How are flight numbers typically assigned? I know that single digit numbers are for most lucrative routes between major cities (NYC-Paris, etc) whereas 4 digit ones are for regional and short-haul.

It varies airline to airline

Emirates for instance have different blocks for different geographical regions.

I'm not 100% sure but it goes something like

EK1-199 Europe
EK200-299 North and South America
EK300-399 Asia
EK400-499 Australasia
EK500-599 India
EK600-699 Non India Subcontinent ?
EK700-799 Africa
EK800+ Middle East

DL, for a time, had 200 series flights which departed from JFK's Terminal 2 and 400 flights leaving Terminal 4, but I think they abandoned that practice.

UA's TPAC flights used to be 800s and TATL 900s.

US, in their last few years of existence, had TATL in the 700 range. I couldn't help but notice their two flights to Brazil were 800s.

Occasionally, airlines will also have fun with numbers to make a local or topical reference. CMH has had many 1492s over the years, IND the same with flight 500, PHL with 1776, etc.

Alaska:

1-999 Boeing
1000-1999 Airbus
2000-2999 Horizon
3000-3999 SkyWest

Air Canada (roughly):
001-099 Asia
100s & 1100s YYZ transcons
200s Intra-Western Canada plus YWG-YYZ
300s non-YYZ transcons + YYZ-YMM
400s Rapidair/Eastern Triangle (i.e ., YOW/YUL-YYZ & YOW-YUL mainline)
500s Western Canada transborder
600s YYZ/YUL/YOW-Atlantic Canada
700s YYZ & YUL-US Northeast
800s Transatlantic
900s Caribbean
1000s YUL & YYZ-western transborder
1200s non-YUL/YYZ Mainline to Florida/Sun Routes (I think the last of these are going to Rouge this winter)
1500s-1900s Rouge
2000s extra sections
7000s ferry flights & Jetz
7200-8999 AC Express carriers

I'm happy to hear how AF assigns flight numbers. It's all over the place.

caliboy93 wrote:

How are flight numbers typically assigned? I know that single digit numbers are for most lucrative routes between major cities (NYC-Paris, etc) whereas 4 digit ones are for regional and short-haul.

Subject debated many times I believe like here:
https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1360297

caliboy93 wrote:

I know that single digit numbers are for most lucrative routes between major cities (NYC-Paris, etc) whereas 4 digit ones are for regional and short-haul.

Do you now? That rather implies you don't think an airline such as Lufthansa operate lucrative routes. The fact of the matter is there's no common logic to how flight numbers are assigned between different airlines. Some will do it this way, some the other and others again will find a third way. Lufthansa's US services are in the 400 range; all of SK's long haul routes are in the 900 range regardless of destination; a few of BA's US services are single, but most of them are actually 3 digits, with the balance of the single digits going to Asia/Oceania. Oh, and some of the longest and most lucrative freighter services operate on 4-digit flight numbers.

Rhyme or reason? Better look for it elsewhere

For Qantas, QF 001 to 399 is for international flights. QF 400 and above is for domestic ones.

Most airlines will assign single-digit numbers, especially 1 and 2, to flights that are important from a marketing or strategic perspective. BA LCY-JFK, DL JFK-LHR, SQ SIN-HKG-SFO, QF SYD-SIN-LHR (no doubt to be transferred to SYD-LHR with Project Sunrise), AA A321T service JFK-LAX, AS ANC-SEA-DCA, etc., etc.

Large airlines with regional affiliates will tend to use higher four-digit numbers for regional flights.

Beyond those two themes there is vanishingly little consistency.

afterburner wrote:

For Qantas, QF 001 to 399 is for international flights. QF 400 and above is for domestic ones.

More specifically:

QF1-199 are Qantas operated international flights
QF200-399 are intenrational codeshares departing from Australia, not including EK flights
QF400-1399 are domestic mainline
QF14xx are SYD-CBR and SYD-WTB Dash 8 services
QF1500-1999 are 717 services
QF2000-2599 are Dash 8 services, not including SYD-CBR/WTB
QF2600-2999 are Fokker 100 services

Within this there are patterns, most notably QF4xx is SYD-MEL/MEL-SYD and QF5xx is SYD-BNE/BNE-SYD

All EK codeshares are QF8xxx, where xxx is the EK flight number. Thus EK1 is QF8001 and EK434 is QF8434.

