Here’s a fun topic for aviation geeks (so if you’re not one, feel free to skip this post)…
Continue reading: Fun & Creative Airline Callsigns, From Shamrock To Starwalker
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
History has more excellent examples: Clipper (Pan Am, named for their flying boats); Springbok (South African, eliminated due to cultural connotations with apartheid); Cactus (America West, self explanatory, retained when AW bought USAir, but eliminated when AW took over AA)
I cannot, for the life of me, fathom why airline call signs insist on being the most theatrical syntaxes ever conceived. “Speedbird,” “Cactus,” “Shamrock,” half of them sound like rejected stage names for a washed up magician who performs only on Tuesdays, and the other half sound like someone sneezed into a radio and ATC just decided to roll with it. And yet, pilots say them with such solemnity, as if invoking ancient spirits: “Speedbird 127, cleared for takeoff.” Oh yes, absolutely, take flight, noble avian metaphor, go forth and deliver passengers their lukewarm lasagna.
And speaking of lasagna, it was exactly that greasy, cheese slicked culinary brick that pushed me into going vegan the night before my trip to Milan.
Going vegan, I decided, was the only logical path forward, and I maintained this undercooked resolve all the way through securitty.
But then on the plane call sign “Marlin,” which is objectively hilarious because marlins neither fly nor respect airspace boundaries, I found myself sitting next to a woman carrying a book about octopuses. Not octopi, she informed me before I even introduced myself, because apparently the pluralization rules are more tangled than an octopus deciding whether to escape a jar or write a philosophy thesis. She spent the next two hours explaining how octopuses can rewrite their own dna on command, which frankly seems like cheating. If I could rewrite my syntaxes on the fly, I’d be unstoppable.
i have reconsidered veganism three times, made peace with octopus intellect, and decided airline call signs are a kind of linguistic performance art.
I listen to ATC live (usually DCA) and hear brickyard (republic ) often and only today learned the origin. Thank you Ben
And here are some more interesting ones:
Cebgo (Cebu Pacific subsidary) - Blue Jay
Zipair - Zippy
Scoot - Scooter
Kalitta Air - Connie (fun fact - named after founder & CEO Conrad Kalitta)
China Cargo Airlines - Cargo King
BermudAir - Gosling
@Jim - "Springbok" has most definitely not been eliminated as the radio telephony callsign for SAA. The "Flying Springbok" logo of the apartheid era SAA was updated in 1997 to the current flag based logo, but the callsign is still in place.
Speaking of callsigns, years ago, there was an easy listening radio station in San Luis Obispo, California. Its callsign was K-C-O-C. And, its slogan was "in the air, everywhere." Don't believe it? Look it up.
I suspect Atlas got "Giant" because it shares a name (or is named after?) Atlas, a Greek Titan who was doomed to holding up the heavens on his shoulders; this is also reflected in the Atlas Air logo as seen on the tails of its jets.
Atlas is also the mythical Greek Titan holding up the sky, which to me feels a more poetic explanation for "Giant" than "we fly big planes".
Atlas is a Titan (Giant) condemned to hold up the heavens or sky for eternity after the Titanomachy according to greek Mythologie.
It would also be odd for an airline to drop the naming convention when their beloved Union team are called the springboks!
I clicked the comments here to see if one of the resident loons could somehow get mad at an article about call signs and you didn't let me down. Thank you.
Not quite correct, Shawn. Springbok was originally Springbrook, but certain people pronounced 'brook' and 'bok', and this stuck. Particularly on their ultra long haul Services to Asia where this convention began.
Great read to start a Monday morning. My all time favorite has to be SpeedBird!
Wonder how PSA airlines got Blue Streak?
Starlux couldn't use STARLUX as its callsign because Comlux Aruba already occupied it.
Listening to SNIC on OMAAT spewing facts almost as accurate as his Etihad Residence experience (which he never saw). As the bullets whizzed by SNIC's head, he was flying left and right, he then woke up from his dream screaming that HE LIED. Next time I go to Vietnam I will ask “the Dick” to travel with me!
Jessica - that's a c. 2018 tweet from Trump lol. She changed Richard Blumenthal out and added in SNIC. Grow up and find a new way to troll instead of recycling Trump's old tweets. Buffoon.
Atlas Air is 100% named for the Titan who was cursed to hold up the globe. It's literally their logo!
Can’t forget about Pan Am’s Clipper callsign. I regret not being able to fly them when they were still around.
GoJet (a United Express carrier) = "Lindbergh"
Also, Porter Airlines have two different callsigns depending on aircraft types, I believe because the are operated by different subsidiaries. When they got the E195s, those remained with the existing "Porter Air" callsign, while the old Dash 8-Q400 fleet got changed to a "DashPort" callsign. To the public it's all one airline, without a mainline/express distinction.
I always thought Air Florida had a good call sign, “Palm”…. A long time ago FedEx was Federal Express and used the call sign “Express”…. My all time favorite was Canadian Pacific, CP Air, that used the call sign “Empress”. I wish that one was still around.
Back in the days when China Airlines was stuffing airplanes into the ground on a seemingly weekly basis, one wag suggested their callsign stood for “Die Nasty”….
(Not to be confused with today’s airline, which is perfectly safe and one which I happily fly every year)
"it’s intended to reflect the history of Taiwan."
Taiwan never had a dynasty of its own.
The indigenous people never had a dynasty, they were occupied by the Han, Qing, Dutch, Japanese, KMT, etc.
DAGOBERT (Quick Air from Germany) was the worst one I had to use. Always felt stupid saying it.
Shamrock is a great call sign for Aer Lingus, and it is certainly very closely associated with both the airline and the country. However, if you want to say that something is THE national symbol of Ireland, I think you'll find it's the harp. It's what's on passports and other official documents. I enjoyed this article, and hope you don't mind a friendly clarification about Irish symbols. Ireland is very proud that it is the only country in the world that has a musical instrument as it's national symbol.
Here in Australia our local Tiger Airways line (which died during COVID) had the callsign "Go-Cat" as in the cat food brand 🙂