"Michael Ware" wrote in message newsbebf.86365

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?

As Ron pointed out, airlines assign their own numbers, although I believe
there may be some coordination to ensure that you don't have 4 or 5
different flights with the same number operating in the same area at the
same time. Having said that, I can recall many instances where there were
two air carrier flights of the same number on frequency.

Most carriers assign their numbers in some sort of series form. For
example, all the DL shuttle flights between Boston and New York are 19xx,
increasing with the time of day up to about flt #1940 or so, with even #s
inbound to BOS [I think] , and odds outbound to NY. US shuttles are
numbered similarly, but in the 20xx range. American Eagle flights are
4-digit, in the 45xx to 47xx range, iirc, with more detail shown by the last
2 digits. Once you get to know the system for a particular carrier, you can
make a pretty good guess at the flt # based on origin, dest, and time of
day; likewise, with just a flight number, you can identify city pairs.