Surprising things you probably didn't know about your flight number

They are such a fundamental part of the modern airport experience that you might almost have forgotten they exist - scanning down the terminal departures board for the name of your destination, and all but overlooking the small combination of digits and numbers that waits alongside.

But a flight number is more than a random departure code for a plane scheduled to wing its way from one long runway to another. At least, some of them are; little nuggets of data and information with stories to tell. Such as...

AA1

Airlines often save the first number for one of their most prestigious routes. In the case of American Airlines, this is the connection between John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and Los Angeles International. AA2 is the return service from California.

QF1

Qantas plays the same game. QF1 is its Sydney-Heathrow service, via Singapore.

BA1

British Airways also takes this approach. BA001 used to be its blue-riband flight from Heathrow to JFK on Concorde. The number still exists, and still adorns a celebrated service. Except that now, it's the business-class only link from London City to JFK via Shannon - a connection where passengers clear US immigration in advance in Ireland.

Air New Zealand's number one flight links London and Auckland via LA; United's flies from San Francisco to Singapore; El Al's goes from Tel Aviv to New York City.

AA10

Traditionally, even flight numbers are used by US carriers for eastbound or northbound services and odd numbers are reserved for westbound and southbound flights. For example, AA10 (as well as AA292, AA118, AA2, AA4...) takes passengers with American Airlines from LA to New York City, while AA33, AA255, and so on, go in the opposite direction.

BA364

A number can often be an indication of destination. A British Airways flight with 36 or 37 as its first two digits will be on French soil at some point. BA364 goes from Heathrow to Lyon. BA373 is a quick two-hour hop between Toulouse and Heathrow.

BA901

By the same token, British Airways services where the first number is a nine will be flying either to or from Germany. BA901 dashes from Frankfurt to Heathrow. BA995 wings its way from Berlin Tegel to London's biggest airport.

BA007

Searching for a Bond connection in the (double-o) seventh flight in BA's roster? You need to look towards the fifth movie in the franchise - 1967's You Only Live Twice. This is the movie where 007 (Sean Connery) visits this flight's end destination, Tokyo.

VS4047

Four-digit numbers generally indicate a codeshare service. In this case, the Virgin Atlantic connection from Heathrow to Atlanta, which is also a Delta flight - DL29.

MH360

Airlines generally retire a flight number if that service suffers a fatal accident. Thus MH360 is the Malaysian Airlines service between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing - it used to be the now infamous MH370. The return leg, formerly MH371, is now MH361.

UA717

The same alteration occurred with all four flights which crashed on September 11. UA717 - rather than UA175 - is now the number for the United Airlines link between Boston Logan and LAX, which struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

AA1776

Some numbers have more celebratory stories. The American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Boston has the number 1776 in tribute to the year that the US Declaration of Independence was signed in the take-off city. On July 4, of course.

UA500

Some shameless playing to the gallery here from United Airlines - its flight from Indianapolis to San Francisco is so-numbered in salute to the Indianapolis 500 car race.

UA888

Eight is seen as a lucky number in Asia. The United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Beijing hedges no bets by including three cases of the fortunate figure.

B6 66

The space between the sixes in the number for the JetBlue flight from Albuquerque to JFK is there for two reasons. First, it avoids the prospect of a link carrying the devilish number 666. Secondly, it brings in a 66. As in Route 66 - on which Albuquerque sits.

QF666

Generally, airlines avoid the number of the beast. So this Qantas flight number does not exist. Nor, as another example, does QF13. Thirteen is, of course, an unlucky number.

FR666

Trust Ryanair to do things a little differently. This isn't a flight to hell, but it is a real flight number - denoting the budget airline's service between Dublin and Birmingham.