It's even worse than just the same flight number. Both were at PHX, one landing, one taking off at the same time. Kudos to a clever ATC for preventing what could've been a catastrophe: https://youtu.be/93lLXNsWp9Q
Not to mention the huge WTF factor of them being in different parts of their flight and the instant issues that would cause when the ATCs try to do anything with them.
"Hey why did you just tell a flight that's on approach to taxi"
The US is really weird with flight numbers and I don't think any other country in the world does it the same way.
You often get flights sharing the same flight numbers such as JFK-SLC and SLC-SFO being the same flight number, even if it's a completely different plane doing the route!
Also super confusing when trying to search for your (or a loved one's) flight online as you'll get multiple matches.
Given how long humans have had to implement or fix the most basic of shit (some major apps with millions of users still don't have a Dark Mode, for example) maybe handing the reigns to AI is for the better after all..
I'd like to hear more from someone in the industry about the resolution to this problem. As I understand it, we're trading a small non-zero risk of mistaken identity for the streamlined communication of using four digits rather than five (which carries its own non-zero benefit to safety). This has become a problem because airline consolidation means some of them operate so many flights per day that their limited pool of numbers dictate that they reuse them for either direction.
Could we resolve this by swapping one number for a letter? 26 options instead of 10 raises the pool substantially. Letters A-J indicate inbound, K-Z outbound? Or westbound/eastbound.
The format is SSIM defined by IATA - the international association of transport airlines. It specifies two letter airline code followed by four digit flight.
Too much complexity. It would be simpler for IATA to approximate GA conventions of using partial registration numbers, perhaps 2 to 4 suffix characters depending on traffic conditions. It's overly verbose and slower to announce the brand or callsign of an airline followed by the low density decimal flight number.
“Everything that has an ICAO code is on Earth”, and “flights are at most a few days long”. The whole list makes you despair of structuring any data, ever.
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[ 0.32 ms ] story [ 21.6 ms ] thread"Hey why did you just tell a flight that's on approach to taxi"
"What do you mean they're right here?"
"No they're on final you twat"
"No this is Patrick"
????????
<issue straightened out>
> American assigns the same flight number to the outbound and return services, with the same aircraft typically operating both legs.
Other airlines don’t do this, and instead assign a different flight number to the return flight.
You often get flights sharing the same flight numbers such as JFK-SLC and SLC-SFO being the same flight number, even if it's a completely different plane doing the route!
Also super confusing when trying to search for your (or a loved one's) flight online as you'll get multiple matches.
American exceptionalism at its finest.
Certainly couldn't get any worse, I mean
(I am not AI)
Could we resolve this by swapping one number for a letter? 26 options instead of 10 raises the pool substantially. Letters A-J indicate inbound, K-Z outbound? Or westbound/eastbound.
I'm sure various ATC systems also assume this.
Changing it would be an industry-wide effort.
[0] https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviation-explainer-series...
ChatGPT says AA have the most, 1500 planes - 4 digits is plenty.
But who all calls someone by their full name all the time??
So they could just not do that.
Lol
“Everything that has an ICAO code is on Earth”, and “flights are at most a few days long”. The whole list makes you despair of structuring any data, ever.
https://youtu.be/Bb8uYlc_ATo