Michael Ware wrote:
Just curious, are the flight numbers for commercial carriers random, or is a
10:30 am flight from detroit to atlanta always American 2188, for example?

I don't know how the flight numbers are assigned, but yes, as
a rule, AA 2188 is the 10:30 am flight. Once upon a time, back in
the Good Old Days of paper, United used to publish (quarterly?) a
little book that was its entire schedule for that time period. In the
back of the book were a few pages that listed all flights in flight
number order, and also listed the type of aircraft that *usually*
was used on that route.

One of the reasons for this flight number consistency is flight planning.
By having the same number, and the same route unless re-routed due
to weather or something else, the flight plan is just a "copy & paste"
with just a few changes, such as crew, fuel, W&B, etc.