Caribbean Airline Retires Flight #s BW 522 and BW 523

Effective Sunday 07th August 2011, Caribbean Airlines has reported that it will be retiring flight numbers BW 522 and BW 523. Effective Monday, 8th August, the new flight numbers will be BW524 and BW525 respectively.

According to the Caribbean Airlines website, this is customary in the airline industry, following the crash of flight BW 523 (Boeing 737-800) which had overshot the runway at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) in Guyana, while attempting to land.

Retiring numbers is a common occurrence. It is partly done to put persons at ease, and to avoid confusion. It avoids persons researching a current flight on Google only to end up reading about a crash, which might have occurred in the past.

The flight BW 523 had departed from the JFK Airport, and had stopped at the Piarco Airport in Trinidad, prior to landing at the CJIA.

BW 522 previously flew the Georgetown, Port of Spain route, New York route, wheras flight BW 523 flew the return flight.