Dominion301 wrote:

Air Canada (roughly):
001-099 Asia
100s & 1100s YYZ transcons
200s Intra-Western Canada plus YWG-YYZ
300s non-YYZ transcons + YYZ-YMM
400s Rapidair/Eastern Triangle (i.e ., YOW/YUL-YYZ & YOW-YUL mainline)
500s Western Canada transborder
600s YYZ/YUL/YOW-Atlantic Canada
700s YYZ & YUL-US Northeast
800s Transatlantic
900s Caribbean
1000s YUL & YYZ-western transborder
1200s non-YUL/YYZ Mainline to Florida/Sun Routes (I think the last of these are going to Rouge this winter)
1500s-1900s Rouge
2000s extra sections
7000s ferry flights & Jetz
7200-8999 AC Express carriers

Air Canada's flight to GRU (Brazil) is AC-090 being the return AC091

Slightly off topic, but I never understood BA's system for assigning outbound flights a higher number than inbound flights. For instance, LHR-KWI is BA157, whereas KWI-LHR is BA156! Anyone knows why?

Jomar777 wrote:

Dominion301 wrote:

Air Canada (roughly):
001-099 Asia
100s & 1100s YYZ transcons
200s Intra-Western Canada plus YWG-YYZ
300s non-YYZ transcons + YYZ-YMM
400s Rapidair/Eastern Triangle (i.e ., YOW/YUL-YYZ & YOW-YUL mainline)
500s Western Canada transborder
600s YYZ/YUL/YOW-Atlantic Canada
700s YYZ & YUL-US Northeast
800s Transatlantic
900s Caribbean
1000s YUL & YYZ-western transborder
1200s non-YUL/YYZ Mainline to Florida/Sun Routes (I think the last of these are going to Rouge this winter)
1500s-1900s Rouge
2000s extra sections
7000s ferry flights & Jetz
7200-8999 AC Express carriers

Air Canada's flight to GRU (Brazil) is AC-090 being the return AC091

LIM is AC80/81 as well, I guess the higher series of the 0-99 range are Latin American flights.

Both FI and NY have a clear system in place, although it has changed slightly with more N-American flights at FI in recent years.

FI:
2XX - Denmark
3XX - rest of Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland)
4XX - UK / Ireland
5XX - European mainland (Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium)
6XX - N-American routes added prior to 2014
7XX - Icelandair Cargo
8XX - N-American routes added after 2014
14XX - around the world charter flights
15XX - charter flights from Iceland (not sure if these last two always apply)

NY:
XX - IFJ
1XX - AEY
2XX - Greenland
3XX - EGS
4XX - used to be VEY
5XX - flights operated by Norlandair
6XX - charters

5XXX on both used to be Icelandair flights operated by NY (KEF-ABZ/BHD) that briefly operated from 2016 to 2018.

B6 sometimes has the same last digits for all flights on the same route. For example JFK-BTV has 34, 234, 1634 and JFK-ROC has 286, 486 and 586. Some of the BOS-DCA flights are -89. BTV and ROC have been around a long time. I don't believe this is often or ever done on new routes or added flights.

It seems certain airlines assign even numbers to a particular direction (IE eastbound) and odd numbers the opposite.

Like other said, it varies between airlines.

For example, for CX:
0-99: CX Cargo
100-199: Australia/NZ
200-299: Europe
300-399: Europe, Mainland China (PEK, PVG)
400-499: Taiwan, S. Korea (450/451 continues to NRT via TPE)
500-599: Japan (530/531, 564/565 both stops at TPE)
600-799: SE Asia (Except Philippines), South Asia (India, Maldives, Sri Lanka), Middle East, South Africa (700s)
800-899: US/Canada
900-999: Philippines

4-digit are used for codeshares (i.e. CX5xxx are all KA flights), Charters (8xxx), and one-time flights (2xxx, i.e. ferry flights)

For KA:
100-199: South Asia (India/Bangladesh/Nepal)
200-299: SE Asia (Except Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia)
300-399: Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan
400-499: Taiwan
500-599: Not Used
600-999: Mainland China, Malaysia (PEN = 600s, KUL = 700s).

