Why are AirTran Airways flights given the abbreviation “FL”? Is it possible that in addition to trying to escape the ignominy of its former ValuJet identity, it also has in its closet the ill-fated Air Florida?
No. AirTran is the former ValuJet, which bought a small Atlanta-based operation already named AirTran shortly after the Everglades crash. Air Florida folded in the late '80’s. The FL code made sense to use for an outfit advertising Florida services, then and now.
If you check out this site, you can see that an airline code actually making sense is not the norm. 