A DICTIONARY OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM TERMINOLOGY

Second Edition

This is my 14th book; it is the second to be published by CAB International;I hope there will be many more!

I dedicate it to my grandchildren, Anna and Noah Beaver, Lauren andMax Blum and Poppy and Jack Taylor, in the hope that it will furtherencourage them in the pursuit of knowledge.

Allan Beaver

A DICTIONARY OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM TERMINOLOGY

Second Edition

ALLAN BEAVER

International Centre for Tourism ResearchUniversity of Bournemouth, UK

and

Leisure and Tourism DepartmentBuckinghamshire Chilterns University College, UK

CABI Publishing

CABI Publishing is a division of CAB International

CABI Publishing CABI PublishingCAB International 875 Massachusetts AvenueWallingford 7th FloorOxon OX10 8DE Cambridge, MA 02139UK USA

Tel: +44 (0)1491 832111 Tel: +1 617 395 4056Fax: +44 (0)1491 833508 Fax: +1 617 354 6875E-mail: cabi@cabi.org E-mail: cabi-nao@cabi.orgWeb site: www.cabi-publishing.org

© A. Beaver 2005. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owners.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataBeaver, Allan, 1934-

A dictionary of travel and tourism terminology / Allan Beaver.--2nd ed.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.ISBN-13: 978-0-85199-020-0 (alk. paper)ISBN-10: 0-85199-020-7 (alk. paper)

1. Travel--Dictionaries. 2. Tourism--Dictionaries. I. Title.

G155.A1B38 2005910�.3--dc22

2005009233

ISBN-13: 978 0 85199 020 0ISBN-10: 0 85199 020 7

Typeset by Columns Design Ltd, Reading.Printed and bound in the UK by Cromwell Press, Trowbridge.

Contents

About the Author vi

Preface and Introduction vii

Acknowledgements xii

Appendix I: World Tourism Organization Global Code of Ethics for Tourism 367

Appendix II: Recommended Tourism Syllabus Content for Higher Education Courses Worldwide 380

Appendix III: EC Neutral CRS Rules 387

v

About the Author

Professor Allan Beaver has run a travel business for over 40 years. He is aVisiting Professor at the University of Bournemouth and at BuckinghamshireChilterns University College.

His professional qualifications are: Fellow of City and Guilds of LondonInstitute, Master of Science, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport,Fellow of the Tourism Society, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing,Fellow of the Institute of Logistics, Fellow of the Institute of Travel and Tourismand academic member of the Association D’Expertes Scientifiques du Tourisme.

He is the author of many papers, articles and books in the tourism field,including three editions of the 1820-page three volume, Mind Your Own TravelBusiness and an annual industry survey and forecast, the 100-page 27th editionof which was published in December 2004. Repeatedly, his forecasts made eachautumn have come within 1% of the outcome.

Allan Beaver’s professional interests particularly include the marketing oftravel and tourism and its terminology. He is a member of the Professional BodyBoard of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Vice Chair of the CIM TravelIndustry Group and writes its monthly meeting reports. He was appointed by theBritish Standards Institute as the senior UK expert in the field of tourismterminology, representing the UK on several international working groups. Asthis dictionary was going to press, he was in Berlin, leading the UK delegation toa meeting of CEN, the grouping of European Standards Institutes.

He chaired the Travel Agents and Tour Operators Sectoral Committee of theUK government-appointed Travel and Tourism Events National TrainingOrganization (TTENTO) and was Treasurer of that organization. He is a formerBoard member of the Association of British Travel Agents and was for manyyears a member of the Association’s Travel Agents Council. He was foundingchairman of the ABTA’s Greater London region, which includes nearly a quarterof the Association’s agent members.

vi

Preface and Introduction

What is Covered by this Dictionary

This dictionary provides definitions of terminology and ‘decodes’ acronyms andabbreviations for the world’s largest industry. All the Internet search engines selltheir services, which result in high ranking following a user search, for thosewho have paid for preferment. In the travel and tourism field, this means thatsearches involving key words often result in commercial organizations appear-ing first, with the sought-after organization thousands of results behind. Thecomprehensive listing in this dictionary of Internet addresses makes it a crucialand invaluable research and reference source for statistics, many associations,trade bodies and other voluntary organizations. As this dictionary was going topress, registrations were taking place for the new ‘dot travel’ domain name to belaunched in 2006; see www.tralliance.com/dottravel/main.htm. This dictionarycontains many descriptive articles on travel and tourism concepts, which cover a wider range of topics in greater depth than other dictionaries in this field. Where comprehensive information is readily accessible from the Internet,web access points have been detailed. It expands on Allan Beaver’s work in the encyclopaedic volume 3 of his book, Mind Your Own Travel Business. This broke new ground by its all-encompassing nature. To indicate the coverage of the present book, it is first necessary to indicate the intendedparameters.

The UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education has, in recent years,benchmarked degree courses, identifying in general the characteristics ofprogrammes in specific subjects and the learning outcomes to be expected. Unit25 includes tourism, and part of that unit is detailed in Appendix II. Havingspecified that a typical honours graduate should be able to demonstrate anunderstanding of the stated areas, this dictionary has been designed to supportthe learning process in those subjects. Despite the wide-ranging nature andvariety of tourism courses, the intention is that this dictionary should beappropriate to the needs of all those courses.

vii

It is important to state clearly that this book is mainly limited to tourismterminology used in the English-speaking world. Many non-English words areused by tourism practitioners in Britain, North America and Australasia, hence,not all the words explained are English.