For mainland China domestic flights, Flight Numbers are assigned according to geographical region across all airlines IIRC, i.e. 1xxx = Beijing (North), 2xxx = Xi'an (Not sure), 3xxx = Guangzhou, 4xxx = Chengdu, 5xxx = Shanghai, 6xxx = Chongqing (Again, not sure); dated from CAAC date. All domestic flights (with the exception of "one-stop" flights to long-haul destination, for example, CZ659 is run CAN-WUH-SFO) are 4-digits. It used to be the case that the 2nd digit represent where the flight will fly to, i.e. 15xx = Flights from Beijing (North) to Shanghai (East) on a plane based out of Beijing (i.e. CA), while 51xx = Flights from Shanghai (East) to Beijing (North) on a plane based out of Shanghai (i.e. MU), but I think that's drop as they're running out of flight numbers.

Even now, you see 1xxx and 4xxx (and 8xxx) being used mainly by CA (Along with HO, SC, ZH, etc.); 2xxx and 5xxx (and 9xxx) being used mainly by MU (and FM), and 3xxx and 6xxx (and 8xxx) being used mainly by CZ (and MF). HU mainly use 7xxx for domestic flights, and 9C (Spring Airlines) use 8xxx mainly (there's a few flights with flight number in 6000s range).

Then you got WN (Southwest), which is all over the place for flight number with the exception of 1-99 (Something like that), which always has a DAL-HOU (or v.v.) leg.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

rida79 wrote:

Slightly off topic, but I never understood BA's system for assigning outbound flights a higher number than inbound flights. For instance, LHR-KWI is BA157, whereas KWI-LHR is BA156! Anyone knows why?

It’s not higher numbers, it’s odds are outbound, evens inbound.

GF

Do other airlines follow that system of numbering?

rida79 wrote:

Do other airlines follow that system of numbering?

It depends...

Using CX:
To East Asia (Including Mainland China) and North America (Both "East" of HKG): Even Outbound, Odd Inbound
To Europe, South Africa, Middle East, SE Asia, South Asia (All of which are "West" of HKG, even though flights to/from Europe technically fly north) along with AusNZ: Odd Outbound, Even Inbound.

For JL, all domestic flights out of HND/NRT are Odd Number regardless of direction, as is all domestic flights out of ITM/KIX and NGO/NKM, except for flights to/from Tokyo (where Tokyo's numbering system "takes precedence"). I believe they then go from South to North (except OKA) in terms of precedence, at least for the "major" airport, i.e. flights out of FUK are all odd number except to/from Tokyo/Osaka/Nagoya; then Hiroshima, Niigata, Sendai, and eventually Sapporo. Thus CTS->KIJ is Even but CTS->AXT is Odd. OKA is somewhat oddball as JTA (Subsidiary of JAL) use Even number for all flights to (i.e. Outbound) to Mainland Japan, but Odd Number for outbound flights to places like ISG and MMY.

JL's International Flights doesn't follow the "Inbound/Outbound" pattern, though, but rather it's similar to CX - i.e. Even Outbound, Odd Inbound for flights to/from North America and Hawaii, but Odd Outbound/Even Inbound for everything else (Including Australia and Guam).

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

rida79 wrote:

Slightly off topic, but I never understood BA's system for assigning outbound flights a higher number than inbound flights. For instance, LHR-KWI is BA157, whereas KWI-LHR is BA156! Anyone knows why?

It’s not higher numbers, it’s odds are outbound, evens inbound.

GF

It's kind of both. They could have used 155 for the outbound and 156 for the inbound. Doing in the way they have is still "odd" I guess, although not on my worry list.

ro1960 wrote:

I'm happy to hear how AF assigns flight numbers. It's all over the place.

From just looking at CDG, it seems like for non-Domestic intra-European flights, along with flights to/from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, they keep (for the most part) the same two number at the end, i.e. CDG-FCO are all in xx04 (Outbound)/xx05 (Inbound), CDG-MXP are all in xx30 (Outbound)/xx31 (Inbound), etc. They don't seems to keep a incremental pattern base on time, though, i.e. For CDG-FCO it's 1204-1504-1104-1304-1604-1404-1004 from Morning to Evening.

