Originally Posted by
ubiest
Two quick ideas
a) after the long suspension of flights to BJS, coming back with a flight number that is considered lucky in Chinese culture,
b) keeping the 38/39 rotation open for a future return to PEK, and 88/89 for PKX specifically
A third possibility is, at the request of the airport authorities. If there is another inbound flight with a similar number arriving at a similar time, for example.