numbers in the BA and AF listings. Shuttle flights on USAirways and Delta all fall within a grouping as do the regional affiliates and code-shares on most airlines. If you come accross a full timetable for some airlines there may be a listing of all the flight numbers in the back and where they go. (Delta and American used to do this, maybe they still do.) If you look at it you'll start to see some patterns develop. It's done this way for simplicity I'm sure, probably to help the people in the operations department.

[Guest united777]

Hey, thanks RobMcCoy! That answered my question. And yes, UA's RTL service is UA1 and UA2 KJFK-KLAX-VHHH-india-EGLL-KJFK and then back for the other service"... AND I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!"[b/]