AA flight 1 (AA flight numeration protocols, oddities, etc. )
Feb 9, 2021, 9:01 am
#18
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 494
Originally posted by Dallas49er:
Pan American Airways Flight 1 went ( if I can remember) SFO-HND-HKG-BKK-DEL(?)-AMM-FCO(?)-ORY-LHR-JFK-SFO.
Pan American Airways Flight 1 went ( if I can remember) SFO-HND-HKG-BKK-DEL(?)-AMM-FCO(?)-ORY-LHR-JFK-SFO.
I'm not sure that the legs between New York and San |Francisco were flown by PA1 and PA2, as Pan Am had no domestic traffic rights. My memory from 60 years ago may be at fault, however.
Feb 9, 2021, 9:06 am
#19
Join Date: Aug 2017
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Ah, this is the kind of trivia that I love.
You can tell a bit about what's important to each airline based on what they assign Flight 1 to.
AA 1 - JFK-LAX
DL 1 - JFK-LHR (for a long time, DL was shut out of LHR based on an agreement that only allowed AA, UA, BA, and VS to fly US-LHR)
UA 1 - SFO-SIN
AA does assign AA 101 to LHR-JFK, so they recognize that as an important flight.
A lot of flight numbers are historical for some reason -- AA is restarting BOS-LHR and using AA 108 for the flight number, which is the same as the flight number the last time they flew that route.
You can tell a bit about what's important to each airline based on what they assign Flight 1 to.
AA 1 - JFK-LAX
DL 1 - JFK-LHR (for a long time, DL was shut out of LHR based on an agreement that only allowed AA, UA, BA, and VS to fly US-LHR)
UA 1 - SFO-SIN
AA does assign AA 101 to LHR-JFK, so they recognize that as an important flight.
A lot of flight numbers are historical for some reason -- AA is restarting BOS-LHR and using AA 108 for the flight number, which is the same as the flight number the last time they flew that route.
SFO-SIN is worthy route to carry the number though. Was supposed to go to Singapore last Fall but that of course didn't happen....
Feb 9, 2021, 12:05 pm
#20
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
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Posts: 7,204
CI1 TPE-HNL
KE1 ICN-NRT-HNL
Any other #1 flights to/from HNL (that seems to be a popular destination for flagship #1 flights) that I missed?
KE1 ICN-NRT-HNL
Any other #1 flights to/from HNL (that seems to be a popular destination for flagship #1 flights) that I missed?
Feb 9, 2021, 12:14 pm
#21
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Federal Way, WA
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Posts: 1,305
Airlines long have associated specific flight numbers with special routes. Yes, flight 1 was usually the airline's "most important" flight, but this certainly is not universal.
In the 1960s and early 1970s United assigned flight numbers in blocks between certain city pairs. Flight 1-19, for example, were between JFK and LAX, while 20-29 were JFK-SFO. The EWR flights were usually in the 30s, the SEA/PDX transcons were in the 40s, LAX/SFO-IAD in the 50s, and so on. Of course, there were always on-off exceptions. Other routes had their own sequenecs. This was always a lot of fun when a flight served two such city pairs, such as HNL-SFO-IAD (HNL-SFO would ahve been in the 180s, SFO-IAD in the 50s).
Other airlines did the same, but aside from the really prime routes (NYC-LAX) most weren't as structured as UA. You see this even in the movies: in "Airport" the "Golden Argosy", the airline's premier flight, was flight 2 (the return presumably being flight 2 -- it is mentioned in either the book or the movie, I don't remember which, that flight 5 is the return to New York). For a long time DL flight numbers were based on the aircraft type and had practically nothing to do with the actual route of flight. DL, in fact, didn't even slavishly adhere to the custom of even-numbered flights being eastbound and odd-numbered flights being westbound (a practice left over from the heyday of the railroads).
For a long time practically every airline had flight 711 serving LAS, 1492 serving CMH, and 1776 serving either BOS or PHL. It's still a popular practice for Asian flights to be in the 800 series since 8 is considered a lucky number in Asian culture.
I don't know if this is still enforced, but at least in the past two airlines weren't allowed to have the same flight number scheduled at the same airport at the same time. Whichever airline had been using it longer had priority, and some of them were guarded pretty jealously!
Flight numbering is actually a fascinating subset of airline history. There is always something new to be learned!
In the 1960s and early 1970s United assigned flight numbers in blocks between certain city pairs. Flight 1-19, for example, were between JFK and LAX, while 20-29 were JFK-SFO. The EWR flights were usually in the 30s, the SEA/PDX transcons were in the 40s, LAX/SFO-IAD in the 50s, and so on. Of course, there were always on-off exceptions. Other routes had their own sequenecs. This was always a lot of fun when a flight served two such city pairs, such as HNL-SFO-IAD (HNL-SFO would ahve been in the 180s, SFO-IAD in the 50s).
