North American Airports by Flight Number 1 Designations

[dimondpark]

Just as I going to compile a list, lo and behold the internet already had one

Flight 1 is the most prestigious flight number assigned by airlines. It’s used to denote a historic route, or one that an airline regards as their flagship service. 

Here are the North American Airports that currently are the origin or destination airport of a Flight 1.

Airline-----Flight Number-Route
Aeromexico-------AM1----Mexico City(MEX) to Madrid(MAD)
Air Canada--------AC1----Toronto(YYZ) to Tokyo(HND)
Air Tahiti Nui------TN1----Los Angeles(LAX) to Papeete(PPT)
AirAsiaX-----------D71----Kuala Lumpur(KUL) to Honolulu(HNL)
Alaska Airlines ----AS1---Washington(DCA) to Seattle(SEA)
American Airlines-AA1----New York(JFK) to Los Angeles(LAX)
ANA----------------NH1---Washington(IAD) to Tokyo(NRT)
British Airways----BA1----London(LHR) to New York(JFK)
China Airlines------CI1---Honolulu(HNL) to Taipei(TPE)
Delta Air Lines-----DL1---London(LHR) to New York(JFK)
El Al----------------LY1----Tel Aviv(TLV) to New York(JFK)
Hawaiian Airlines--HA1---Los Angeles(LAX) to Honolulu(HNL)
Japan Airlines------JL1----San Francisco(SFO) to Tokyo(HAN)
JetBlue Airways----B61---New York(JFK) to Ft Lauderdale(FLL)
Jetstar Airways----JQ1----Melbourne(MEL) to Honolulu(HNL)
Korean Air---------KE1---Seoul(ICN) to Honolulu(HNL)
LOT Polish Airlines-LO1---Warsaw(WAW) to Chicago(ORD)
Singapore Airlines-SQ1---San Francisco(SFO) to Singapore(SIN)
Southwest Airlines-WN1--Dallas(DAL) to Corpus Christi(CRP)
Turkish Airlines-----TK1---Istanbul(IST) to New York(JFK)
United Airlines------UA1---San Francisco(SFO) to Singapore(SIN)
Virgin Atlantic-------VS1--London(LHR) to New York(JFK)
Virgin Australia-----VA1---Sydney(SYD) to Los Angeles(LAX)
WestJet-------------WS1---Calgary(YYC) to London(LGW)

https://www.nomadicnotes.com/flight-1/

[dimondpark]

So we also have a few Flight 1s where North American airports serve as a layover...

Air New Zealand's Flight NZ1 has a layover at Los Angeles on it's way from Auckland to London.

Southwest's Flight WN1 from Love Field to Corpus Christi actually has a layover at Hobby Airport in Houston. Odd imo. UNLESS it was originally DAL-HOU which makes total sense for WN1.

[iheartthed]

You missed LOT Airlines flight LO1, which flies from Warsaw to Chicago.

[mrnyc]

JetBlue Airways----B61---New York(JFK) to Ft Lauderdale(FLL)

lol

[iheartthed]

Also, Air France's most prestigious flight number is AF10 (CDG to JFK), probably to avoid confusion with the POTUS plane.

[Streamliner]

Delta's DL1 between JFK and LHR is surprising. I would have expected it to be ATL. Back in the 90s, Delta didn't even fly to Heathrow.

[Innsertnamehere]

Toronto - Tokyo surprised me, figured it would have been London instead of Tokyo. I guess Tokyo is a much longer flight which makes it more prestigious.

United with San Francisco to Singapore also strikes me as a bit unusual, I figured the major American Airlines would all have it as LAX-NYC.

Otherwise most aren’t surprises.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

You missed LOT Airlines flight LO1, which flies from Warsaw to Chicago.

Thanks for catching that. I had it on my list but goofed during the copy and paste

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Streamliner

Delta's DL1 between JFK and LHR is surprising. I would have expected it to be ATL. Back in the 90s, Delta didn't even fly to Heathrow.

Delta probably picked up the Heathrow slots when they merged with Northwest Airlines, but I'm pretty sure they were at least flying to Gatwick in the 90s.

I've flown DL1 a number of times, so that wasn't surprising to me at all. I'm more surprised that AA1 isn't JFK-LHR. Instead that route is AA100. I suspect that the blanket assumption that the XX1 flight is the most prestigious is probably not universal enough to draw conclusions.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Delta probably picked up the Heathrow slots when they merged with Northwest Airlines, but I'm pretty sure they were at least flying to Gatwick in the 90s.

I've flown DL1 a number of times, so that wasn't surprising to me at all. I'm more surprised that AA1 isn't JFK-LHR. Instead that route is AA100. I suspect that the blanket assumption that the XX1 flight is the most prestigious is probably not universal enough to draw conclusions.

