Callsigns

This entry may be primarily of interest for those of you who listen to air traffic communications, be it with radios, scanners, or via LiveATC. There are dozens of carriers at LAX, and each is identified with its own radio callsign. Most of the airline radio callsigns match the name on the side of the airplane: Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Southwest, United, and so on. Not just domestic carriers, either: Air Canada, Alitalia, AeroMexico, Eva, Korean, Lufthansa, Mexicana, New Zealand, Qantas, and WestJet are examples from around the world; there are many more. There are those, however, that are not as obvious. This can get confusing for new trainees in particular, because what they call an airplane and what they see out the window don't always match. This applies to traffic calls as well, because when we identify an aircraft to another pilot, we describe the aircraft by what the pilot will see - not how we call it. So, for example, I would say this: "Delta 1266 follow the AirTran B737 from your right" as opposed to "Delta 1266 follow the Citrus B737 . . . " These are the most common LAX carriers with 'non-matching' callsigns:

Air Shuttle is Mesa Airlines; at LAX they fly as US Airways Express using various CRJ models

Air Transport barely qualifies for this post, as they do have their ATI logo on the aircraft

Republic Airlines uses the callsign Brickyard with aircraft bearing both Frontier and Midwest liveries

US Airways used to go by the obvious callsign US Air, but after the merger they adopted America West's Cactus callsign

Cargo King is the cargo arm of China Eastern

AirTran uses the callsign Citrus
(back when they were ValuJet, they went by Critter)

Connie

Costera is the regional partner for AeroMexico; at LAX they show up once around lunch time with an E145, and then again about midnight with an E190.

China Airlines is Taiwan's flag carrier, and uses the callsign Dynasty for both passenger and cargo operations. Confusingly, there is also an Air China, from the People's Republic of China. Both operate at LAX, but not at the same terminal nor to the same destinations.

It says Atlas Air on the plane, but they say Giant on the radio

Virgin Atlantic uses the callsign Virgin (easy enough), but Virgin America goes by Redwood

At LAX, Skywest operates as both Delta Connection and United Express. Thus we regularly have two Skywest flights leaving about the same time for the same destination.

British Airways' Speedbird callsign goes back to BOAC, who got the logo from Imperial Airways

Another member of the Virgin family is V Australia, who goes by Vee Oz