IATA Foundation (Aggregate Prep) flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

IATA Traffic Conference Areas

The three regional divisions used for fare and rule construction: Area 1 Western Hemisphere, Area 2 Europe/Africa/Middle East, Area 3 Asia/Australia/Pacific.

Excursionist

A same-day visitor who travels outside their usual environment but does not stay overnight. Visitors are therefore counted as tourists plus excursionists.

Tour operator

A business that combines transport, accommodation and other components into a package, sets the price, and carries the commercial risk of unsold capacity.

Global Distribution System

A computer reservation platform such as Amadeus, Sabre or Travelport that holds supplier inventory and lets travel agencies book and ticket multiple suppliers from one screen.

Vertical integration

Ownership linking different levels of the tourism chain, for example an airline owning a tour operator or a hotel group owning a retail agency network.

Elapsed flight time

Arrival local time minus departure local time, adjusted by the difference in UTC offsets between the two points, giving actual flying time in hours and minutes.

International Date Line

The roughly 180-degree meridian where the calendar date changes: crossing eastbound repeats a day, crossing westbound skips a day forward.

IATA city code

A three-letter code identifying a city rather than an airport, such as LON for London, which covers all airports serving that city for fare purposes.

Great-circle distance

The shortest route between two points measured on the earth's surface; airline routings and mileage-based fares are derived from these distances.

Codeshare flight

An arrangement where one airline markets and sells a flight under its own flight number while another airline operates the aircraft and crew.

Hub-and-spoke network

A route system where traffic from many outlying cities is funnelled through a central hub so passengers connect, maximising aircraft utilisation and network reach.

Wide-body aircraft

A twin-aisle aircraft, typically carrying 250 to 600 passengers, used on long-haul and high-density routes where range and capacity are the priorities.

Freedoms of the air

The nine negotiated traffic rights covering overflight, technical stops, carriage between home and foreign states, and carriage between two foreign states.

Load factor

Revenue passenger kilometres divided by available seat kilometres, expressed as a percentage; it shows what proportion of offered capacity was actually sold.

Neutral Unit of Construction

A common fare currency used in fare construction. The local fare equals the NUC multiplied by the rate of exchange, then rounded to the applicable rounding unit.

PNR record locator

The six-character alphanumeric reference stored in the reservation system that identifies one passenger name record and is used to retrieve or amend the booking.

Fare basis code

An alphanumeric code attached to a fare that identifies its booking class, season, day of travel, advance purchase and validity conditions.

Open-jaw journey

A journey with a surface sector, so the passenger arrives at one point and departs from another, or returns to a different point from the origin.

E-ticket number

A 13-digit reference made of a three-digit airline accounting code plus a ten-digit serial number, used to identify and validate an electronic ticket.

Upselling

Persuading a customer to buy a higher-grade or higher-value version of the product already chosen, such as a premium cabin or a better room category.

Service recovery

The process of responding to a service failure by acknowledging, apologising, fixing the problem within authority and following up to restore customer confidence.

SERVQUAL dimensions

The five service quality dimensions of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles, with reliability usually rated as most important by customers.

Cross-selling

Offering a different but complementary product to the one being bought, such as travel insurance, airport transfers or car hire alongside a flight.

Schengen 90/180 rule

Short-stay visitors may spend at most 90 days inside the Schengen area within any rolling 180-day period, counted across all member states.

TIMATIC

The IATA database of passport, visa and health requirements by nationality and destination, used by airlines and agents to check entry eligibility.

Montreal Convention 1999

The international treaty governing airline liability for death or injury, delay and baggage, with limits set in SDR and reviewed every five years.

APIS

Advance Passenger Information System: carriers transmit passport and itinerary data to border control authorities before departure on applicable international routes.

Billing and Settlement Plan

An IATA facility that consolidates travel agency sales in a country, so the agent reports all transactions and remits one net amount per settlement period.

Agent Debit Memo

An amount billed back to the travel agency by an airline or BSP, commonly for ticketing errors, fare discrepancies or uncollected taxes.

PCI DSS

The payment card industry data security standard, requiring protected storage of card data, no retention of the CVV, and masked numbers on customer receipts.

Gross versus net fare

The net fare is the amount payable to the supplier; the gross or selling fare adds the agency's commission or markup and is what the customer pays.

Void versus refund

A void cancels a ticket before settlement so no billing occurs; a refund returns money after settlement and recovers unused coupons and unused taxes.

Point-to-point network

A route structure flying nonstop between city pairs without feeding traffic through a central hub, typical of low-cost carriers using secondary airports.