Domestic Flights seems to follow an incremental pattern base on time out of both CDG and ORY, usually 6000s or 7000s.

Also, it seems like, for the most part, AF keeps all their Outbound (from Paris) flights Even number, and Inbound flights Odd number. Skimming through the departures from CDG, I only saw two exception (AF775, which is CDG-BGF-NSI-CDG; and AF741, which is CDG-PUJ-SDQ-CDG). That can be explained base on the fact that those two are both triangular flights.

DeltaRules wrote:

UA's TPAC flights used to be 800s

They still are, are they not? Did they inherit those flight numbers when they brought Pan Am's pacific routes?

Cathay also uses 800+ for their NA flights.

Korean Air (excluding codeshares):
0-99: The Americas
100-199: Oceania
200-399: Cargo
400-499: Overflow Southeast Asia/South Asia
500-599: Cargo
600-699: Southeast Asia/South Asia
700-799: Japan
800-899: China
900-999: Europe, Central Asia, Middle East, Africa
1000-1099: Domestic (mainly PUS-CJU)
1100-1199: Domestic (mainly GMP-PUS)
1200-1299: Domestic (mainly GMP-CJU)
1300-1999: Domestic (other)
2000-2999: (formerly) Int'l flights out of GMP
9000-9999: Charters

Crackshot wrote:

DeltaRules wrote:

UA's TPAC flights used to be 800s

They still are, are they not? Did they inherit those flight numbers when they brought Pan Am's pacific routes?

Cathay also uses 800+ for their NA flights.

Most still are, but not all of them. All of the TPAC flights from EWR and IAH are not 8xx flights (since they were inherited from CO), and some of the newer ones from SFO aren’t as well. A couple examples from SFO being SIN (UA 1/2 and UA 28/29), CTU (UA 8/9), and KIX (UA 34/35).

SRQKEF wrote:

Jomar777 wrote:

Dominion301 wrote:

Air Canada (roughly):
001-099 Asia
100s & 1100s YYZ transcons
200s Intra-Western Canada plus YWG-YYZ
300s non-YYZ transcons + YYZ-YMM
400s Rapidair/Eastern Triangle (i.e ., YOW/YUL-YYZ & YOW-YUL mainline)
500s Western Canada transborder
600s YYZ/YUL/YOW-Atlantic Canada
700s YYZ & YUL-US Northeast
800s Transatlantic
900s Caribbean
1000s YUL & YYZ-western transborder
1200s non-YUL/YYZ Mainline to Florida/Sun Routes (I think the last of these are going to Rouge this winter)
1500s-1900s Rouge
2000s extra sections
7000s ferry flights & Jetz
7200-8999 AC Express carriers

Air Canada's flight to GRU (Brazil) is AC-090 being the return AC091

LIM is AC80/81 as well, I guess the higher series of the 0-99 range are Latin American flights.

That’s right.

Ethiopian Airlines (ET)

0-099: rarely used; mainly flights on their new joint ventures (Malawian Airlines, EMA, etc.)
100-299: Domestic Flights
300-399: Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti, Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Somalia
400-499: Middle East and Egypt
500-599: North America, South America
600-699: Asia-Pacific, as well as some further Middle East (DXB, MCT, KWI)
700-799: Europe
800-899: Southern and Central Africa, plus Tanzania, and East African islands
900-999: West Africa

Eastern Airlines flights were organized as such...
*Northbound flights ended in even numbers while Southbound odd.
*1-99 were LAX flights as well as NYC to MIA
*100-199 were flights that originated in Northeast cities and terminated In Florida cities
*200-399/500-799 were random domestic or Canada services
*400-499 were flights that departed between 9pm and 5:59am
*800-899 were flights that terminated/originated in Bahamas/Bermuda
*900-999 were flights which originated/terminated In Caribbean/Latin/international cities
*EA-AS followed by the departure time were air shuttle operations
*1000-1999 were extra sections
*2000-5000 were Express affiliate flights
*9000 series were ferry/positioning/charter ops