The accent in this dictionary is on the definitions themselves. But a particularexception has been made in the case of tourism information databases, for whichaccess details are provided. Many tourism dictionaries include substantial list-ings of the organizations in the field with contact information. The entries in thisdictionary aim only to provide information not available from organizations’web sites. In this dictionary, having decoded an abbreviation or understood themeaning of a word, it is usually necessary to access the web site noted or go toan appropriate work of reference, for names, addresses and web sites etc. of theorganizations or for more information.

This dictionary does not cover words or phrases relating to cultural, destina-tion, location, physical, place or political geography. Most other tourismdictionaries include destination information and geography; each selection isdifferent, according to the whims of the authors and publishers. For goodmeasure, various descriptions of local food specialities and customs are alsoincluded. To cover, for example, 5000 areas, sites or attractions of touristicinterest would require a 500-page book devoted to this aspect of terminology.

The British GNVQ (General National Vocational Qualification) in this fieldincludes studies of both leisure and tourism but, at the advanced level, tourismand leisure are separate subjects. This dictionary does not cover leisure andsports terms. In many texts, attempts to cover the leisure field are severelydetrimental to achieving complete coverage of tourism, simply because of lack ofspace. For example, in the Columbus Press World Travel Dictionary, the veryfirst term is ‘A clamp, a diving term for a connecting device between an air hoseand diving cylinder’. This type of term is not found here.

In some areas, there is a very thin borderline between travel and tourism, andenvironmental studies. For example, while there is no doubt that acid rain has aprofound ecological effect with a tourism impact, nevertheless, this is not a tourismterm and has been omitted together with other material of a similar nature.

There is no attempt to include definitions of words which, although they canbe applied to tourism, are not specific to it. The book you are now reading isrestricted to decoding and explaining words that are particular to tourism. Thus,most business terminology in general and marketing jargon in particular hasbeen omitted.

Another grey area faced by the author, when deciding what to include,concerns technical transportation terminology. Readers should not, for example,look in this book for an explanation of all of the parts of an aircraft engine, trainor ship, although an attempt has been made to cover basic nomenclature.Furthermore, tourism is specific to people rather than goods; so no aspects of thecarriage of goods are covered. Thus cargo terms and the associated insuranceterms are excluded. The scope of this area may surprise readers. There are 470closely printed pages in the second edition of The Marine EncyclopaedicDictionary by Eric Sullivan, published by Lloyds of London Press Ltd in 1988.

The three letter system for coding airports and cities and similar system forcoding airlines has not been reiterated in this book, for coding and decoding

viii Preface and Introduction

information is readily available in many computer systems and other referencemanuals used in travel agencies worldwide. So far it has been explained what isexcluded; so what is included?

North American and European differences – It is a particular aim of this dic-tionary to identify differences, each side of the Atlantic, in the meanings ofmany of the words or phrases defined. The author is not aware of any other pub-lication that has covered the differences in industry and travel professionals’usage, although many have covered the differences in everyday language, whichare outside the scope of this dictionary.

Operating language of the providers (the industry) of tourism services – Thetravel and tourism industry is very diverse, not merely limited to the providersof hospitality and transport by road, rail, air and sea. There are also a huge num-ber of ancillary services such as the provision of car rental, travel insurance,passports and visa services, health requirements, foreign currency and traveller’scheques, the information services provided by national and local tourist boardsand guiding services. There are organizations that package several of these ser-vices together and sell them either direct to consumers or via intermediaries,known as tour operators. Travel agents, the retailers of the industry, are in com-petition with newer intermediaries, communicating with consumers via theInternet, telephone, digital cable television, or a combination thereof. The GlobalDistribution Systems (GDS) and national travel computer reservation systemsprovide services to all of the organizations mentioned so far. Each of these afore-mentioned fields has an operating language. The words may have only a descrip-tive function or may set a specific standard.

Tourism – The dictionary explains where and why the qualitative and quanti-tative definitions differ. The latter are used for measuring tourism while the for-mer are valuable because they are descriptive of the phenomenon of tourism.This dictionary is currently the only one which explains the evolutionary natureof tourism definitions. Attention is drawn to alternative definitions that are intextbooks. An explanation is given of why many have been superceded and rec-ommendations for the most appropriate definition are justified.

Acronyms and abbreviations – This is a problem area for new entrants totourism, be they students or people entering from other fields. Even the headlinesin the trade press or titles of papers in tourism journals are a complete mysterywithout the ability to decode them. Many acronyms are of organizations. Theworldwide nature of tourism means that the names of the trade bodies, official andregulatory bodies are from many countries. The major providers of hospitality andtransport by road, rail, air and sea are all international and the letters that stand fortheir names are meaningless to the uninitiated. Each area of travel and tourism hasits own set of acronyms; this book decodes 350 International Air TransportAssociation (IATA) acronyms not previously generally available until publicationof the first edition of this dictionary.

Alternatives – Often, various sources offer different definitions for the sameword. This dictionary is, at present, the only one which covers the alternatives;when appropriate, it discusses their merits and suggests definitions for generaladoption. Definitions recommended in previous editions of this dictionary havebeen widely quoted in tourism journals.

Preface and Introduction ix

IT terms – Technological change has caused a revolution in the way thetourism product is distributed to the travelling public. Many large dictionaries oftechnical and computer terminology have been published and it has not beenthe intention to compete with these works. Nevertheless, some technical com-puter terms are commonly used in the travel industry and for the convenience ofusers of this book, an explanation of the basic ones has been included.

