Flight numbers
Posted on January 17, 2019 at 12:00 PM
What's a flight number??
Flight numbers, or flight designators, consist of a two-character airline designator and a 1-4 digit number. You can typically find this on your ticket, and you should be told your flight number when you book your flight. Every airline uses this system for every flight. The letters typically represent the airline. For example VS is used by Virgin Atlantic. BA is used by British Airways.
The flight numbers themselves have meaning too – even numbers are typically for north and eastbound flights, while odd numbers are for southbound and westbound flights (although this is not a concrete rule). Return flights are typically one digit higher than the outbound flight. For example, Cathay Pacific has a flight from London Heathrow Airport to Hong Kong International Airport – CX 250 London to Hong Kong, while CX 251 is a westbound flight from Hong Kong to London.
Sounds neat, right? They condense a whole lot of information into just a few letters and numbers, making it more convenient for the pilots, airlines, and travel companies. But why stop there? You should be able to take advantage of the ease of a flight number too. Why waste time typing everything out again when it’s already been condensed for you? You could be doing other things, like actually planning your trip!
That’s why we created FlytoCalendar, the service you never knew you needed. Try it out now, or if you don’t have any upcoming flights, bookmark us for next time!