PR’s flight numbering

International flights

PR1XX - North America flights/transpacific flights
PR2XX - Australia/Oceania flights
PR3XX - China flights
PR4XX - Japan and Korea
PR5XX - SEAsia (except BKK) flights
PR6XX - Middle East flights
PR7XX - Bangkok ang EU flights
PR8XX - Taipei flights

Domestic flights
PR1XXX - Operated by Philippine Airlines
PR2XXX - Operated by PAL Express

UALifer wrote:

Crackshot wrote:

DeltaRules wrote:

UA's TPAC flights used to be 800s

They still are, are they not? Did they inherit those flight numbers when they brought Pan Am's pacific routes?

Cathay also uses 800+ for their NA flights.

Most still are, but not all of them. All of the TPAC flights from EWR and IAH are not 8xx flights (since they were inherited from CO), and some of the newer ones from SFO aren’t as well. A couple examples from SFO being SIN (UA 1/2 and UA 28/29), CTU (UA 8/9), and KIX (UA 34/35).

Gotcha, thanks

SRQKEF wrote:

Jomar777 wrote:

Dominion301 wrote:

Air Canada (roughly):
001-099 Asia
100s & 1100s YYZ transcons
200s Intra-Western Canada plus YWG-YYZ
300s non-YYZ transcons + YYZ-YMM
400s Rapidair/Eastern Triangle (i.e ., YOW/YUL-YYZ & YOW-YUL mainline)
500s Western Canada transborder
600s YYZ/YUL/YOW-Atlantic Canada
700s YYZ & YUL-US Northeast
800s Transatlantic
900s Caribbean
1000s YUL & YYZ-western transborder
1200s non-YUL/YYZ Mainline to Florida/Sun Routes (I think the last of these are going to Rouge this winter)
1500s-1900s Rouge
2000s extra sections
7000s ferry flights & Jetz
7200-8999 AC Express carriers

Air Canada's flight to GRU (Brazil) is AC-090 being the return AC091

LIM is AC80/81 as well, I guess the higher series of the 0-99 range are Latin American flights.

And Air Canada 033/034 is YYZ-YVR-SYD and back.

Crackshot wrote:

DeltaRules wrote:

UA's TPAC flights used to be 800s

They still are, are they not? Did they inherit those flight numbers when they brought Pan Am's pacific routes?

Cathay also uses 800+ for their NA flights.

These days, not necessarily.

UAL6/7 NRT-IAH
UA32/33 LAX-NRT
UA34/35 KIX-SFO
UAL78/79 NRT-EWR
UAL142/143 NRT-DEN
UA800 DEN-SFO
UA801 SEA-EWR
UA802 CLT-IAH
UA902/903 NRT-HNL

UALifer wrote:

Crackshot wrote:

DeltaRules wrote:

UA's TPAC flights used to be 800s

They still are, are they not? Did they inherit those flight numbers when they brought Pan Am's pacific routes?

Cathay also uses 800+ for their NA flights.

Most still are, but not all of them. All of the TPAC flights from EWR and IAH are not 8xx flights (since they were inherited from CO), and some of the newer ones from SFO aren’t as well. A couple examples from SFO being SIN (UA 1/2 and UA 28/29), CTU (UA 8/9), and KIX (UA 34/35).

Fun fact: UA34/35 was actually former UA885/886. Why they renumbered it, I have no idea.

A number of airlines have had the practice for many years of assigning east travelling flights to even numbers and west travelling flights to odd numbers; similar for northbound (even) and southbound (odd). I note that in recent years many have departed from this convention yet it remains predominant as far as I can work out. Not sure where this convention comes from. Would be curious to know.

NZ321 wrote:

A number of airlines have had the practice for many years of assigning east travelling flights to even numbers and west travelling flights to odd numbers; similar for northbound (even) and southbound (odd). I note that in recent years many have departed from this convention yet it remains predominant as far as I can work out. Not sure where this convention comes from. Would be curious to know.

Porter actually do the complete opposite of convention.

I wonder if any airlines have routes that have both even and odd numbers in the same direction?

Maybe the even-odd numbering convention originated from the railways?

