Avgeeks throughout the twittersphere have offered photos and remembrance for US Airways “Cactus” Callsign. Why is today the last day for Cactus? Because its been widely reported that American Airlines anticipates getting a Single Operating Certificate on 8 April. With that, all American Airlines planes — whether former US Airways or American Airlines) will sport the “American” callsign.
In that spirit, I thought I’d highlight some other “cool” callsigns:
- US Airways “Cactus” callsign is actually from its America West days.
- Republic Airways callsign is “Brickyard” – not something I’d expect for an airline
- Tiger Airways Australia’s is “Go Cat” — if only they went with ThunderCat
- British Airways Ltd.’s London City (LCY) to New York’s John F. Kennedy (JFK) flight operated by an A318 use the callsign of “Gherkin” – which apparently pays homage to the pickle skyscraper in London’s business district.
- Singapore’s low cost carrier, Scoot Airlines, goes by Scooter – not terribly out of the ordinary, but fun, much like the airline looks (until you look at the seatmap)
- Delta Connection Kenya (now called “D-Connection”) uses the callsign of “Nilecat”
You can check out a bunch more via Airodyssey.net (my source for most of the above).
H/T @AirlineFlyer
I am guessing Republic’s call sign comes from the fact that they are based in Indianapolis, home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway…. often called “The Brickyard” because it was originally paved in bricks.
@Chris – That could very well be the origin of Republic’s call sign. I do enjoy watching the races at “The Brickyard” too — It’s probably the only positive context to say “kiss the bricks” (which NASCAR winners do there).