Control language – There are a large number of governmental, official andtrade bodies which lay down laws, rules and regulations applicable to travel andtourism; this dictionary identifies these bodies and their functions and includestheir associated terminology.

Brand names – These are liberally strewn throughout the travel business likeconfetti, without any indication of the associated organization. For example,most airlines have clubs with a brand name and frequent flyer schemes, oftenwith a different brand name. The airlines may be affiliated with alliances such asStar or OneWorld. This dictionary identifies the main organizations associatedwith these brand names.

Accuracy of definitions – The travel and tourism industry is always changingrapidly, in response to consumer’s needs and technological advances, particu-larly in information technology. This dictionary aims to be correct at a dateapproximately 6 months before its publication date. However, some seminalpapers and books on many aspects of tourism were published many years ago; tounderstand them, it is necessary to be able to ‘decode’ the acronyms, brandnames and expressions that were current at those times. A selection of theseobsolete terms has been included, identified as such.

Web sites – Within the currency of this dictionary, ‘dot travel’ Internetaddresses will become available. Many web sites are featured to enable users toaccess more information concerning many entries. Some may change to .travel.

Disclaimer: no responsibility is accepted by the author or publisher for anyerrors that may have inadvertently arisen. Users are particularly recom-mended to check with appropriate sources, information critical to their travelarrangements.

Definitions preceded by ‘The 2003 CEN/European Standard official definition is’are indicative of wording which has been published by the British StandardsInstitute on behalf of CEN (BS EN ISO 18513:2003 Tourism services – Hotels andother types of tourism accommodation – Terminology and BS EN 13809:2003Tourism services – Travel agencies and tour operators – Terminology). CEN isthe European Grouping of National Standards Institutes, ‘Comité Européen deNormalisation’. CEN members are the national standards bodies in Austria,Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland,Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland and the UK.

Committee 329 was established in 1996 and is concerned with travel andtourism; it agreed to set up two working groups to create and agree standardterminology and associated definitions. WG1 was responsible for the accommo-dation area; WG2 was asked to handle travel agents and tour operators. The

x Preface and Introduction

British Standards Institute (BSI), in common with other European standardsinstitutes, set up a national ‘mirror’ group – SVS2 ‘Tourism Services’, andinvited ABTA to join this. I was asked by ABTA to represent them in view of myparticular expertise on travel and tourism terminology. BSI then accredited meas the Senior UK Expert in Travel and Tourism Terminology to represent them atWG2. Subsequently, WG2 adopted English as its working language and themembers of WG2 elected me to be responsible for the definitive English versionsof the definitions agreed.

Tourism is inherently diverse; laws, customs and practices vary so widely ineach country that agreeing internationally acceptable definitions was alwayslikely to be difficult. This situation resulted in arguments which had not beenpreviously experienced by the UK Expert; in order to salvage something fromseveral years of meetings, definitions were accepted which were only ‘the lowestcommon denominator’. Part of the introduction to the BSI standard is repeatedverbatim:

Many difficulties have been encountered in the preparation of this standard. The following aresome of them:

• There are concepts for which an English term does not exist.• There are concepts for which translation does not exist in one of the official languages.• There are services (or types of accommodation) that are specific to only one or a few

countries.• There are terms for which more than one meaning is possible, depending on the context.• In many cases, the requirements are different, depending on the national legislation. In these

cases the common minimum has been agreed as the definition for this European standard.

As a result, many of the definitions agreed are rather broad and the standard represents thehighest level of consensus which could be reached.

In the spring of 2005, CEN 329 agreed the proposition of AENOR, the SpanishStandards Institute, to embark on an extensive programme of standards develop-ment in the tourism field. The author of this book was appointed to lead the UKdelegation to Working Group 5, which is to develop a tourist guide qualificationstandard.

The letters (WTO TM) after a definition indicate that the source is the series ofWorld Tourism Organization Technical Manuals: Concepts, Definitions andClassifications for Tourism Statistics; Collection of Tourism ExpenditureStatistics; Collection of Domestic Tourism Statistics and Collection andCompilation of Tourism Statistics. References to the WTO Thesaurus relate tothe World Tourism Organisation and Secretariat of State for Tourism of France(2001), Thesaurus on Tourism and Leisure Activities.

Allan BeaverMay 2005

Preface and Introduction xi

Acknowledgements

Many of the definitions originate from the glossary of terms in the first, secondand third editions of Mind Your Own Travel Business, first published in 1975.This dictionary sometimes proposes alternatives expressing disagreement withdefinitions published in other sources; in order to explain and justify the stancetaken it has been necessary to quote the original work. For this purpose advan-tage is taken of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which states thatfair dealing for the purposes of criticism does not infringe copyright if accompa-nied by a sufficient acknowledgement. Nevertheless, the owners of the copy-rights concerned have generously given their encouragement and permissionto quote from their work and the author records his thanks for this, which hasassisted in the pursuit of knowledge and the development of tourism as anacademic discipline.

Unreserved appreciation of their permission is particularly expressedconcerning:

• David Relf, Head of Aviation at solicitors Sinclair Roche & Temperley, whoseannual Aviation Handbook has been a rich source of decoding abbreviationsin the aviation field.

• John Patterson (formerly of IATA UK) who listed the meaning of many IATAacronyms and abbreviations not in the Sinclair Roche & Temperley list.