WestJet Even numbers East and South, Odd West and North except WS 1 YYCLGW WS 2 LGWYYC, WS3 YYZLGW and WS4 LGWYYZ

1-99 Canada - Europe (Can also be domestic if continuing service to Europe)
100-899 Domestic
1000-1999 Canada - US
2000-2999 Caribbean/Mexico
3000-3099 WestJet Link (Operated by Pacific Coastal)
3100-3599/3800-3899 Encore Domestic
3600-3799 Encore US
5000-5099 WestJet operated by Air France
6000-6029 WestJet operated by Qantas
6100-6299 WestJet operated by AeroMexico
6300-8399 WestJet operated by Delta

If it helps BA has even numbers for outbound short haul and odd numbers for long haul outbound

There are broad regional sub numbering although a shortage of numbers means this is not wholly applicable

Cathay Pacific

0000-0099 Cargo
0100-0199 Oceania
0200-0300 Europe
0300-0389 Europe+Mainland China
0400-0499 Korea+Taiwan
0500-0599 Japan
0600-0699 India
0700-0799 South Asia(except India/Philippine)
0800-0899 North America
0900-0999 Philippine
3000-3999 charter/test/cargo flight
5000-5999 Codeshare flight operated by KA
6000-9999 Codeshare flight operated by other airline

NZ321 wrote:

A number of airlines have had the practice for many years of assigning east travelling flights to even numbers and west travelling flights to odd numbers; similar for northbound (even) and southbound (odd). I note that in recent years many have departed from this convention yet it remains predominant as far as I can work out. Not sure where this convention comes from. Would be curious to know.

Northwest used to do this, with some exceptions. And there were a few blocks that were dedicated to certain business markets to make them predictable for frequent flyers. The advent and proliferation of alliances and codesharing really put a massive strain on flight numbering, since there must be a unique flight number attached to it, whether it's a marketing or operating flight. And those ranges are dynamic, fluctuating quite a bit as some flights come and go, and a partner mix of what cities you code on changes.

Plus, you have dedicated--albeit smaller--ranges strictly dedicated to maintenance ferry flights, charters, emergency response, etc. The list is quite dizzying for most major airlines.

Then there's the novelty flight numbers that US carriers have done.... Flight 1492 CMH, 500 IND, 1776 PHL, and so on....

NZ321 wrote:

A number of airlines have had the practice for many years of assigning east travelling flights to even numbers and west travelling flights to odd numbers; similar for northbound (even) and southbound (odd). I note that in recent years many have departed from this convention yet it remains predominant as far as I can work out. Not sure where this convention comes from. Would be curious to know.

Odd numbers for north / west and even numbers for south / east is an IATA convention.

Norwegian (this is by pure observation and might well be partially incorrect)

Norwegian Air Shuttle:

DY 100-799: Domestic flights in Norway
DY 800-899: OSL-ARN (OSL-based aircraft)
DY 900-999: OSL/BGO - CPH (OSL-based aircraft)
DY 1000-1999: Short/medium-haul flights from Norway (OSL-based aircraft)
DY 4000-4099: Domestic flights in Sweden
DY 4100-4199: ARN-OSL (ARN-based aircraft)
DY 4200-4999: Short/medium-haul flights from Sweden (ARN-based aircraft)
DY 7000-7799: Widebody flights to North America (except ex-LGW) and Thailand

Norwegian Air International

D8 100-199: Domestic flights in Finland
D8 200-299: HEL-ARN/CPH (HEL-based aircraft)
D8 3xx-999: Short/medium-haul flights ex-HEL (HEL-based aircraft)
D8 1600-1999: Transatlantic 737 flights
D8 2400-2699:Short/medium-haul ex-LGW (LGW-based aircraft)
D8 2800-2899: LGW-OSL/ARN (LGW-based aircraft)
D8 2900-2999: LGW-CPH (LGW-based aircraft)
D8 3000-3099: Domestic flights in Denmark
D8 3100-3799: Short/medium-haul ex-CPH (CPH-based aircraft)
D8 5000-5199: all flights ex-AGP (AGP-based aircraft)
D8 5300-5499: all flights ex-ALC (ALC-based aircraft)
D8 5500-5799: all flights ex-BCN (BCN-based aircraft)
D8 5800-5899: all flights ex-LPA (LPA-based aircraft)
D8 5900-5999: seems to be a weird mix of flights ex-LPA and ex-BLL
D8 6000-6299: Short/medium-haul ex-MAD (MAD-based aircraft)
D8 6300-6399: Domestic flights in Spain
D8 6400-6599: International flights ex-TFS (TFS-based aircraft)
D8 6600-6799: all flights ex-PMI (MAD-based aircraft)

