Airline Callsigns in Europe

[Radi K]

Maybe a question for a forum overseas but does anyone have any idea why in Europe certain airlines put letters AND numbers as part of their ATC callsigns?

E.g.

EZY122G "Easy 122 Golf"
BAW223A "Speedbird 223 Alpha"
THY7PT "Turkish 7 Papa Tango"
RYR805S "Ryanair 805 Sierra"

I thought it may have been delayed flights? But most airlines put a D on the end.

I'm sure there is a reason, I just cant find it!? It doesnt happen anywhere else I could see? The only airline that does it around AUS is Air Calin. e.g. ACI123S

Thanks in advance.

[Jason H]

Qlkink do it with QFL233D for the Q400s, and Virgin Australia do it with the ATRs, using VOZ234A. It might be used there for the same reason; different category of aircraft so controllers know it is faster/slower maybe?

[Maikha Ly]

I've been meaning to make a thread similar to this for a while, for a very trivial query I have. I'm curious to know how Callsigns get created and decided upon, in terms of the ones that aren't the name of the Airline/Operator. Is it something the airline nominated and gets accepted by ICAO or are there other processes?

Some examples like "Unity" (Alliance - I'm pretty sure...), "Go Cat" (Tiger Airways), "Flystar" (Astraeus, now defunct), "Jersey" (Flybe), etc.


Thanks for any insight into this!

[David N]

Hi,

Dont mean to Hijack your post Radi
But I have notice Jetstar 7 Melbourne - Singapore has Z (Zulu) in there call sign and the same with JQ8Z on the return leg

If anyone could help out with why that is.

[Nathan Long]

Flybe is "Jersey" because it started out as Jersey European Airways.

[Mark M]

Originally Posted by Radi K

Maybe a question for a forum overseas but does anyone have any idea why in Europe certain airlines put letters AND numbers as part of their ATC callsigns?

E.g.

EZY122G "Easy 122 Golf"
BAW223A "Speedbird 223 Alpha"
THY7PT "Turkish 7 Papa Tango"
RYR805S "Ryanair 805 Sierra"

I thought it may have been delayed flights? But most airlines put a D on the end.

I'm sure there is a reason, I just cant find it!? It doesnt happen anywhere else I could see? The only airline that does it around AUS is Air Calin. e.g. ACI123S

Thanks in advance.

Radi, a lot of times its because there could be two similar callsigns, eg EZY 22 and EZY 122 so if EZY122 because Easy 122G just stops them sounding so close.

Air Calin I cant help with sorry
Cheers
Mark

[damian f]

I've read previously that Air Calin end their callsigns with "Bravo" on Brisbane flights and "Siera" for Sydney flights.

Damian

[Phil M]

The callsigns that include letters are allegedly harder to confuse. Transposition of numbers and using the incorrect callsign is easier with the number only callsigns. The introduction of a letter as they do in Europe allows for more available callsigns for a start and less chance of confusion as you don't use QFA447 and QFA477, you can have QFA4M7 and QFA47E instead.

[Matt D]

As has been mentioned its as a result of similar callsigns. BA flight 803 may be called BAW6DF.

For at least the last 3 years Eurocontrol has had a Callsign Similarity team working on tools and processes to reduce opportunities for aircraft of similar callsigns being in the same airspace at the same time.

They have a tool, CSST, that looks at schedules, routes and highlights potential similarities. They also run a user forum on the subject made up of member airlines.

The tool isn't public but can be seen on Eurocontrols public site under the Resources tab.
https://www.public.cfmu.eurocontrol....pec/index.html

[Radi K]

Awesome, thanks Matt.

Can I ask who assigns the call signs? Did BA decide to make 803 = 6DF or does Eurocontrol? Does this happen everyday for every flight or would 803 always be 6DF (for example)?