Airline Flight Numbers

[m_i_k_e_y_86]

I'm just wondering how airline flight numbers are determined, does the airline decided them, the airports they fly to or is it the Airline Watchdog's that decided them

[greekdude1]

It's pretty much per the airline. There's no set standard. For instance, for UA 800's are trans-pacific flights. 900's are trans-atlantic. UA's flight 1/2 used to be the around-the-world flight. Nowadays it's operating as ORD-HNL-ORD. NZ's flight 1/2 is AKL-LAX-LHR and back.

Interesting story for any of you guys possibly watching the U.S. sitcom "Lost." For those that don't, it's about castaways on an island from a plane crash routing SYD-LAX on a fictitious airline called Oceanic. The flight they were on was numbered 816. Needless to say, UA's LAX-SYD-LAX flight for years and years was 815/816. About two years ago, when the show first aired (they are currently on their 2nd season), UA changed the number on that flight to 839/840. At the time I wondered why, as I have been flying this route since 1999 and has basically had the same flight number since they acquired the route from PA in the mid 80's. I figured the coincidence that ABC studios decided to use the same flight number (same route no less) had a lot to do with that. What are the odds that the creators of the show just randomly chose that number?

[m_i_k_e_y_86]

Cool thanks i was just wondering, because i started a fantasy airline, btw im dartie, and yeah i made flight number allocations, for international flights 001 - 099 was flights that departed from BNE and 100 - 199 was from Sydney, i sent a fellow aviation enthusiast the numbers and he said they are wrong and im like how can they be wrong.

[heslop01]

By the way lost - the flight was oceanic flight 815, part of the numbers - 4 8 15 16 23 42 I AM THE WORLDS BIGGEST LOST ADDICT

[greekdude1]

By the way lost - the flight was oceanic flight 815, part of the numbers - 4 8 15 16 23 42 I AM THE WORLDS BIGGEST LOST ADDICT

Ok, I knew it was either 815 or 816. Either way, I'm sure UA changed LAX-SYD-MEL-SYD-LAX from 815/816 to 839/840 for this reason.

[wysiwyg]

Not a hard and fast rule...but traditionally odd numbers for westbound flights and even numbers for eastbound.