Heavy Transport
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 114
Communication Breakdown; Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Company Policy
SPIM to ZZZ cancelled a few days ago; but came home last night. They took off around 15 minutes prior to us. On paper they were Aircraft Y; or close to that; but they took off as Aircraft X. We were Aircraft X. This caused problems all night as we were on the same frequency most of the night. Callsigns this close would cause problems anywhere; but south of the border; the controllers could not grasp that they had to use complete callsigns - add the 'Company name' to the other callsigns. Had it not been for the diligence of both crews we would have taken one another's clearances several times in the night. Having two aircraft airborne in close proximity to one another with callsigns that close is unacceptable. This problem should have been foreseeable.
Air carrier Captain reported two flights with similar callsigns departing the same airport around the same time created confusion in communication between controllers and flight crew.