• The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) for the access allowed to themembers-only web site, enabling data to be mined from the online agents’handbook.

• The British Standards Institute which published on behalf of CEN, theEuropean Grouping of National Standards Institutes, two standards: BS ENISO 18513:2003 Tourism services and Hotels and other types of tourismaccommodation – Terminology and BS EN 13809:2003 Tourism services –Travel agencies and tour operators – Terminology.

• The International Air Transport Association concerning definitions in theirTicketing Handbook and Travel Agents Handbook (UK editions).

xii

• Columbus Publishing Limited (World Travel Dictionary) concerning the alter-native definitions of a few tourism terms which appear in the comparativediscussions of six or so expressions.

• World Tourism Organization concerning some definitions in the 1995 techni-cal manuals Collection of Tourism Expenditure Statistics and Concepts,Definitions and Classifications for Tourism Statistics; also the WTO’s GlobalCode of Ethics for Tourism, Appendix I.

• The Quality Assurance Agency in the UK relating to part of their SubjectBenchmark Statement for Hospitality, Leisure, Tourism and Sport whichappears in Appendix II.

• Office of National Statistics relating to various statistics published inBusiness Monitor MQ6, Overseas Travel and Tourism.

• AC Nielsen relating to various statistics published in their Holiday BookingSurvey.

• Extracts from several CABI publications, namely Electronic InformationDistribution in Tourism and Hospitality by Peter O’Connor concerning HANKand HIRO and Tourism Information Technology by Pauline Sheldon concern-ing data that should be provided by a destination management system.

• UK Travel and Leisure Industry Group Kirkpatrick & Lockhart NicholsonGraham LLP concerning part of the wording used in the explanation of theWarsaw Convention.

Acknowledgements xiii

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100 A1 In Lloyd’s Register of Shipping,term indicates an ocean-going vesselmade of iron or steel.

à la carte Restaurant menu from whichthe consumer can choose freely, payingfor individual items, contrasting withtable d’hôte which is a set menu withlimited choice for an inclusive price.Alternatively, when used by tour opera-tors, refers to an independent inclusivetour (IIT), arranged to the customer’schoice; also called ‘tailor-made’ arrange-ments in the UK, contrasting with apackage tour, where set flights and ahotel are bundled together. See alterna-tive meal choices of table d’hôte and setmeal.

A to Z Travel Agents System Name ofDigital Computer System Limited UK’stravel agents’ computerized data andaccounting system introduced in August1984; now believed to be obsolete.

A/D Aerodrome.A/G Air/Ground (communication station).A1 First class. In Lloyd’s Register of Ship-

ping, the term applies to vessels built totrade in sheltered waters such as rivers.a1 is a navigational term, the secondpolaris correction; while a2 is the thirdpolaris correction.

A1 In connection with car rental, indi-cates an automatic vehicle rather thanone with gear levers.

A2 As a nautical term, it indicates aft.AA1 Aerolineas Argentinas.AA2 Always afloat.AA3 American Airlines. See AAdvantage.AA4 Apparent altitude.AA5 Automobile Association; based in

the UK, it is the largest organization inthe world representing motorists, pro-viding roadside repair, recovery andother services. Worldwide, there aremany organizations that use these ini-tials, a few of which are mentionedabove. See www.theaa.co.uk

AAA The American Automobile Asso-ciation represents many US motoristsand is regarded as the main non-

governmental body concerned with theinterests of car owners. Roadside repairand recovery services are typical of thedirect benefits provided to members.AAA Worldwide Travel is the wholly-owned travel agency group. Seewww.aaa.com

AAAE American Association of AirportExecutives. See www.aaae.org

AAAVT Asociación Argentina deAgencias de Viajes y Turismo. Seewww.aaavyt.org.ar

AAB Air Authority Board.AAC1 Aeronautical Advisory Council.AAC2 Association of ATOL Companies in

the UK, formerly the Association ofAirline Consolidators. See www.aac-uk.org

AACC Airport Associations Co-ordinat-ing Council in the UK is the interna-tional organization through which othernational and international bodies in thissphere cooperate, world membershipcurrently including over 95 national air-port associations and over 350 airportsand airport authorities.

AACO Arab Air Carriers Organization.See www.aaco.org

AAdvantage Brand name of AmericanAirlines’ frequent flyer programme, thelargest worldwide, established in 1981.Travel on AA’s services, or use of facil-ities offered by scheme partners, earns‘miles’ which can be exchanged for freetravel. While flying is the most commonway of earning miles, over 40% of milesearned by AAdvantage members eachyear is done so through AAdvantage’sthousands of partners. These include 35airline partners, over 30 hotel compa-nies and seven car rental companies, aswell as a range of non-travel partner-ships, such as retail and financial ser-vices. Members can redeem mileage fortrips on other airlines as well as forhotel stays, car rentals and holidaypackages. As well as bonus miles forqualifying flights, there are automaticupgrade privileges within the USA,

1

A

Canada and Mexico, preferred check-inand boarding are provided. The awardscan be used to buy membership of AA’sAdmiral’s Club.

The level of membership earned andbenefits provided under the AAdvantagescheme depend on the quantity of flyingundertaken in the previous calendaryear: Gold 25,000 miles/30 segments;Platinum – 50,000 miles/60 segments;Executive platinum – 100,000 miles.American Airlines is a member of theOneWorld alliance and the arrange-ments extend to those alliance partners,both for earning points and redeemingthem (Aer Lingus, British Airways,Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LanChileand Qantas). See www.aa.com and FFP(frequent flyer programme).

