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Glossary for the airline industry

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

SP

(CTA) Special Permission. Reference to the approval number given by a government for an application. See also approval number.

SPA

1. (interline accounting) Special Prorate Agreement. 2. (CTA) Special Permission Application. A submission to the Canadian government on behalf of a carrier requesting permission to action revisions on less than the governmentally required statutory notice.

standby

1. Passengers who are holding tickets on standby fares that do not allow them to make reservations.

2. Passengers on a waiting list awaiting an available seat.

starting fare

A fare amount filed with ATPCO as a fare record or Fare By Rule that is used in the first step in the Negotiated Fares process to calculate or determine related fare amounts.

static pricing

A type of optimized pricing where airlines pre-distribute all prices using standard toolsets. It offers up to 26 price points, and prices can be updated multiple times per day (also referred to as fare filing).

static pricing

A type of optimized pricing where airlines pre-distribute all prices using standard toolsets. It offers up to 26 price points, and prices can be updated multiple times per day (also referred to as fare filing).

status dashboard

Found at the top of the screen in the Fares system, this field contains queries, batch activities, and downloads links. The number of uploads that are processing is also displayed,

stopover

An intermediate ticketed point within the fare component at which the calculated elapsed time (the period between the scheduled local times of arrival and departure) is greater than the time period defined in a carrier's tariff as a stopover (4 hours for the ATPCO US/CA Domestic Fares Product and 24 hours for the ATPCO International Fares Product). A stopover is always a transfer.

STP

(DOT) Special Tariff Permission. Reference to the approval number given by a government for an application. See also approval number.

STPA

Special Tariff Permission Application. A submission to the United States government on behalf of a carrier requesting permission to action revisions on less than the governmentally required statutory notice.

sub-area

Subdivisions of IATA Traffic Conference areas that may or may not correspond to geographic definitions.

subcategory

A subdivision of a category used to organize complex data. For example, Category 10 contains eight subcategories.

Subs

Short for Subscriptions. Any ATPCO data sent via electronic transmission to subscribers of this service for use in text displays and in autopricing.

subscriber

Any company that buys automated data from ATPCO.

subscription distribution

The transmission of fare and rule changes to subscribers multiple times per day.

Subscriptions

ATPCO Pricing & Shopping Subscriptions; ATPCO data sent via electronic transmission.

Supplier

In dynamic offers, another name for the operating carrier who is providing the service to the passenger.

Supplier Catalog

A type of Product Catalog, the Supplier Catalog aims to be used for communication between a Retailer and a Supplier and means a list of products and services or items that a Supplier has chosen to make available for sale by the Retailer, including but not limited to information about where the products and services are available (i.e., location, market, schedules, miscellaneous information, etc.) and any specified general conditions of these. The content available in the catalog depends on the bilateral agreements (SRSIA and other partners).

supporting services standards

Technical standards accompanying ATPCO Proprietary Standards on pricing and retailing automation that describe how the standards interact with other supply chain processes (e.g., ticketing, reservations, revenue accounting).

supporting table

A table containing a set of data elements that are used to further express additional information about other data. For example, Carrier Flight Table (Table 986) within Category 4 and Fare By Rule Index is a supporting table. Also called internal table.

163 Sub Code

164 Tax Text

165 Equipment Type

166 Features and Attributes

167 Sector Detail

168 Service and Baggage

169 Passenger Type Code

170 Currency

171 Carrier/Resulting Fare Class

172 Account Code

173 Ticket Designator

178 User Zone

183 Security

186 Carrier Flight

189 Fare Identification

190 Carrier Application

191 Seat Characteristics

196 Text

198 RBD

966 Seasonality / Day of Week Indicator (pending)

974 Fare Type Table

976 Surface Sector

978 Zone

979 Fare Creator

982 Security (discontinued)

983 Security

984 Via Location (pending)

985 Carrier Limit Table (pending)

986 Carrier/Flight Table

987 Waiver

988 Reissue

989 Base Fare Table

990 Carrier Application Table

992 Currency

993 Same Point

994 Override Date

995 Geographic Specifications

996 Text

997 Joint Carrier

999 RBD Exception Code Table