ANA1/ANA2 are 777-300ER flights between NRT and IAD.
ANA1 IAD-NRT shows up on FA as “773”
ANA2 NRT-IAD shows up on FA as “77W”
What is the possible reason for this? Is it because there are different (airline) dispatchers filing the flight plans with different equipment types? The 773 and 77W are fairly consistent on the respective flights (for the last couple of weeks at least).
Thanks in advance for the explanation.
According to the FAA’s Contractions publication, the official code is B773 so ANA1 is encoded correctly. I did notice that ANA2, with the exception of the past couple of weeks, also had B773.
It’s possible that someone erroneously entered B77W when he meant to enter B773/W and for some reason it stuck. (The /w indicates the aircraft equipment. A complete list is available here.)
Perhaps so. But 77W is also the code normally used for -300ER in airline timetables etc. which is why I thought the 77W was intentional.
What drew my attention to this was a JAL delivery flight from KPAE to RJAA which showed up as a “77W” and while I was looking around to see if I could spot other instances of “77W” I noticed this ANA1/ANA2 anomaly.
Thanks
77W is the IATA code for the 777-300ER.; similarly 77E for the -200ER and 77L for the -200LR. The person filing the flight plan probably used the code from the reservations system instead of the ICAO code. About a third of B773 flights file as B77W, so it’s not uncommon.
I know these are the codes used by IATA. I was going to mention this in my posting but thought that dispatchers wouldn’t use IATA codes instead of the ICAO codes.
Interestingly, ANAs LAX and SFO flights use B77W in both directions.
Both ANA and SIA switched to using B77W regularly in early June.
CPA started using B77W regularly from mid-May.
UAE have been using B77W regularly since mid-March.
All airlines mentioned above were using B773 or B777 before the point of their transition to using B77W.
It almost appears as though something changed (?) that now permits them to regularly file plans as B77W.
Perhaps canned flight plans? Once entered as 77W then they would always show up as 77W until the canned flight plan is changed.
Interesting…
I can assure, it is a B777-300 that rolls in and out of IAD to NRT for NH.
Look up QR, and AF from IAD. AF afternoon turn is a -300, QR to Doha also a -300…never noticed what the notes say…I’ll look as well. 
I know. My point was about airlines like ANA filing flight plans using B77W instead of B773 for their 777-300ER flights (and in the case of the IAD flight oddly doing this in only one direction).
Both QR and AF (about whom you asked) still use B773 for their 777-300ER flight plans.
Ok.
Yikes!
FAA reports a minor runway incident at Los Angeles International Airport
A Boeing 777-300 is usually designated “B773,” but the tag for the All Nippon flight was “B77W,” a new international designation that controllers had not been told about, FAA officials said.
Edited to add: I found this link which indicates that B77L and B77W were officially added by ICAO on 9 April 2008. Since the 77L/77W have about a 4m larger wingspan than the 772/773, it does make a difference for ground controllers whether the aircraft is a 77W or 773.
Air France have now also started using the designator B77W for their -300ER flights.