Flight vs. Callsign, what's the difference?

[GrantCrackers18 4]

Basically, I put in DAL for the Flight, and it "GRG L" for the Callsign.

 

It also spaces DAL very weird, as you can see here.

 

My question(s) are first, what is the difference with Flight and Callsign, and second, why is it putting the "GRG L" in the callsign?

 

Regards,

Grant

[jpgmultimodal 61]

Hello Grant,

 

Flight "DA" is IATA and "GRG" is ICAO. Very basically: IATA is for the PAX (on the ticket) and ICAO for the ATC (Flightplan and callsign). Please note it is not exactly as simple as that in RW.

 

What you did in entering DA L was not for DAL (Delta) but Air Georgia and PFPX undertood that it was the number of the flight and the call sign starting with "L".

 

If you want Delta Air Lines you enter Flight "DL" and it'll give you Callsign "DAL".

 

Regards,

 

JP

[jwenting 16]

Same with airports as well. For exampls Amsterdam Schiphol has IATA code "AMS" and ICAO code "EHAM".

But it can get tricky, as there are entities that exist in one system but not the other, and sometimes with airlines multiple entries in one system can refer to a single one in the other (for example regionals at times use the same flight numbers as their main line, but have their own callsigns, KLM, KLM Excel, KLM Cityhopper, and KLM UK for example (though some of those are now defunct)).

[JohnsonPBX 0]

I just tested and it isn't possible. The process should also work backwards: with this I mean, whenever you enter the ICAO code in the "Callsign" box PFPX should search for matches and automatically fill its IATA equivalent on the "Flight" box. Now, as the vast majority of airlines doesn't have a IATA code in the default database, if you enter a ICAO code and there's no match, the "Flight" box should be automatically filled with "N/A". For planning purposes IATA codes should not be as relevant anyway.