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Glossary for the airline industry

From A-Z, this glossary covers definitions and explanations for common airline industry terminology.

FA

Filing advice.

FAA

Federal Aviation Administration.

FAN

Filing advice number.

Fare

1. The charge for a passenger to fly from origin to destination. 2. The amount a passenger pays, including the conditions for travel at this amount (that is, the rules and restrictions that must be satisfied in order to qualify for a specific fare). Together, fares and rules form an infrastructure used for autopricing (identifying a fare electronically). A fare has 11 components: including market (city pair), rule number, fare class, one-way/round-trip indicator, MPM or routing number, footnote (optional), currency, fare amount, effective date, discontinue date, and mileage. Also called ATPCO fare record. 3. The published tariff fare amount. 4. The charge for a passenger to fly a given segment (city pair). See also fare basis code, domestic US/CA fare, international fare.

fare basis code

The Fare Basis is the code that appears on the ticket in the Fare Basis box. It can include letters, numbers, and up to two slashes (/). A Fare Basis is a compilation of the fare class or ticketing code and one or two ticketing designators. The fare basis code should not be confused with the fare class, which is associated to each fare and is used in pricing. Also called fare basis.

fare break point

1. The destination where a given fare begins or ends.

2. (data application) Terminal points of a fare component. Also called fare construction points.

3. A stopover which can only be made upon payment of the sum of the local fares between that point and the preceding and successful fare construction points.

Fare By Rule

The creation of new fares by a pricing system using rule data to specify the fare markets and amounts. The fares can either be calculated from existing fares in the market or specified to create a new fare using the rule provisions coded in Category 25.

fare class

The one- to eight-character identification of the fare.

Fare Class Application

An ATPCO record involving an Automated Rules Tariff, Carrier, Rule Number, Fare Class, Sequence, and Effective date combination. The Fare Class Application record provides miscellaneous data (such as fare type, ticketing codes, and passenger type) pertinent to the specified fare class that is necessary for pricing and assigns the reservation booking designators required to qualify for the fare. Also called Record 1 or Fare Class Record.

fare class record

See Fare Class Application.

fare component

A portion of a journey or itinerary between two consecutive fare break points.

fare construction point

See fare break point.

Fare Creator Table

The Fare Creator Table 979 is located in Category 35 Record 3. Table 979 provides fare calculation information to create either net or selling amounts from the starting fare. Selling amounts can be specified, calculated, or expressed as ranges. Net amounts can be specified or calculated.

fare family

A method of identifying multiple fare classes in a single entry. In the Category ID, the Fare Class field can be coded with a hyphen to mean all fare classes that contain these characters.

fare management

The act of maintaining and updating fare products (fares, rules, etc.). See also offer management. 2. The business decisions behind creating, modifying, or canceling fare, rule, and other records in order to support complex pricing. Fare management presents both historical and current market fare and rule data that airlines query and use to make changes. This process occurs concurrent to yield management, although most large carriers usually have different departments for these two processes. Also called decision support (industry).

fare origin

The initial point of a pricing unit.

fare owner

The organization that contracts with ATPCO to file fares, rules, and other data in its own files under its own control.

fare quotation

The primary purpose of a GDS, this process involves bringing together schedule, inventory, and fare and rule data to price and display itineraries.

fare record

A record in the Fares system that contains the actual fare amount, tariff, carrier, market, fare class code, routing, rule number, footnote, and other information.

fare rule

The automated rule provisions for specific fare classes. The term can refer to rules governing published fares (grouped by categories) or to fares that are contained in the text of a rule (Fare By Rule). The term is used to differentiate between this type of rule and a General Rule.