Originally Posted by
Dr. HFH
Sorry for my ignorance, but.... I don't understand the call sign thing. I actually spend a fair amount of time listening to ATC audio because I find it interesting, and I've only ever heard commercial flights referred to by [airline name/nickname - flight number]. Would someone be willing to explain what these callsigns are, how they're determined and how they're used?
Thanks in advance. I appreciate it.
Operator of any commercial flight has a callsign registered with FAA. General Aviation including charter business jets will be November..... Calling out the aircraft registration number. N is from the US.. you might hear others.
Regional jets flying for others gets way more interesting. If you're monitoring say near ATL you could hear many different callsigns actually flying flights for Delta.
Near DFW you could hear multiple callsigns flying flights for AA.
To make some sense of it try flightstats.com and airport arrivals... But even more confusing you might see as many as four or five codeshare flights on the same aircraft.