Does anyone know why United A320’s are flying to Lake City Municipal in Florida from ORD and JAX? Flight numbers are not scheduled flights like these ones:
09-Jan-2006 A320/Q Chicago Ohare Int’l [KORD] Lake City Municipal [KLCQ] 19:35 CST 22:37 EST En Route
12-Dec-2005 A320/Q Chicago Ohare Int’l [KORD] Lake City Municipal [KLCQ] 20:27 CST 23:05 EST 1:38
18-Nov-2005 A320/Q Chicago Ohare Int’l [KORD] Lake City Municipal [KLCQ] 09:43 CST 12:43 EST 2:00
13-Nov-2005 A320/R Jacksonville Int’l [KJAX] Lake City Municipal [KLCQ] 14:25 EST 14:42 EST 0:17
The UAL9382 shown as the RIO-LA-Tokyo flight is not a real flight number. Rather, it indicates a code share with Varig.
The real UAL9382, as with all other flights in the 9000-9999 range, is a charter or ferry flight operated by UAL.
I’ve noticed the many flights to Lake City also. Doing some research, I found out there is a stock car racing track there. Could this be the reason for the charters?
I also saw this: “Lake City is probably best known for the Olustee Battlefield Reenactment that they hold every year. This is a big event with thousands attending from all over.” It’s held in February. This could also be part of the reason for the number charters.
One last thing: There is an Army Reserve base located near Lake City. This could be another reason for the charters.
The UAL9382 shown as the RIO-LA-Tokyo flight is not a real flight number. Rather, it indicates a code share with Varig.
The real UAL9382, as with all other flights in the 9000-9999 range, is a charter or ferry flight operated by UAL.
I believe what you say, but don’t you think people with family members on charter flights ought to be able to check flight status online? Evidently, UAL doesn’t think that’s necessary. Bad customer service, imo.
I also saw this: “Lake City is probably best known for the Olustee Battlefield Reenactment that they hold every year. This is a big event with thousands attending from all over.” It’s held in February. This could also be part of the reason for the number charters.
Nah. Too much lead time for people to be away from jobs, school, etc.
One last thing: There is an Army Reserve base located near Lake City. This could be another reason for the charters.
Bingo! Check out airport activity for Robert Gray AAF [KGRK], associated with Ft. Hood in Texas. There’s a massive number of flights for an airport that nominally has no commercial air service. It’s true that most flights are to Dallas or Houston, but, in December, AAL was running a daily 777 round-trip to Frankfurt, Germany. Currently, there’s an Arrival shown for WOA from Bangor, ME. Check into that flight and you’ll see a segment from Shannon to Bangor. Probably the flight had an initial leg from a European military installation.
I like the military angle to explain the flights from KORD to KLCQ. How big is that Lake City reserve base? Where do most of the reservists come from?
Don’t know the size. Actually, the reserve units are located in Gainesville. There a couple of National Guard detachments in Lake City, the “Gateway to Florida.”
Lake City Fl has a maint shop, they do some repairs and overhauls,I’m not sure how United and others come up with these flight numbers, if you watch most are at night, the reapirs are done over night and they ship them back out, I am not to sure exactly what work they do there
There are essentially two flight numbering systems, the IATA system presented to passengers (e.g., UA9123) and the ICAO system presented to pilots, air traffic control, FlightAware, etc, (e.g., UAL9123).
Like many airlines, United Airlines operates in code share agreements where a UA IATA flight number might actually be operated by another carrier. These are done in blocks so, for example, UAL9501 might actually be some other carrier’s flight “501” or flight “1”
Also like many airlines, United uses their high numbered ICAO flight numbers for the purpose of ferrying aircraft, maintenance flights, or other operational requirements.
It is due to inadequacies that sometimes these flight numbers conflict.
I routinely look into United Airlines flights and operations. The use of A320’s for such short hops is not uncommon. The flights mentioned make me wonder if they’re not being flown in for a repaint. As many of you know, United uses A320’s for their TED flights (The low cost division for competition against Southwest and Frontier) so it would not surprise me if that is what is going on.
As was correctly mentioned, United Airlines has a lot of codeshare flights. To help clarify what the numbers are, here is a list.
Flight Range United
0001-1249 United
1250-1271 United TED
1400-1595 United TED
Flight Range Alliances and Partnerships
1700-2827 US Airways
2953-3831 US Airways Express
4636-4657 TAP Portugal
4660-4689 Asiana
4758-4796 LOT - Polish Airlines
4800-4899 bmi
4900-4999 Aloha Airlines
4966-4998 IslandAir
5000-5198 Great Lakes Aviation
8100-8573 Air Canada/AIr Canada JAZZ
8775-9288 Lufthansa Airlines/Air Dolomiti/Cityline/Condor for Lufthansa/PrivatAir for Lufthansa
9302-9428 SAS - Scandinavian Airlines
9435-9463 Air China
9469-9495 Austrian/Tyrolean Airways/Lauda Air
9501-9515 Virgin Blue
9516-9592 Air New Zealand
9593-9667 Gulfstream - Continental Connection
9680-9754 ANAAll Nippon/Air Central/IBEX Airlines/Air Nippon/Air Japan
9830-9864 VARIG
9870-9881 Thai Airways International
Flight Range United Express
5218-5245 Colgan
5319-5696 Air Wisconsin Airlines
5800-6999 Sky West Airlines
7015-7329 Mesa Airlines
7501-7701 Shuttle America
7795-7858 Chautauqua Airlines
7875-7893 Go Jet
7950-8083 Trans States Airlines
That is exactly right. Timco is headquartered in Greensboro and does quite a bit of narrow body routine light maintence as well as c-checks and paint at LCQ. The most common are AWA 320’s and 757’s, Ted AND UAL 319 & 320s along with some mexican airlines(not sure who)MD80s & DC9s and Aero California(is that right???) 9s as well. They used to do alot of Military C130s for the US and Mexican militaries as well, not sure of that recently. They have also done work on John Travoltas old 727 and the 707. Last time I went by there I saw about 5 or 6 old AirTran 9’s and some US Air MD-80s in storage.
Hope this helps even though I jumped in a little late!
