Skip to main content

Glossary for the airline industry

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

SITI

Sale inside, ticketing inside; sold and ticketed in country of journey origin

SITO

Sale inside, ticketing outside; sold in country of journey origin and ticketed outside country of origin.

sixth freedom

The right to carry revenue traffic between two points within a foreign country.

SOTI

Sale outside, ticketing inside; sold outside country of journey origin and ticketed inside country of origin.

SOTO

Sale outside, ticketing outside; sold and ticketed outside country of journey origin.

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.