Why do airlines skip the letter I?

On many aircraft, the rightmost seats have letter designations HJK, skipping the letter I. This is because each seat has a row number followed by letter; letters that may be confused with numbers (I, O, Q, S, or Z) must be avoided, usually for people with dyslexia.



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The convention seems to be that the window seats will be A and F, and the aisle seats C and D. So, where there are only two seats on each side, B and E are not used. Things are a little more complex on wide-body jets. So you have A and K as window seats, with C,D,G and H as aisle seats.

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We used to skip 33 on certain maps to make the [final] row standardized, but the end row is no longer standardized, a United Airlines spokesperson told Travel + Leisure. In short, the reasoning behind having a unanimous seating map is a math equation of sorts.

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“Rows 13 and 17 are missing because these are considered unlucky numbers #bettersafethansorry,” Lufthansa said in a 2017 tweet, accompanied by a wink emoji. United Airlines doesn't have a row 13 or 14 either, with row 14 considered unlucky as it sounds like “will die” in Chinese.

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Rows 6-9 and 19-20 will be missing. This was done to allow frequent flyers to better understand and compare seats on any plane, and to allow the airline “room” in the form of available row numbers to add to the first or premium economy sections.

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Superstition around numbers influences the omission of row 13 on Ryanair and Lufthansa flights, as well as other airlines like Air France and Virgin Atlantic. The number 13 is considered bad luck in various cultures, leading to its avoidance in many aspects of everyday life, including airline seat numbering.

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There are dozens of airlines based in Europe and Asia that purposefully snub the 13th row from their fleet of aircrafts. U.S.-based airlines such as American, Delta, Southwest and Jetblue to name a few, do in fact have a Row 13 despite a resounding belief in western culture that the number implies bad luck.

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The convention seems to be that the window seats will be A and F, and the aisle seats C and D. So, where there are only two seats on each side, B and E are not used. Things are a little more complex on wide-body jets.

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You might be thinking that the numbers on this diagram are backwards. On a handheld compass, south is 180 degrees (so 18 in runway terms) and west is 270 (27). But the “W” is numbered 9 because the runway number is connected to the direction the plane is traveling.

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However, statistically speaking, a seat close to an exit in the front or rear, or a middle seat in the back third of the plane offers the lowest fatality rate. That said, flying is still the safest form of transport.

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The middle seat in the final seat is your safest bet
The middle rear seats of an aircraft had the lowest fatality rate: 28%, compared to 44% for the middle aisle seats, according to a TIME investigation that examined 35 years' worth of aircraft accident data.

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It reflects sunlight. The main reason why aircraft are painted white or light colours is to reflect sunlight. Other colours will absorb most of the light. This is crucial as when sunlight is absorbed by an aircraft, this heats up the body of an airplane.

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And in this day and age, a comm problem between cockpit and galley seems like good reason to go mx. Uh, no, not at all. The “Flight Attendants take your jumpseats” and “Flight Attendants Check In” calls are procedures in force by flight ops to reduce the turbulence related injuries incurred by the flight attendants.

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Since most runways are oriented to take advantage of prevailing winds to assist in takeoffs and landings, they can be used either direction. This is why most runways have two numbers. The second number differs by 18 or 180 degrees.

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Runway numbers are actually a reference to the closest magnetic heading of the runway. The runway heading is rounded to the nearest 10 degrees, and the zero is removed. This number is then assigned to the runway. Further differentiation can be achieved with letters on parallel runways.

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Commercial aircraft travel at hundreds of miles per hour, and it takes experience and skill to bring a jet engine to a safe stop. A pilot who miscalculates the initial approach can veer off the tarmac or completely miss the runway, rolling over rough terrain or into ditches or bodies of water.

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Most airlines have a different fare class for each letter of the alphabet, and this varies by airline: F is first class, C and J are typically business class, and Y is usually economy, regardless of the airline. The assignment of letters to each fare class isn't arbitrary.

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A passenger on an Asiana Airlines flight recently opened an emergency door while the flight was in the air—something that shouldn't be able to happen.

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This might be anywhere from around row 7 to row 15, though, depending on the airline. On some Airbus A320s, particularly the newer A320neo versions, the last row of the cabin may not have a window.

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