Delta took over Pan American's transatlantic flights in 1991. That is when they began service to Heathrow under the Delta banner. Additional Heathrow slots were made available to US carriers a bit later in the 1990 with flights to Heathrow from cities like Atlanta and DFW. Prior to that flights from Atlanta or DFW flew to Gatwick only. I think American took over TWA's transatlantic slots around 1991 as well. United got into the act somehow at the same time with new slots to Heathrow. Prior to that the only US carriers with slots to Heathrow had been Pan Am and TWA.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Delta took over Pan American's transatlantic flights in 1991. That is when they began service to Heathrow under the Delta banner. Additional Heathrow slots were made available to US carriers a bit later in the 1990 with flights to Heathrow from cities like Atlanta and DFW. Prior to that flights from Atlanta or DFW flew to Gatwick only. I think American took over TWA's transatlantic slots around 1991 as well. United got into the act somehow at the same time with new slots to Heathrow. Prior to that the only US carriers with slots to Heathrow had been Pan Am and TWA.

According to their website, Delta didn't start flying to Heathrow until 2008. That is the same year they merged with Northwest Airlines.

https://news.delta.com/celebrating-1...ondon-heathrow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_...irlines_merger

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Toronto - Tokyo surprised me, figured it would have been London instead of Tokyo. I guess Tokyo is a much longer flight which makes it more prestigious.

United with San Francisco to Singapore also strikes me as a bit unusual, I figured the major American Airlines would all have it as LAX-NYC.

Otherwise most aren’t surprises.

United is the only American carrier that flies to Singapore, so it's kind of a prestigious and unique route which I think is a better move than throwing it on a trunk route like NYC-LAX that has a million daily flights.

[sopas ej]

Interesting there's no "Flight 1" designation for any direct flights from North America to South America.

Incidentally, I remember seeing something on the internet that there are no direct flights from Asia to South America and vice-versa. Technology seems to be the limiting factor; they're just too far apart.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

According to their website, Delta didn't start flying to Heathrow until 2008. That is the same year they merged with Northwest Airlines.

https://news.delta.com/celebrating-1...ondon-heathrow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_...irlines_merger

You are correct. United purchased PanAm's Heathrow slots back in 1985, so when Delta took over PanAm's transatlantic operations in 1991, JFK-Heathrow was not part of the deal. I flew Delta flights to AMS and FRA out of the old JFK PanAm terminal several times in the early 1990s and just assumed that they operated JFK-Heathrow flights from there.

[JMKeynes]

Yet another list of urban significance dominated by the Financial Capital of the World!

Airline-----Flight Number-Route

American Airlines-AA1----New York(JFK) to Los Angeles(LAX)

British Airways----BA1----London(LHR) to New York(JFK)

Delta Air Lines-----DL1---London(LHR) to New York(JFK)

El Al----------------LY1----Tel Aviv(TLV) to New York(JFK)

Air France….. AF10 Paris (CDG) to NY (JFK)


Turkish Airlines-----TK1---Istanbul(IST) to New York(JFK)

Virgin Atlantic-------VS1--London(LHR) to New York(JFK)

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Interesting there's no "Flight 1" designation for any direct flights from North America to South America.

Incidentally, I remember seeing something on the internet that there are no direct flights from Asia to South America and vice-versa. Technology seems to be the limiting factor; they're just too far apart.

Well, technically there are flights from Asia to South America (e.g. Dubai to Sao Paulo), but not from East Asia. But, e.g. Tokyo to Quito I think is feasible (14,400 km), though not likely to be commercially viable. Tokyo to Sao Paulo (the probably obvious flight to exist) is 18,500 km though, which is too far even for the A350-900ULR (18000 km range, apparently?).

You can fly to Santiago through Australia or NZ though, which is kind of cool. Probably the farthest south commercial flight? Looks like you can fly around the world without crossing the tropics (assuming GRU is south of the Tropic of Capricorn? Looks like it's close...) by flying Sao Paulo -> Santiago -> Sydney -> Joburg -> Sao Paulo.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Southwest Airlines-WN1--Dallas(DAL) to Corpus Christi(CRP)

One of these things is not like the others...

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

You can fly to Santiago through Australia or NZ though, which is kind of cool. Probably the farthest south commercial flight? Looks like you can fly around the world without crossing the tropics (assuming GRU is south of the Tropic of Capricorn? Looks like it's close...) by flying Sao Paulo -> Santiago -> Sydney -> Joburg -> Sao Paulo.

Ironically, Australia is the only western country that requires Chilean tourists to acquire a travel visa. I think Chile requires Australian tourists to purchase a visa on arrival.

[Streamliner]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

According to their website, Delta didn't start flying to Heathrow until 2008. That is the same year they merged with Northwest Airlines.

https://news.delta.com/celebrating-1...ondon-heathrow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_...irlines_merger

Yeah this matches my experience growing up flying Delta pre-merger. I only ever flew into Gatwick on Delta, I always found it odd that a major US carrier was only allowed to fly into London's second airport.

[PhillyRising]

In the early 90's I had a part time data entry job that was for the TWA frequent flyer program and I'm pretty sure their Flight #1 was between St Louis and Honolulu.