Other airlines did the same, but aside from the really prime routes (NYC-LAX) most weren't as structured as UA. You see this even in the movies: in "Airport" the "Golden Argosy", the airline's premier flight, was flight 2 (the return presumably being flight 2 -- it is mentioned in either the book or the movie, I don't remember which, that flight 5 is the return to New York). For a long time DL flight numbers were based on the aircraft type and had practically nothing to do with the actual route of flight. DL, in fact, didn't even slavishly adhere to the custom of even-numbered flights being eastbound and odd-numbered flights being westbound (a practice left over from the heyday of the railroads).
For a long time practically every airline had flight 711 serving LAS, 1492 serving CMH, and 1776 serving either BOS or PHL. It's still a popular practice for Asian flights to be in the 800 series since 8 is considered a lucky number in Asian culture.
I don't know if this is still enforced, but at least in the past two airlines weren't allowed to have the same flight number scheduled at the same airport at the same time. Whichever airline had been using it longer had priority, and some of them were guarded pretty jealously!
Flight numbering is actually a fascinating subset of airline history. There is always something new to be learned!
Feb 9, 2021, 12:51 pm
#22
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: BER
Programs: BA GGL, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,843
Airlines long have associated specific flight numbers with special routes. Yes, flight 1 was usually the airline's "most important" flight, but this certainly is not universal.
In the 1960s and early 1970s United assigned flight numbers in blocks between certain city pairs. Flight 1-19, for example, were between JFK and LAX, while 20-29 were JFK-SFO. The EWR flights were usually in the 30s, the SEA/PDX transcons were in the 40s, LAX/SFO-IAD in the 50s, and so on. Of course, there were always on-off exceptions. Other routes had their own sequenecs. This was always a lot of fun when a flight served two such city pairs, such as HNL-SFO-IAD (HNL-SFO would ahve been in the 180s, SFO-IAD in the 50s).
Other airlines did the same, but aside from the really prime routes (NYC-LAX) most weren't as structured as UA. You see this even in the movies: in "Airport" the "Golden Argosy", the airline's premier flight, was flight 2 (the return presumably being flight 2 -- it is mentioned in either the book or the movie, I don't remember which, that flight 5 is the return to New York). For a long time DL flight numbers were based on the aircraft type and had practically nothing to do with the actual route of flight. DL, in fact, didn't even slavishly adhere to the custom of even-numbered flights being eastbound and odd-numbered flights being westbound (a practice left over from the heyday of the railroads).
For a long time practically every airline had flight 711 serving LAS, 1492 serving CMH, and 1776 serving either BOS or PHL. It's still a popular practice for Asian flights to be in the 800 series since 8 is considered a lucky number in Asian culture.
I don't know if this is still enforced, but at least in the past two airlines weren't allowed to have the same flight number scheduled at the same airport at the same time. Whichever airline had been using it longer had priority, and some of them were guarded pretty jealously!
Flight numbering is actually a fascinating subset of airline history. There is always something new to be learned!
In the 1960s and early 1970s United assigned flight numbers in blocks between certain city pairs. Flight 1-19, for example, were between JFK and LAX, while 20-29 were JFK-SFO. The EWR flights were usually in the 30s, the SEA/PDX transcons were in the 40s, LAX/SFO-IAD in the 50s, and so on. Of course, there were always on-off exceptions. Other routes had their own sequenecs. This was always a lot of fun when a flight served two such city pairs, such as HNL-SFO-IAD (HNL-SFO would ahve been in the 180s, SFO-IAD in the 50s).
Other airlines did the same, but aside from the really prime routes (NYC-LAX) most weren't as structured as UA. You see this even in the movies: in "Airport" the "Golden Argosy", the airline's premier flight, was flight 2 (the return presumably being flight 2 -- it is mentioned in either the book or the movie, I don't remember which, that flight 5 is the return to New York). For a long time DL flight numbers were based on the aircraft type and had practically nothing to do with the actual route of flight. DL, in fact, didn't even slavishly adhere to the custom of even-numbered flights being eastbound and odd-numbered flights being westbound (a practice left over from the heyday of the railroads).
For a long time practically every airline had flight 711 serving LAS, 1492 serving CMH, and 1776 serving either BOS or PHL. It's still a popular practice for Asian flights to be in the 800 series since 8 is considered a lucky number in Asian culture.
I don't know if this is still enforced, but at least in the past two airlines weren't allowed to have the same flight number scheduled at the same airport at the same time. Whichever airline had been using it longer had priority, and some of them were guarded pretty jealously!
Flight numbering is actually a fascinating subset of airline history. There is always something new to be learned!
