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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-will-soon-switch-over-to-4-digit-flight-numbers/articleshow/55951095.cms

India will soon switch over to 4-digit flight numbers

Dec 13, 2016

In a bid to enhance safe flying and end the confusion caused by similar sounding call signs or flight numbers, India will soon switch over to longer flight numbers. Instead of the current three-digit flights numbers, the country will transition to longer four-digit ones.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is working on this switch over as India has witnessed an exponential growth in air traffic in past few years and is the world's fastest growing aviation market.

The existing three-digit numbers are increasingly leading to confusion and there has been a spate of safety scares when similar sounding flight numbers operate to or from the same airport around the same time — something which happens very frequently due to the volume of traffic now.

For instance, the regular approved a schedule of 16,600 weekly domestic flights in the ongoing winters, up 21% from last winter's figure of 13,744. The four-digit flight numbers will simply mean more available flight numbers and removing the possibility of similar sounding flights operating to or from the same airport close to each other.

"This is a very important project. We have had a few meetings on this issue and hope to crystalise this in the next week or so. A number of other countries have moved to four digit flight numbers and we will also do so shortly given the rise in air traffic here," said a senior DGCA official.
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justbala · Member Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 1898 Location: Bangalore

Dont airlines already use 4 digit flight numbers - AFAIK - Jet always used 4 digit flight numbers for all ATR ops.

What is new here?

747-237 · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:45 am Post subject:

binaiks · Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 162 Location: VOBL/VOCI

AirAsia India just moved from 4 digit to 3 digit and DGCA now talks of moving all to 4 digits Laughing

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justbala · Member Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 1898 Location: Bangalore

747-237 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 10:12 am Post subject:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/airlines-running-out-of-flight-numbers/articleshow/57680555.cms

Airlines running out of flight numbers

Mar 17, 2017

The boom in aviation in India has given rise to a peculiar problem — airlines are running out of flight numbers. With a growing number of flights and too few flight numbers, call sign confusion emerged as a serious concern among authorities at the recently concluded meeting for deciding summer slots.

The existing three-digit codes are increasingly leading to confusion and there has been a spate of safety scares when similar sounding flight numbers operate to or from the same airport around the same time — something that's happening with increasing frequency due to the volume of traffic.

At the meeting, S B Sharma, Airport Authority of India's joint GM (air traffic management), said 1,800 call sign conflicts were resolved in the last season (last summer).

According to the minutes of the meeting, Sharma requested airlines to follow guidelines for enhancing safety of aircraft.

Lalit Gupta, joint DG and head of safety, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, too flagged the issue. "Even after detailed deliberations on call sign conflicts during last season, airline operators are filing new flights in the same route within a 15-minute gap, with similar call signs. They were advised to take cognizance of guidelines on the call sign conflict issue," Gupta was quoted in the minutes as saying.

Aviation authorities have for long been planning to end the confusion caused by similar sounding call signs or flight numbers by switching over from three-digit to four-digit flight numbers. But there has been no decision so far despite growing traffic.

Till that happens, the regulator had taken some interim decisions like not allowing similar sounding call signs or signs with same digits in their numeric part to be flying within a space of up to two hours in the same region.

All big Indian airlines use three-digit flight numbers that are suffixed to the airline code, such as AI for Air India. A few small airlines with a handful of daily flights have used four-digit numbers.
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747-237 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:59 pm Post subject:

the regulator has asked airlines and airports not to:
allow flights of same airline with identical last/first two digits or identical fist and last digits within an hour;
allow identical flight numbers of two airlines within 2 hours;
and similar combinations of three and four digit flights numbers within an hour.
Two flights of the same operator cannot operate with same call sign within 12 hours from the same airport, the regulator says.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/contact-cockpit-every-20-minutes-when-one-pilot-sleeping-dgca-tells-cabin-crew/articleshow/57692357.cms
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