Commercial Fixed Wing
Dispatch Dispatcher
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Company Policy
Not too long after taking over the desk today; the SOD STUB Originated Flight (flight #) DAL-ZZZ with aircraft (AC#) and call sign (stub flight #). I added the following canned phrase to the remarks section of the new release and filed it: CALLSIGN CHANGED WITH ATC DUE TO CONFLICTING FLIGHT NUMBERS; I did not cancel the original ATC Strip for flight (flight #) DAL-ZZZ as I did not think it was necessary due to the call sign change. However; 30 minutes after departing DAL the pilot tells me via ACARS that he is operating flight (flight #) but his release says (stub flight #). I immediately realized he contacted Clearance Delivery as (flight #) instead of (stub flight #). I explained to the pilot that his flight was a STUB Originate and the call sign change was to avoid radio errors with the inbound (flight #) ZZZ1-DAL. I looked at inbound flight (flight #) and saw it blocked into DAL before the STUB (stub flight #) pushed out of DAL. I advised the pilot to continue as (flight #).
Dispatcher described unintended consequences when trying to change a flight number to avoid duplication in the ATC system.