Are you trying to figure out what your colleague is talking about when they’re droning on about the ASKs LLCs get from their O&Ds? Or what fares to create for all those INFs doing VFR as travel begins to recover?
NP. We can explain some common alphabet salads so you’re ready for your next meeting.
Take the mystery out of airline code abbreviations
Of course, there are thousands of acronyms in this business, so we’ll go through just a few terms in each of these groups:
- Travel & business terms
- Organizations and communities
- Terms for coding pros
- Accounting and measuring
You can find many more abbreviations and terms that airline pricing folks use in our glossary.
Common terms in our industry
Let’s start with some common business terms and acronyms in the travel industry.
Types of companies
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BPO |
Business Process Outsourcing |
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LCC |
low-cost carrier |
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OTA |
online travel agency |
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TMC |
travel management company |
Types of systems and technologies
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API |
application programming interface |
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CMS |
content management system |
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CRS |
computer reservation system |
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DAM |
digital asset management |
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DCS |
departure control system |
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GDS |
global distribution system |
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IBE |
internet booking engine |
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LMS |
learning management system |
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PSS |
passenger servicing system |
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RMS |
revenue management system (inventory, optimization, forecast) |
Then we have abbreviations for basic concepts in travel.
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CXR |
carrier (airline) |
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O&D or OD |
origin and destination |
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OW |
one way |
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PAX |
passenger |
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PNR |
passenger name record |
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RT |
round trip |
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SLA |
service level agreement |
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VFR |
visiting friends and relatives ←likely an area of early traffic recovery! |
Working together
It’s a big industry! There are airline groups, provider associations, and communities of like-minded people with common goals.
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A4A |
Airlines for America |
industry advocacy group in the United States |
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ACH |
Airlines Clearing House |
facility for settling accounts receivable among airlines worldwide |
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ARC |
Airlines Reporting Corporation |
ticket transaction settlement services between airlines and travel agencies or travel management companies |
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ATPCO |
Airline Tariff Publishing Company |
source for complete pricing and retailing data that is the foundation of the commercial airline industry |
|
IATA |
International Air Transport Association |
international industry trade group |
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OAG |
Official Aviation Guide |
publishes flight schedules |
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SITA |
Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques |
air transport communications and IT |
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UATP |
Universal Air Travel Plan |
network that handles payments in travel industry |
Terms for current and future airline IT professionals
Understanding who’s involved is good to know, but now we actually need to get some work done.
First are all the codes, like IATA’s two-character codes for airlines and three-letter codes for cities and airports. There are also three-letter codes for currencies, and you’ll find all of these used in ATPCO systems and throughout the industry.
Let’s define some other abbreviations that pop up when you’re coding fare products.
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Cat |
category |
how ATPCO organizes data elements in our Rules system; for example, Category 1 has the data elements for passenger eligibility so you can indicate a fare is available only to passengers who are clergy |
|
FNT |
footnote |
a flexible way to add restrictions on a fare for travel dates, sales dates, or other special conditions |
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HEPA |
high-efficiency particulate air |
a type of filter that removes particles from the air; used in some aircraft and of interest during the pandemic |
|
INF |
infant without a seat |
a passenger type for infants who will be held in a lap during the journey (INS is for infants with their own seat) |
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PTC |
passenger type code |
says who is eligible to use a fare, such as an infant or a member of the military; the default is ADT, adult |
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SSIM
|
Standard Schedule Information Manual |
IATA’s standards for exchanging information about flight schedules |
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UDG |
user-defined group |
in ATPCO systems, these little babies let you keep together data you code all the time so you don’t have to enter it over and over and over |
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UPA |
universal product attribute |
images, messaging, and videos that describe the experience a traveler can expect on a particular flight |
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UTA |
universal ticket attribute |
a consumer-friendly description of the benefits and restrictions for a particular fare |
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YQ/YR or CIF |
carrier-imposed fees |
fees airlines charge to recover extra costs such as for fuel or insurance |
And here are some terms for organizing, measuring, and charging for fare products.
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HIP |
higher intermediate point |
a city between the origin and destination of the through international fare component that has a higher fare |
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MPM |
maximum permitted mileage |
helps you set levels where very long trips should incur a surcharge |
|
NUC |
neutral unit of construction |
a sort of imaginary baseline currency that makes it easier to do math when you’re creating fares that involve different real-life currencies |
|
PFC |
passenger facility charge |
fees that United States airports can collect for each passenger who boards a plane there |
|
RBD |
reservation booking designator |
one or two letters at the beginning of the fare class that identify the type of fare and usually refer to the cabin, such as Y for Economy |
|
TPM |
ticketed point mileage
|
a way to measure distances in itineraries: between ticketed points |
Let’s also review some systems and concepts for managing fare products and creating offers travelers can purchase.
|
GFS |
Government Filing System |
an ATPCO automated system that combines fare and rule data and electronically files the changes to governments that require it or for carriers to display or distribute |
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NDC |
New Distribution Capability |
a program to create an XML standard that travel sellers can use to connect directly to airlines |
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NGS |
Next Generation Storefront |
a program and standard for retailing data that travel sellers can use to create shopping displays for travelers |
Following the money
Sweet! Fare products are in the market! Now we look at how they performed and how to settle the accounts between partners on fares that involve more than one airline.
|
BSP |
billing settlement plan |
centralized point for money and data to flow between agents and airlines |
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BSR |
banker’s selling rate |
a common measurement of ROE |
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EMD |
electronic miscellaneous document |
how every fee or charge beyond the ticket is sold and tracked |
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IET |
interline electronic ticket [agreement] |
an agreement between airlines so a person can use one ticket on an itinerary with travel on more than one airline |
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ISR |
Industry Sales Record |
data about sold tickets that is used for revenue accounting functions |
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PIPPS |
Passenger Interline Pricing/Prorate System |
30 years of historical fare, rule, and surcharge data that ATPCO keeps for audits and settlement |
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RATD |
Revenue Accounting Tax Database |
tax amounts for interline tickets |
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RFIC |
reason for issuance code |
a single letter that identifies the type of service an EMD belongs to, for example, C for baggage |
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ROE |
rate of exchange |
the relationship between two currencies |
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SPA |
special prorate agreement |
an interline agreement that defines financing, invoicing, and settlement between the airlines |
And finally, let’s take the 36,000-foot view (See what we did there?) of the overall health of an airline’s traffic—its capacity and its operations.
|
ASK or ASM |
available seat kilometers/miles seats × distance |
measures an airline’s available passenger capacity; it is the number of available seats multiplied by distance flown |
|
ATK |
available tonne kilometers |
