I recently traveled on seat 6E on Indigo Airlines flight from PNQ to MAA.
This is a common seat number on all flights. It’s not even one of the most preferred seats selected by frequent flyers.
So, what’s the big deal, huh?
6E also happens to be the airline code of Indigo Airlines.
Of the 20-odd airlines that I must have flown by over the last few decades, I’ve never been on a flight where my seat number matched the airline code. So, this match was a first for me.
It turns out that it’s extremely rare for anyone in the world.
Seat numbers are alphanumeric, but with number first and letter next. The number denotes the row and the letter denotes the position on the row e.g. 6E is position E on the sixth row.
Therefore, they can’t match airline codes of airlines whose codes are purely alphabetical e.g. AI (Air India), AA (American Airways), BA (British Airways), DL (Delta), LH (Lufthansa), SQ (Singapore Airlines) and SG (Spicejet), to name a few.
Now, let’s come to airlines that have alphanumeric codes e.g. Air Sahara (S2), GoAir (G8), Paramount Airways (I7), and AirAsia India (I5). We can skip all of them – and any other airlines whose codes begin with a letter – since seat numbers must begin with a numeral.
Next, if we look at airline codes that begin with a number and are followed by a letter, we can rule out the following airlines from our list:
- Amber Air (0A) and others whose codes begin with zero, since seat numbers can’t begin with zero.
- Airlines whose codes contain L to Z since K is the last letter used for identifying seats, with the widest body aircraft currently in service having no more than ten seats in a row (Source: Wikipedia). Examples of airlines in this category are Air Philippines (2P), Air Vegas (6V), and Jet Airways (9W).
- Sky Trek International Airlines (1I), International Business Air (6I), Myway Airlines (7I) and a few other airlines that have ‘I’ in their codes. Since it could cause a mixup with the numeral ‘1’, the letter ‘I’ is generally left out of seat numbers.
Therefore, a seat number can match the airline code only on airlines having codes that begin with a numeral between 1 and 9 and are followed by a letter between A and K (barring I). According to this list developed by me, there are only 73 such airlines globally. That’s just 1.35% of the 5,666 airlines in the world. BTW, Indigo is the only airline from India on this list.
So, flying on a seat whose number matches the airline code happens only 1.35% of the time. Which means that 98.65% ~ 99% of air travelers will never have this experience in their lifetime.
On a side note, when I reached my seat, I noticed that someone else was sitting there. They’d read 6E 302 on their boarding pass and assumed 6E was their seat number (which was actually 24D). The purser told me that this confusion happens on almost every flight.
UPDATE DATED 25 AUG 2022
This happened again!
On my Indigo flight 6E6876 from Pune to Goa today, I had the seat number 6E. As on the original occasion nine years ago, I didn’t choose this seat – it was allocated at random by the airline.
Per original post, the chances of having the same seat number as the airline code is around 1%.
What’re the chances of this happening twice?
I don’t remember enough probabilty theory to be sure whether it is 1%*1% = 0.0001 ~ 0.01% or 1%/2 = 0.5% ~ 0.005.
If any readers know, please share in the comments below. Thanks in advance.