Air carrier described a confused communications event with ATC; listing that the company practice of...

Narrative:

In cruise back to iah we heard a similar call sign; flight abg took our hand off to a new frequency. Our flight number was flight abc. The other aircraft had already switched so we were asked by houston to contact them and ask them to return to frequency. We did and both flights were unaffected. This threat of far too similar flight numbers has been a growing problem and is directly attributable to company policy. While I understand the company's marketing department assigns blocks of flight numbers for us to use; they need to be aware that there are too similar flight numbers flying in the same geographical area and they are directly impacting safety. This isn't an isolated incident; it happens frequently. Going forward I am going to report every one of these events to attempt to get the attention of the company and FAA; in an attempt to force the company to re-evaluate their flight number assignment procedures.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier described a confused communications event with ATC; listing that the company practice of assigning similar four digit call signs within the same area at the same time is directly impacting safety.

Narrative: In cruise back to IAH we heard a similar call sign; Flight ABG took our hand off to a new frequency. Our flight number was Flight ABC. The other aircraft had already switched so we were asked by Houston to contact them and ask them to return to frequency. We did and both flights were unaffected. This threat of far too similar flight numbers has been a growing problem and is directly attributable to company policy. While I understand the company's marketing department assigns blocks of flight numbers for us to use; they need to be aware that there are too similar flight numbers flying in the same geographical area and they are directly impacting safety. This isn't an isolated incident; it happens frequently. Going forward I am going to report every one of these events to attempt to get the attention of the Company and FAA; in an attempt to force the company to re-evaluate their flight number assignment procedures.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1056352
Time
Date	201212
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZHU.ARTCC
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types

Air carrier described a confused communications event with ATC; listing that the company practice of assigning similar four digit call signs within the same area at the same time is directly impacting safety.