Norwegian Air UK

DI 7000-7199: Widebody flights ex-LGW

Norwegian Air Argentina

DN 6000-6199: Domestic flights ex-AEP

DY/DI 7900-7999: Replacement/delayed wide-body flights
DY/D8/DI/DN 8000-8999: Positioning
DY/D8/DI/DN 9000-9999: Charter

It seems like aircraft switch bases very regularly, so this is all quite fluid! Also, this took me far too long. I need a life!

Based on observation for KLM:
KL001-399: longhaul codeshares
KL400-499: Middle East
KL500-599: Africa
KL600-699: North-America
KL700-799: Caribbean, Central- and South-America
KL800-899: Asia
KL900-999: Europe
KL1000-1999: Europe
rest for codeshares, cargo and other flights

KL868 wrote:

Based on observation for KLM:
KL001-399: longhaul codeshares
KL400-499: Middle East
KL500-599: Africa
KL600-699: North-America
KL700-799: Caribbean, Central- and South-America
KL800-899: Asia
KL900-999: Europe
KL1000-1999: Europe
rest for codeshares, cargo and other flights

600-699 includes Mexico

SRQKEF wrote:

LIM is AC80/81 as well, I guess the higher series of the 0-99 range are Latin American flights.

AirKevin wrote:

And Air Canada 033/034 is YYZ-YVR-SYD and back.

It was always my (unofficial) opinion that after the merger with Canadian Airlines, Air Canada used double digit flight numbers for routes that didn't quite "fit in" with the way Air Canada did things. So Asia (AC's routes renumbered), South America and the South Pacific all got double digits plus the existing CP single digits.

It sure beats the "old way" when Air Canada numbered flight numbers by aircraft type. 100-399 Viscount, 401-599 Vanguard, 600-699 and 800-899 DC-8, 700-799 and 900-999, DC-9.

Flanker7 wrote:

KL868 wrote:

Based on observation for KLM:
KL001-399: longhaul codeshares
KL400-499: Middle East
KL500-599: Africa
KL600-699: North-America
KL700-799: Caribbean, Central- and South-America
KL800-899: Asia
KL900-999: Europe
KL1000-1999: Europe
rest for codeshares, cargo and other flights

600-699 includes Mexico

Mexico is in North America

rida79 wrote:

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

rida79 wrote:

Slightly off topic, but I never understood BA's system for assigning outbound flights a higher number than inbound flights. For instance, LHR-KWI is BA157, whereas KWI-LHR is BA156! Anyone knows why?

It’s not higher numbers, it’s odds are outbound, evens inbound.

GF

Do other airlines follow that system of numbering?

EY (Etihad Airways).

I have noticed Jetblue uses the area code for some routes..
Off the top of my head...
BOS JFK 917
BOS SAN 619
FLL HPN 914
PHX BOS 602
JFK SFO 415

Obviously not a steadfast rule, but it’s there...

For their transcons, JetBlue keeps the same last two digits and changes the first digits of the flight number.
For example, BOS-SFO is xx33:
B6 133
B6 1833
B6 633
B6 833
B6 333

slider wrote:

NZ321 wrote:

A number of airlines have had the practice for many years of assigning east travelling flights to even numbers and west travelling flights to odd numbers; similar for northbound (even) and southbound (odd). I note that in recent years many have departed from this convention yet it remains predominant as far as I can work out. Not sure where this convention comes from. Would be curious to know.

Northwest used to do this, with some exceptions.

Almost every major US airline did this for decades. What obliterated it recently is in an effort to conserve flight numbers is airline assigning a roundtrip the same flight number in both directions.