AAFRA Association of African Airlines.See www.yohannes.com/Africa/AFRAA.htm

AAIB Air Accident Investigation Branch(of the British Civil Aviation Authority).See www.aaib.detr.gov.uk

AAL Above aerodrome level.AALA Adventure Activity Licensing

Authority in the UK. Inspects UK activ-ity centres and other activity providerson behalf of the UK Government’sDepartment for Education and Skills(DfES). See www.aala.org

AAMS All-American Marine Slip.AAPA Association of Asia Pacific Airlines.AAQUARIUS Was a Sabre CRS sub-

system. See Sabre.AAR1 Aircraft accident report (aircraft

accident record in some countries).AAR2 Association of American Railroads.

See www.aar.org AASA Airline Association of Southern

Africa.AASR Airport and airways surveillance

radar.AATTA1 Arab Association of Tourist and

Travel Agents.AATTA2 African-American Travel and

Tourism Association.AAWG AIRPROX Analysis Working

Group. (AIRPROX is the ICAO term forair proximity which has now replacedthe term ‘airmiss’.)

AB Literally able-bodied. Usually appliedin term ‘able (bodied) seaman’, indica-tive of a qualified seaman with at least 3years’ experience at sea. After 9 months’experience, but without qualifications,

the title is only ‘ordinary seaman’. Theguidelines stated have been found tovary between cruise lines.

ABA1 American Bus Association. Seewww.buses.org

ABA2 Air charter Brokers Association (inthe UK).

ABA3 Australian Business Access Card.Obsolete; replaced in July 2000 withShort Business Electronic TravelAuthority. See ETAS.

ABAC Association of British AviationConsultants is a group of professionalconsultants in this sphere who areneither agents nor brokers. Seewww.baac.org.uk

Abacas Was Mycrom ComputersLimited’s British travel agents’ comput-erized data accounting and ticketingsystem. See Andromeda.

Abacus GDS serving the Far East, basedin Singapore. Although stated in somereference works as being associated withWorldspan, switched to Sabre.

abaft At the back end or stern of a ship.abandonment Originally a maritime

insurance term but now applied gener-ally to aircraft, ships or coaches.Perhaps because of detention abroad orpartial damage, an owner may beallowed, under the terms of an insur-ance, to declare that there has been aconstructive loss and therefore claim infull.

The same term is used in the USAwhen an airline no longer wishes tooperate on a route for which a licencehas been granted.

ABAV Asociacao Brasileira de Agenciasde Viagens. See www.abav.com.br

abbonement European rail ticket allow-ing unlimited travel within a specifiedarea.

ABC1 The letters were the titles offamous British airline, shipping and railguides which have now become part ofthe worldwide OAG series.

ABC2 Advance Booking Charter – obsol-ete term. See Advance Booking Charterfor details.

ABCOC The Advance Booking CharterOperator’s Council in the UK (obsolete).

abeam At an angle of 90° to the longaccess of a ship or aircraft. The term iscommonly used to mean an angle of 90°to the direction of travel, which becauseof cross winds etc., may be slightly

2 AAFRA

different. Loosely speaking, a locationopposite the mid-part of a plane or shipis abeam, while the term ‘abaft thebeam’ means any area behind this.

able-bodied passenger Person designatedas such by airline check-in staff, who isallowed to sit in seats adjacent to anemergency exit on an aircraft.

able-bodied seaman See AB.ABn Aerodrome beacon.aboard On or in a form of transportation.abort To abandon an aircraft landing or

take-off because of a problem.above board At sea, passenger accommo-

dation above the waterline, suggests USweb site www.hometravelagency.comBut throughout the English-speakingworld, the wording indicates legitimacyand the meaning attributed is not usedin the UK.

above the line promotional media Mediapaying commission to advertising agen-cies, such as newspapers, magazines,radio, poster hoardings and television.See promotional media.

ABP1 Able-bodied passenger; a persondesignated as such by airline check-instaff, who is allowed to sit in seats adja-cent to an emergency exit on an aircraft.

ABP2 Associated British Ports. Seewww.abports.co.uk

ABPCO Association of British Profes-sional Conference Organizers. Seewww.abpco.org

ABS American Bureau of Shipping. TheUS organization through which shipsare certified with respect to interna-tional maritime and safety regulations.See IMO and SOLAS.

absence flag A small, blue, square-shapedflag which shows that a boat’s owner isnot on board. On larger vessels, a pen-nant may show that the captain is absent.

absorption When an air carrier’s revenuefor its part of a joint fare is less than itsown local fare for the same market.

ABT The Association of BusinessTravellers (in the USA). See www.abt-travel.com

ABTA The Association of British TravelAgents was founded in 1950 to establishan organization fully representative oftravel agents and tour operators in theUK; it aims to promote and develop thegeneral interests of all members. Codesof Conduct have been establishedbetween members themselves, members

and the general public and membersand travel principals. A controversialobjective, almost impossible to imple-ment in view of the UK CompetitionAct, is to ‘discourage unfair competi-tion, without interfering in any waywith initiative and enterprise based onfair trading’. ABTA is ruled by an 18-member Board elected by the members,which, in turn, elects a president. Aswell as being the public face of theAssociation, the president chairs theBoard.

