[Acars] REQ:- NUMBER OF DIGITS IN FLIGHT ID

[KEITH D]

Hi All

may seem a dumb question but
we are getting all kinds of weird flight id's here in Europe
we are starting to see several aircrews entering 3 digit airline codes
no to combat this I have entered in my acarsd translation table
change   AFR   to  AF0 thinking with only 6 digits it would cure the 
problem

it actually make matters worse
this am I got from aircraft this

AFR117

this was changed therefore to AF0117
this flight number does not exist
a search of the messages from this aircraft showed its route as

LFPG-EGLL

so then checked teletext for terminal 2 arrivals
that showed AF1170 at the correct time arriving EGLL T2

My question therefore is can the terminal in the aircraft
and the AF computers accept 7 digit flight numbers
within acars messages

using AFR this full flight number would be AFR1170

and that makes 7

other airlines doing this includes BA with BAW

and British midland with BMA instead of BD


cheers for now
-- 
Keith D.