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I was checking out some AirTran AI traffic I just installed, and ATC calls the airline "Citrus"

Is this the way real-life ATC calls AirTran planes
I know that American Trans Air is called "AmTran"...

Thanks 4 your help!
-bm

That's what they go by.

thnx,

how come

good question...

Because it sounds nicer than "Hey where'd it go?"

Because it sounds nicer than "Hey where'd it go?"

Depending on how morbid you want to think, you could apply this bit of sarcasm to either the disappearance of the airline in it's entirety or the crash into the swamp.  

Where you take it is up to you.  I know which one I'm thinking.

Depending on how morbid you want to think, you could apply this bit of sarcasm to either the disappearance of the airline in it's entirety

http://www.airtran.com
what do you mean

Oh wait, nevermind.  That was ValuJet, which Air Tran later purchased.  I got 'em mixed up.  Ignore me.  Hard to keep the cheapies sorted sometimes.  lol

I'm not sure about this, but I think I remember reading that AirTran came out of the ashes of AirFlorida, which perished due to bad press after a fatal crash.  Perhaps the 'Citrus' callsign is remnants of Air FLorida?
(AirFlorida, Florida---> Citrus)

well, I do know that AirTran came from Valujet, so if Valujet was formed after AirFlorida, then that would make sense...

Yeah, that's what I meant.    lol

Air Florida, believe it or not, still exists. They operate several 402's and 208's. And at about the same level of quality that led to the D.C. crash.
Valujet's homebase is Atlanta and their original callsign was "Critter"?!. After the flight 592 crash Valujet bought AirTran. This accomplished two things: it "washed" the aircraft of the Valujet stigma and it continued the Valujet trend prior to the 592 crash, which was buy as many DC-9-/MD80 type aircraft as possible to contain the company's unprecedented expansion.
Valujet's success was hinged on the Northeast to Atlanta and Florida routes, namely Laguardia to Atlanta. Citrus is simply a label which is intended to key the public into Airtran's "gateway" to the South(Florida) ideal.
After the 592 crash, Valujet was teetering on the brink. They swiftly resumed operations immediately but for obvious reasons the flying public wasn't lining up to buy Valujet tickets. They could have just changed the carrier name to something like Citrus. But history shows that an established airline has a better fighting chance. So they bought in cheap for the name and a few more, already needed, aircraft, rolled the dice and came up big.

Wow!

thanks for the history lesson OTTOL
now the mystery of the strange callsign has been solved!

Hmmm perhaps it might have something to do with the fact that a lot of old DC-9's are lemons?