Glossary for the airline industry
From A-Z, this glossary covers definitions and explanations for common airline industry terminology.
Category 11. Defines single dates or date ranges when travel is not permitted. For example, during holidays or peak travel periods.
A database of sealed blocks stored in chains of transactions that are maintained by many computers across a peer-to-peer network. For example, cryptocurrencies use blockchain to keep secure records of transactions.
The reservation of a fare or fee product for an itinerary by a customer.
One or two letters functioning as an inventory control code. Also called the reservation booking designator (RBD) or prime booking code, it specifies the class of service a passenger should be booked in to receive the fare.
Fares that are differentiated beyond just the price by being paired with other features and organized into consumer-recognizable products with distinct service offerings, i.e., seat assignment/upgrade, checked baggage, ticket refundability, carry-on baggage, priority services, meals and drinks, mileage accrual, lounge, upgrades, inflight entertainment, Wi-Fi.
Product that allows carriers to group and name fares by fare families, fare types, or other criteria and supports ancillary revenue development.
Billing Settlement Plan; the IATA entity responsible for settling funds and reporting accountable information between the travel agency and the airline for fares sold outside the United States, as well as for controlling accountable ticket stock. BSPs are usually organized by country.
In coding Category 35, an ATPCO value of 1-5 or blank used to describe to the subscriber which Net Remit Reporting procedure should be used at time of ticketing. The five method types available in Category 35 are based on the seven IATA-established method types.
Banker’s Selling Rate.
See notification. A primary method of communication between ATPCO and customers. Notifications are e-mailed to participants whenever bulletins are posted on the Customer Center extranet site.
A retailing practice in many industries where products are bundled together to create a value-added package to increase cross-selling, upselling and customer loyalty, ultimately to increase revenue. In our industry, it is an individually defined atomic Products (services or items) that are grouped together to form a package of atomic services and/or items to be delivered to a consumer. A brand is a type of bundle. Traditional fare and related data (fare, change flexibility, refund flexibility, and stopover flexibility) are a type of bundle. See also dynamic bundle.
A mechanism by which customers can submit business problems for ATPCO to evaluate, appropriately prioritize, and resolve with an appropriate industry solution.
As defined by ATPCO, a carrier is generally an airline (scheduled or chartered), but may also be a rail company or car rental company. It is the owner or service provider for a fare and is identified by an industry-standard alphanumeric code.
A standardized, automated collection, distribution, and pricing method that provides marketing carriers (carriers that appear on the flight coupon) the ability to control and collect fees at the sector (coupon), at the portion of travel (multiple sectors), or on the journey.
Cost per Average Seat Kilometer. A measure of how expensive it is for airlines to operate any given route. This is calculated by dividing the operating cost per flight by the number of ASKs available on that particular flight. In the United States, CASM (Cost per Average Seat Mile) is used.
Cost per available seat mile.
Abbreviation for category.
The structure within the Rules system is designed to identify various kinds of restrictive information regarding a fare. Restrictions are listed in the FareManager Rules database and are sorted by various categories of application such as day/time and season of travel.
1 Eligibility
2 Day/Time
3 Seasonality
4 Flight Application
5 Advanced Reservations/Ticketing
6 Minimum Stay
7 Maximum Stay
8 Stopovers
9 Transfers
10 Permitted Combinations
11 Blackout Dates
12 Surcharges
13 Accompanied Travel
14 Travel Restrictions
15 Sales Restrictions
16 Penalties
17 Higher Intermediate Point/Mileage
18 Ticket Endorsements
19 Children Discounts
20 Tour Conductor Discounts
21 Agency Discounts
22 All Other Discounts
23 Miscellaneous Provisions
25 Fare By Rule
26 Groups
27 Tours
28 Visit Another Country
29 Deposits
31 Voluntary Changes
33 Voluntary Refunds
35 Negotiated Fare Restrictions
50 Application and Other Conditions
An ATPCO data subscription product that provides subscribers with new carrier, city, or fare class codes and multi-airport city relationships to validate before processing fares and related subscription products.