For BER-LHR all the BA flights are in the block Ba980-Ba999 for the even numbers to BER and the odd numbers to LHR. The LHR-SOF flights are Ba890 to BA893 and so on. the system is: small numbers are international routes, triple digits are EU routes, four digits in the range of 1000-2000 are domestic and codeshare 8000-9000 is BA cityflyer, inbetween (mostly i know of the 6000s for finnair) are other codeshares....
in the BA forum here on flyertalk we even have a full spreadsheet where we keep track is every flight was flown by us and who flew it first... needless to say that this wasnt our best idea in 2020/2021
LH does the same, AF too (although there are the numbers in steps of 100. FRA-CDG are 1019/1219/1319/1519/1619)..
Feb 9, 2021, 12:58 pm
#23
Join Date: Jun 2017
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It is also pretty common that West/South-bound flights use odd numbers while East/North-bound flights use even numbers (i.e. JAL international, Cathay). I believe it still holds true on AA's intercontinental flights and "legacy" flight numbers (long-used flight numbers like 1/2/3/4/10/28 on LAX-JFK) on domestic/N American routes.
Some other airlines like BA and JAL (on domestic flights only) use odd numbers for flights out of the hub and even numbers for flights into the hub.
Some other airlines like BA and JAL (on domestic flights only) use odd numbers for flights out of the hub and even numbers for flights into the hub.
Feb 9, 2021, 1:00 pm
#24
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 95
Somewhat related, Eastern continued to designate its late evening JFK-Miami flight as 401 well into the 1980s despite the 1972 L-1011 crash in the Everglades and the numerous ghost stories that arose from the accident.
Feb 9, 2021, 3:38 pm
#26
Join Date: Jul 2001
Programs: AA EP
Posts: 2,203
AA101actually came from TWA LHR acquisition in 1991.
Ah, this is the kind of trivia that I love.
You can tell a bit about what's important to each airline based on what they assign Flight 1 to.
AA 1 - JFK-LAX
DL 1 - JFK-LHR (for a long time, DL was shut out of LHR based on an agreement that only allowed AA, UA, BA, and VS to fly US-LHR)
UA 1 - SFO-SIN
AA does assign AA 101 to LHR-JFK, so they recognize that as an important flight.
A lot of flight numbers are historical for some reason -- AA is restarting BOS-LHR and using AA 108 for the flight number, which is the same as the flight number the last time they flew that route.
You can tell a bit about what's important to each airline based on what they assign Flight 1 to.
AA 1 - JFK-LAX
DL 1 - JFK-LHR (for a long time, DL was shut out of LHR based on an agreement that only allowed AA, UA, BA, and VS to fly US-LHR)
UA 1 - SFO-SIN
AA does assign AA 101 to LHR-JFK, so they recognize that as an important flight.
A lot of flight numbers are historical for some reason -- AA is restarting BOS-LHR and using AA 108 for the flight number, which is the same as the flight number the last time they flew that route.
Feb 9, 2021, 6:32 pm
#27
Join Date: May 2004
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Posts: 3,209
Pan American Airways Flight 1 went ( if I can remember) SFO-HND-HKG-BKK-DEL(?)-AMM-FCO(?)-ORY-LHR-JFK-SFO.
That was truly a wonderful departure announcement in SFO, going through the WHOLE airport.
"Attention please. Pan American Airways announces the departure of Pan Am (Maybe Clipper) Flight 1, now departing for for Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, BOM, Amman(?), Rome, Paris, London and New York.".
That was truly a wonderful departure announcement in SFO, going through the WHOLE airport.
"Attention please. Pan American Airways announces the departure of Pan Am (Maybe Clipper) Flight 1, now departing for for Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, BOM, Amman(?), Rome, Paris, London and New York.".
These places sounded so adventuresome, exotic, romantic, out of reach, insert adjective here, ... . This may be the reason, as a teenager, I wondered if I would ever see ANY of these places. (Spoiler alert: I did, and more!).
Last edited by Dallas49er; Feb 9, 2021 at 6:38 pm
Feb 10, 2021, 4:17 am
#29
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Join Date: Jul 2001
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Now I thought that TW 1 was JFK-LAX as I have positioned on this and TW5 several times in the Eighties. All TW codes to and fro LHR started with 7 - and if I memory serves LHR - LAX was always TW761 - this then became AA 137. AA135 used to be IAD-LAX. Memory plays tricks but AA used to have one DC10 daily flying LAX - HNL - the outbound was AA31 and the inbound was AA162 for reasons that I never understood.
(Sad fact: I can recall this sort of nonsense with perfect clarity - ask me why I went from the Lounge to the Kitchen this morning might prove more challenging!)
(Sad fact: I can recall this sort of nonsense with perfect clarity - ask me why I went from the Lounge to the Kitchen this morning might prove more challenging!)