Hey all,
I have been listening to the comings and goings at my local for about 2 years now but one thing puzzles me. In the US, it seems that most of the airliner flights use their flight number as their call sign, so for example DL096 (scheduled JFK-EDI flight) would be Delta 96. However the same is not true for flights in the UK and perhaps the rest of Europe. BA Shuttle flights never use their allocated flight number using Shuttle 9E or 7Z or things to that effect, neither do EasyJet. However Ryanair and I think KLM to mention just 2, do use their flight numbers as callsigns. For ages now I have just accepted this as the done thing but is there a reason for this?
Regards
AJ
By: EGPH - 8th June 2009 at 11:40
Thanks all for your very informative replies!
By: B77W - 6th June 2009 at 12:11
Yeah, all the KLM’s operate with callsigns, the 1540 is the 64K.
How else would they communicate? :diablo:
I know what you mean… 😀
By: LBARULES - 6th June 2009 at 10:25
Yeah, all the KLM’s operate with callsigns, the 1540 is the 64K.
By: LBA-EGNM - 6th June 2009 at 01:07
At LBA we have a klm, i think KL1540, But operates under the call of KLM-67-W
By: B77W - 5th June 2009 at 16:14
Hi,
However Ryanair and I think KLM to mention just 2, do use their flight numbers as callsigns.
AJ
That’s not quite true, both use a mixture of numbers and letters. International flights usually use the flight number (without the extra numbers). For example, BA0001 becomes BAW1. EK017 becomes UAE17.
There are two reasons for choosing a callsign, one is as a simple as, it’s easier to say, flight types (i.e. P for Positioning or as BA use LHR-MAN SHT2., MAN-LHR SHT3. as it’s easy to see ‘what’s happening.) or in some cases, because they can, so why not… 😀 Would you rather say BMA408 or BMA2LJ? :diablo: These reasons are down to the airline and can be changed from one day to the next – there’s no legal requirement.
The other reason is confusion. ‘The flight identification is very often the same as the flight number, though this is not always the case. In case of call sign confusion a different flight identification can be chosen, the flight number will remain the same. Call sign confusion happens when two or more flights with similar flight numbers fly close to each other, e.g., KL645 and KL649 or BA466 and BA646.’ If “BAW1”, “BAW11”, “AAL1” and “UAE1” were all on frequency at the same time, confusion and/or mistakes are more likely.
Sam
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June 5, 2009 at 2:23 pm