UK Edition
Fascinating things you probably didn’t know about your flight number
There’s more to flight numbers than meets the eye – some of them are little nuggets of information and have stories to tell
They are such a fundamental part of the modern airport experience that you might almost have forgotten they exist – scanning down the terminal departures board for the name of your destination, and all but overlooking the small combination of digits and numbers that waits alongside.
But a flight number is more than a random departure code for a plane scheduled to wing its way from one long runway to another. At least, some of them are; little nuggets of data and information with stories to tell. Such as...
AA1
Airlines often save the first number for one of their most prestigious routes. In the case of American Airlines, this is the connection between John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and Los Angeles International. AA2 is the return service from California.
QF1
Qantas plays the same game. QF1 is its Sydney-Heathrow service, via Singapore.
BA1
British Airways previously took this approach. BA001 used to be its blue-riband flight from Heathrow to JFK on Concorde, and the number was later handed to the business-class only link from London City to JFK, a service that was retired in 2020. Since then it has only been used once, on November 8, 2021 – to celebrate the United States finally lifting its Covid travel restrictions.
Air New Zealand's number one flight links Auckland and New York; United's flies from San Francisco to Singapore; El Al's goes from Tel Aviv to New York City.
AA10
Traditionally, even flight numbers are used by US carriers for eastbound or northbound services and odd numbers are reserved for westbound and southbound flights. For example, AA10 (as well as AA118, AA2, AA4, and others) takes passengers with American Airlines from LA to New York City, while AA171, AA9437, and so on, go in the opposite direction.
BA364
A number can often be an indication of destination. A British Airways flight with 36 or 37 as its first two digits will be on French soil at some point. BA364 goes from Heathrow to Lyon. BA373 is a quick two-hour hop between Toulouse and Heathrow.
BA901
By the same token, British Airways services where the first number is a nine will be flying either to or from Germany. BA901 dashes from Frankfurt to Heathrow. BA995 wings its way from Berlin to London's biggest airport.
BA007
Searching for a Bond connection in the (double-o) seventh flight in BA's roster? You need to look towards the fifth movie in the franchise – 1967's You Only Live Twice. This is the movie where 007 (Sean Connery) visits this flight's end destination, Tokyo.
VS4045
Four-digit numbers generally indicate a codeshare service. In this case, the Virgin Atlantic connection from Heathrow to Atlanta, which is also a Delta flight (DL31).
MH360
Airlines generally retire a flight number if that service suffers a fatal accident. Thus the now infamous MH370 service between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing later became MH360, and the return leg, formerly MH371, became MH361. The route is not currently in operation.
UA311
The same alteration occurred with all four flights which crashed on September 11. UA 311 – rather than UA175 – is now the number for the United Airlines link between Boston Logan and LAX, which struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
AA1776
Some numbers have more celebratory stories. The American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Boston has the number 1776 in tribute to the year that the US Declaration of Independence was signed in the take-off city.
UA500
Some shameless playing to the gallery here from United Airlines – its flight from Indianapolis to San Francisco is so-numbered in salute to the Indianapolis 500 car race.
UA888
Eight is seen as a lucky number in Asia. The United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Beijing hedged no bets by including three cases of the fortunate figure. The service has not returned since the pandemic, however.
QF666
Generally, airlines avoid the number of the beast. So this Qantas flight number does not exist. Nor, as another example, does QF13. Thirteen is, of course, an unlucky number.
FR666
Trust Ryanair to do things a little differently. This isn't a flight to hell, but it is a real flight number – denoting the budget airline's service between Dublin and Birmingham.