¿Do you know what the numbers and letters on the flights mean?

Have you ever wondered what the numbers and letters that make up the flight identity number mean? Here we tell you all the curiosities surrounding these codes so that you can check them out the next time you set foot in an airport.

The dynamic is (was, at least before the pandemic) always the same. When you arrive at an airport, your eyes will look for an information screen to locate the flight you are about to take. This gesture is common while we keep waiting for the flight, although in between we may get lost more than once in the table.

Remembering the number of the flight we are interested in can be complicated if we don’t know its meaning, so more data will be indicated in the table. Following these flights is easy with the destination, the name of the airline and the time, but it can also be useful and, above all, very curious to know everything that the numbers assigned to the flights hide.

As if they were the identity number of each trip, it is easy to guess some composition techniques that airlines use to number the flights. Just by looking at the screen with all the flights we can distinguish that each airline marks its trips with its initials, but this is not all.

If we are travelling with Iberia, we can be sure that the flight number will start with the initials IB. In the same way that if we have chosen Lufthansa to travel, then the flight will start with LH. After these letters, the next four numbers indicate the flight, that is, the route that the plane will take:

The numbers change whether it’s a domestic or an international flight.
If it is a subsidiary airline, the first two numbers are for that company.

They also distinguish with these numbers if it is a northbound or southbound flight, ending in odd or even.

Some airlines assign each number to the time zone, city and country of destination.

The importance of superstitions

Although these numerical codes mostly respond to technical issues that provide information to airport employees, they are also designed to convey peace of mind to passengers. Many people are afraid of flying and any detail can make them change their mind and make them nervous or decide not to get on the plane.

That’s why flight numbers also depend on the superstitions of each country.

You also avoid using the number of a flight that had an accident. You probably don’t remember any of them, but the flight numbers that had crashed flights no longer appear on the airport screens.

By Marta Sanz Romero – Computerhoy