There are 11 ABTA travel agentregions: Eastern, Greater London,Midland, North Eastern, NorthWestern, Northern Ireland, Scotland,Southern, South Wales, South Westernand Yorkshire and North Midlands,each of which has a regional committeeand officers. Smaller agent memberswith a turnover below £10 million alsoelect members to an 11-person Councilof the Regions. The RegionalCouncillor automatically becomes theRegional Chairman. The regional com-mittees have few general powers andmerely organize some activities andregional meetings, discussing nationalmatters and recommending what theybelieve ought to be done about them.Propositions passed by regional meet-ings are not binding upon the Councilof the Regions or the Board and haveno real authority other than indicatinga viewpoint. For more information seewww.abt-travel.com

ABTA Accounts Rules Members mustsubmit accounts within 6 months of theend of their financial year.

ABTA Appeal Board Under theAssociation’s Articles, an independentAppeal Board exists to review decisionsof the Association’s Councils.

ABTA Arbitration Scheme for the TravelIndustry Customers who have com-plaints against ABTA tour operators andtravel agents may use an independentarbitration scheme negotiated with theChartered Institute of Arbitrators in theUK.

ABTA Conciliation Service This free ser-vice ended in spring 1991.

ABTACHECK Name of service enablingABTA members to check the validity ofcredit cards, particularly when the card-holder is not present, identifying 90% of

ABTACHECK 3

attempted fraudulent transactions. Seewww.abtacheck.com

ABTA Membership Requirements All thepremises and general requirements forABTA membership have now disap-peared. Any person who has at least 2years’ practical experience can becomean ABTA member running a travelagency business from any premises.Only 18 months of such experience isnecessary if ABTAC Level 1 and someother training has been completed andthis comes down to 1 year’s experiencefor those who have passed ABTAC Level2 general section. A sound financialbackground is necessary and applicantsmust not have been bankrupt or run abusiness that failed to meet its liabili-ties. Parallel requirements exist for touroperators. ABTA offers consumer pro-tection against financial loss wheneffecting travel arrangements throughmembers. All member agents and opera-tors are required to provide a bond,guarantee or some other security for theprotection of the Association’s funds,when fulfilling this consumer guarantee.See bond and BRF (Bond ReplacementFund).

ABTA NTB Association of British TravelAgents National Training Board, estab-lished in July 1982. Became TravelTraining Company in 1993; now knownas TTC Training. Partial successor toATTITB, using title GovernmentApproved because the Association’sscheme satisfied the government’srequirements. Became a wholly ownedsubsidiary of ABTA in 1993. In 1999agreed a partnership with City andGuilds of London Institute to be theawarding body for the travel coursesoffered. Was sold by ABTA in 2002 toNTP Group. See City and Guilds ofLondon Institute. Also see ABTA-TTCTraining; Modern Apprenticeship, alsosee www.ttctraining.co.uk and NVQ.

ABTA Stabiliser See Stabiliser.ABTA Tour Operator Bonding See bond.ABTA Travel Agents’ Fund Association

agent members can be required to con-tribute up to half their annual subscrip-tion in any one year as a contribution tothe Fund. Its primary purpose is toindemnify, wholly or in part, membersof the travelling public against lossessustained by reason of the default or

financial failure of any member who is atravel agent. The fund may also be used,at the discretion of a committee ofTravel Agents’ Council, to indemnifytour operators who have sustainedlosses.

ABTAC ABTA Travel Agents Certificate.A national examination at two levelscovering much of the underpinningknowledge expected by the Associationof a travel clerk working in a leisure-based UK travel agency, after 1 year’sexperience (Level 1) or 2 years’ experi-ence (Level 2). But with the exception ofscheduled air reservations, fares andticketing, which are covered in NVQ(National Vocational Qualification) airunits at two levels. The syllabus is care-fully matched to relevant leisure travelNVQ units. An ABTAC pass at merit ordistinction level exempts a candidatefrom Unit 1 of the Level 2 or 3 (asappropriate) of the Travel Services NVQ.But whereas these may be tested ‘on thejob’ with copious evidential proofrequired, ABTAC is tested by a formalwritten examination. There is also a sep-arate series of examinations at two lev-els covering business travel, operated bythe Guild of Business Travel Agents(GBTA) in conjunction with City andGuilds of London Institute (C&GLI). Formore information see City and Guilds ofLondon Institute entry also www.city-and-guilds.co.uk; ABTA-TTC Train-ing entry also www.ttctraining.co.uk;MA (Modern Apprenticeship) and NVQ.

ABTA-TTC Training UK travel trainingorganization formerly an ABTA sub-sidiary, sold to NTP Group in 2002. SeeTTC Training www.ttctraining.co.uk forcourses and facilities offered.

ABTB Association of Bank TravelBureaux in the USA.

ABTECH Was the ABTA TechnologyInformation Service providing memberswith impartial advice. The ABTA ser-vice continues but ended under thisname in 1999, becoming a commercialorganization.

ABTEL 210 Was the name of the ABTAPrestel database, managed on behalf ofthe trade body by Datasolve, whichended in 1984.

ABTOC Association of British TravelAgents Tour Operators Certificate. Thesyllabus, at two levels, covers the under-

4 ABTA Membership Requirements

pinning knowledge to be expected of acompetent member of staff of a touroperator after 1 year’s experience (Level1) or 2 years’ experience (Level 2). Theawarding body is City and Guilds ofLondon Institute; for more informationsee www.city-and-guilds.co.uk

ABTOF Association of British TourOperators to France. A UK organizationof specialist operators formed in 1992.See www.holidayfrance.org.uk

ABTOT Association of Bonded TravelOrganisers Trust; a UK trust fund whichprovides bonds as required by ATOLholders and others. See www.abtot.com

abyssalbenthic zone That part of theocean that is deeper than 1000 m. Thearechibenthic zone relates to that partbetween 200 and 1000 m deep.

