Lax controller voiced concern regarding the practice of company's adding an alpha character to fligh...

Narrative:

Air carrier X charlie exited the runway and was told to taxi via bravo. The pilot was unsure as to which taxiway to use. He/she could have chosen bravo or charlie. The confusion arose because of her call sign; air carrier xcharlie. Lax's prominent taxiways alfa; bravo;charlie; delta and; echo. At other airports it could be any other letter of the alphabet. A few years ago the only time you saw an alpha character at the end of the call sign was when it had been added by ATC. The proliferation of carrier added letters is epidemic. This needs to be halted for safety's sake. Recommendation; the DOT/FAA should issue a directive to all air carriers that they shall cease the arbitrary use of alpha characters at the end of their call signs. With taxiways on both sides of a runway the possibility of someone having a read back/hear back error and that leading to a runway incursion and/or catastrophic accident is possible.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: LAX Controller voiced concern regarding the practice of company's adding an alpha character to flight numbers which could easily be confused with taxiway alpha identifications.

Narrative: Air Carrier X Charlie exited the runway and was told to taxi via Bravo. The pilot was unsure as to which taxiway to use. He/She could have chosen Bravo or Charlie. The confusion arose because of her call sign; Air Carrier XCharlie. LAX's prominent taxiways ALFA; BRAVO;CHARLIE; DELTA and; ECHO. At other airports it could be any other letter of the alphabet. A few years ago the only time you saw an alpha character at the end of the call sign was when it had been added by ATC. The proliferation of Carrier added letters is epidemic. This needs to be halted for safety's sake. Recommendation; the DOT/FAA should issue a directive to all Air Carriers that they shall cease the arbitrary use of alpha characters at the end of their call signs. With taxiways on both sides of a runway the possibility of someone having a read back/hear back error and that leading to a runway incursion and/or catastrophic accident is possible.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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	869811
Time
Date	201001
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	LAX.Tower
State Reference	CA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Local
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types

Lax controller voiced concern regarding the practice of company's adding an alpha character to flight numbers which could easily be confused with taxiway alpha identifications.