jpetekyxmd80 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 4245 posts, RR: 29 Reply 1, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 18 hours ago) and read 1477 times:
european742 From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2010, 86 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 1401 times:
Something which is even stranger is some flights from BCN to MAD will carry the same flight number as MAD-HAV for example. This means if you book to fly BCN-HAV it is sold as a single flight number but a change of aircraft is required in MAD. The flight BCN-HAV shows as an A320. IB flights which are 4 numbers beginning with 6 are long haul routes so you may find like an example you given 07:35 IB736 and IB6752, the second flight number also belongs to a long haul route from MAD. Never understood why they done it this way, I find that a bit misleading.
spiritair97 From United States of America, joined Jan 2011, 1231 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 1384 times:
Quoting european742 (Reply 2): Something which is even stranger is some flights from BCN to MAD will carry the same flight number as MAD-HAV for example. This means if you book to fly BCN-HAV it is sold as a single flight number but a change of aircraft is required in MAD.
That's ot strange. Lots of airlines do that. Take DL for example,
DAL82 LAX-JFK on a 752 and JFK-NCE on a 764
DAL30 SFO-JFK on a 752 and JFK-SVO on a 764.
It's very common to see this done. It conserves flight numbers.
redhair From Spain, joined Apr 2011, 38 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1166 times:
Hi there,
Easy the IB0646 is the Puente Aéreo number (Shuttle service between BCN and MAD and v.v) the rest of the flight numbers correspond to long haul flights (however not sure about the IB2XXX series).
For sure these flights are not operated by IB Express; as IB said, they would keep their own brand on most representative routes and that's one of them, but for sure one day it will be over taken.
The reason why they use different flight numbers for same flight (I've seen sometimes three or four flight numbers for the same flight) is just about marketing. People flying the Puente Aéreo (business mainly) dont care about anything else than, lets say, their own business, so to keep it simple, the flight number is normally the departing hour or the departing hour plus 1. For the long haul numbers, people flying further away from MAD they will have to look for the same flight number in both airports so they dont have to worry about thinking twice (whats my first flight... Then my second?? Etc)
For sure there are more reason but these are the more obvious ones.
realsim From Spain, joined Apr 2010, 476 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (10 months 1 week 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 794 times:
It's easy.
Some years ago, when there was not a high speed train between Madrid and Barcelona which links both cities centers in 2h30, IB had around 45 flights each way during weekdays, divided in two groups:
* Puente Aéreo: Shuttle MAD-BCN-MAD flights (example: IB1245, departing at 1245), reserved for passengers with a shuttle ticket. Shuttle tickets are valid for 365 days and you are allowed to board into the first shuttle flight with available seats when arriving at the airport, any day at any time. Before the HSR, there were 32 flights each way during weekdays.
* Normal scheduled MAD-BCN-MAD flights: cheaper, bookable, etc. Around 12-13 flights each way. They carried a IB2xxx flight number or a IB6xxx, the last one used for connections to intercontinental flights from MAD.
Since the AVE trains are in service, they have reached a 50% market share, so, in order to maximize LFs, IB sells all their flights between MAD and BCN as Shuttle flights and as normal scheduled and bookable flights (there are not, anymore, exclusive shuttle flights). This means that, a single flight can carry: 1) a shuttle flight number, 2) a scheduled flight number, 3) and the flight number of all the intercontinental flights which are connected to this flight from MAD.
Just as an example of why things are like this right now, this is how a normal wednesday scheduled looked back in 2000 between Barcelona and Madrid:
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From Ireland, joined May 2008, 2613 posts, 
Thanks in advance for any information.
From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 4245 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2010, 86 posts, 
From Spain, joined Apr 2011, 38 posts, 
the IB0646 is the Puente Aéreo number (Shuttle service between BCN and MAD and v.v) the rest of the flight numbers correspond to long haul flights (however not sure about the IB2XXX series).
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