AC1 Abbreviation for air conditioning,particularly used when describingaccommodation or car rental. See airconditioning.

AC2 (or A/C) Aircraft.ACA Air Cargo Annual.ACAC Arab Civil Aviation Council (or

Commission).ACAP Aviation Consumer Action Project.

In the USA, a consumer pressure groupin the field of air travel. Seewww.acap1971.org

ACARS Aircraft Addressing and Report-ing System.

ACAS1 ICAO meaning is AirborneCollision Avoidance System.

ACAS2 Worldchoice UK travel agencyconsortium system for automatic col-lection and onward payment of moneydue from member agents to travel prin-cipals. Consortium members can seetheir accounts with individual pro-viders of travel services on an NTLviewdata system, providing the oppor-tunity to raise queries before amountsowing are direct debited from agent’sbank accounts. See agents’ paymentsystems.

ACC1 As a shipping term, meansaccepted or acceptance.

ACC2 In the cruising field, in NorthAmerica, means Accredited CruiseCounsellor, a travel agency employeecertified by the CLIA.

ACC3 Airport Consultative Committee –an official IATA term. Powers varybetween countries. Usually an advisorybody representing the interests of users

and parties affected by the airport’soperations such as local authorities butin some countries may have statutorypowers. Most UK airports are obligedunder the Civil Aviation Act to run sucha committee. New committee guidelineswere issued by the UK Department ofTransport in the wake of the Future ofAviation White Paper in December2003. These Guidelines suggestCommittees should publicise their workmore widely and in anticipation of thislast year launched a new web site. Thisprovides detailed information not onlyabout the new Guidelines but also oncurrent airport issues at national andEU level. The Liaison Group of theUK ACCs was formed in 1980; itcomprises the officers of the commit-tees at the 22 largest UK airports. Seewww.ukaccs.info

ACC4 As an air travel term, may meanArea Control Centre.

ACCED-I Association of CollegiateConference and Events Directors –International (in the US). Seewww.acced-i.org

access code An alpha-numeric stringwhich is recognized by a computer andallows entry. The most sophisticatedcodes are bilateral, requiring responsesprogrammed into each computer.

access time The time it takes for a com-puter terminal to connect to a distantsystem or to retrieve information, oncean operator has issued an instructioncalling for that data. In the travel indus-try, there may be several interrelatedelements of access time, including thattaken to establish communication with adistant computer through the Internet, acomputerized reservation system (CRS)type of interfacing device, throughdirect, permanently leased telephonelines or through ordinary dial-up tele-phone lines and a viewdata gateway.Also see ADSL.

accessibility See transport modelling.accommodation See accommodation types.accommodation bill Although it could be

a list of the charges for a hotel stay,depending on the context, it is morelikely to be a bill of exchange which athird party has signed, endorsing it thatthey accept responsibility if the desig-nated payee does not meet the agreedpayment.

accommodation bill 5

accommodation categorization systemsSee accommodation grading systems.

accommodation centre A place whereaccommodation can be booked, similarto a tourist information centre. Not incommon use is the ISO (InternationalStandards Organization) 1989 Inter-professional Vocabulary of Tourism andLeisure definition, ‘A collective lodgingopen during holiday periods for long orshort stays’, derived from the Frenchfoyer d’accueil.

accommodation classification Seeaccommodation grading systems.

accommodation grading systemsSchemes, either official or commercial,which identify the quality of accommo-dation according to predetermined stan-dards, so that visitors may know what toexpect. The 2003 CEN/EuropeanStandard official definition designates:‘System providing an assessment of thequality standards and provision of facil-ities and/or services of tourist accommo-dation typically within five categories,often indicated by one to five symbols.’The assessment system can be organizedby organizations such as international,national or regional authorities, touristboards, trade associations, guide pub-lishers, tour operators or owners ofaccommodation themselves.

Systems tend to be a mixture of judge-ment of three facets: statements of fact asto the nature of the services and buildingsavailable; quantitative statements of thenumbers and sizes of each of these itemsand sometimes the prices to be charged;qualitative judgements, by which meansalone the world’s best hotels stand outfrom their counterparts. In some coun-tries operating official classification andgrading systems, registration is not com-pulsory, so that a non-graded hotel is notnecessarily the worst.

Burkart and Medlik in their bookTourism defined the terms, suggestingthat categorization is the separation ofaccommodation into different types suchas hotels, motels, guest houses and pen-sions. Classification is the separation ofaccommodation according to physicalfeatures, such as the presence or other-wise of bathrooms, showers and toilets. Itis felt that ‘grading’ ought to be a termreserved for verifiable objective featuresof service, such as the availability of a

night porter and meals, as distinct fromsubjective features, such as cuisine andatmosphere which call for a qualitativeassessment. Although the definition ofthese terms is a laudable objective, unfor-tunately all the words are taken to have asimilar meaning in general worldwidetravel industry usage. Apart from officialcountry grading systems, the MichelinGuide is well known in Europe. In theUK, the AA and RAC guides are regardedby travellers as the significant systems.

In March 2004, the Britain ReviewGroup achieved in-principle agreementby the five assessing bodies on commonstandards for ratings in Britain. TheGroup is chaired by Alan Britten and ismade up of the three national touristboards for Britain – VisitBritain,VisitScotland and the Wales TouristBoard – as well as the AA and RAC,with its recommendations endorsed bythe British Hospitality Association,Regional Development Agencies andTourist Boards, the Local GovernmentAssociation and other government bod-ies. Self-catering properties will beassessed under the new standards from2005, while serviced accommodation(hotels, guest houses and B & Bs) assess-ments begin in 2006. At present, nearlyhalf of all accommodation operators inEngland participate in either theVisitBritain, RAC or AA quality assess-ment schemes, and a majority of localauthorities have already adopted apolicy of promoting quality-assessedaccommodation. The majority of themajor hotel groups have also committedto joining the common standardsscheme, which will mean that in excessof 80% of the group hotels will beparticipating. For latest details andassessment criteria see www.VisitBritain.com; travel industry accessis via www.tourismtrade.org.uk

accommodation ladder The gangway setup for people to board or disembarkfrom a ship, which usually hashandrails as well as ‘ladder’ type steps.Since these are difficult (if not impossi-ble) to negotiate for elderly or infirmpassengers, their usage has declined.See Jacob’s ladder.

accommodation layout Plan of accommo-dation. In hotels etc., in most countries,prominent exhibition of such plans is

6 accommodation categorization systems

compulsory, showing exit routes in caseof fire or other emergency.

accommodation rating See accommoda-tion grading systems and hotels, unbi-ased opinions of.

accommodation spaces The spaces acces-sible by passengers on a vessel such as acruise ship, liner or ferry. SOLAS regu-lations comprehensively list such areascovering ballrooms, cabins, cinemas,corridors, games rooms, shops andtheatres.

accommodation types The 2003 CEN/European Standard official definitiondesignates accommodation as ‘The pro-vision of at least sleeping and sanitaryfacilities’. However, this sets a mini-mum standard; accommodation maynot always provide sanitary facilities;moreover, a ‘day room’ or any meetingroom in a hotel may commonly bereferred to as accommodation, althoughno sleeping facilities are provided. Seeall suite hotel, aparthotel, auberge,boarding house, boutique hotel, budgethotel, bungalow, cabin, camper, camp-site, canal barge, caravan, caravanetteholiday home, caravan park, casa dehuéspedes, casita, chalet, chalet hotel,farm, folding caravan, guest house,health farm, health resort, holidaycamps, holiday caravan, holiday centre,holiday club, hotel, inn, lifestyle hotel,minshuku, mobile home, motel, motor-home, pension, residence2, ryokan,rural house, spa hotel, static caravan,touring camp, touring caravan, touringpark, trailer tent, villa for holidays,YHA.

accommodation, unbiased opinions ofSee hotels, unbiased opinions of.

accommodations In North America, theuse of the plural word can mean lodg-ings of any type, even tents, while inBritain, accommodation can mean aroom or rooms available for rental bymembers of the public.

accompanied car, baggage or motorcycleetc. Where the item concerned ismeant to travel on the same transportservice as the passenger. In respect of airtravel, checked baggage is that part of apassenger’s accompanied baggage whichis handed to the carrier for transport andcollection at the destination airport.Unchecked baggage is referred to ashand luggage or baggage.

accompanying (companion, partner, per-son or spouse) A non-delegate; at con-ferences, conventions and events, thereis often a programme for non-delegateswhile the formal sessions are inprogress.

account, travel See travel account.accountable documents Providers of

travel services issue blank tickets andother documents for use by themselvesor their agents. Because, upon comple-tion, they will be valid for travel orevent entry, they are numbered, andmust be issued in sequence andaccounted for. Travel agents’ salesreturns to IATA, ARC or transport com-panies must return voided tickets. Losttickets may be charged at average value.

accounting systems for travel agents SeeTravel agents’ computerized accountingand ticketing systems in the UK.

accreditation A formal appointment by atransportation principal or group ofprincipals to sell their services; the asso-ciated conditions are covered in anagency agreement. Only appointedagents receive commission on sales.

accredited agent An agent who has re-ceived an appointment by a transpor-tation principal or group of principals tosell their services. IATA publishes thenames of their accredited (appointed)agents in the ‘Agency List’. Thus, theofficial IATA definition is ‘A PassengerSales Agent whose name is on theAgency List’. The Head Office, BranchOffice, and Satellite Ticket Printer loca-tions appearing on the Agency List areknown as ‘approved locations’, as dis-tinct from the organization itself whichmay own many locations. (Note thatcargo and freight handling are outsidethe scope of this dictionary; there is aparallel set of definitions in this field.)

Accredited Travel Professional UK quali-fication under development by ABTA(Association of British Travel Agents),ITT (Institute of Travel and Tourism)and People 1st (The Sector SkillsCouncil for the hospitality, leisure,travel and tourism industry). A pilotscheme is currently being run inLondon. Three levels are: Bronze, forthose who have attained an NVQ Level2 or equivalent qualification, such asABTAC Level 1 together with 2 years’experience; Silver, for those who have

Accredited Travel Professional 7

attained an NVQ Level 3, or equivalentqualification, such as ABTAC Level 2together with 4 years’ experience; andGold, for those who have attained anNVQ level 3 or 4, or equivalent qualifi-cation, together with 7 years’ experi-ence. It is intended that ATP shouldnot be a new qualification, but a recog-nition of the qualifications and experi-ence already possessed, providing it iskept up to date by an ATP programmeof CPD (continuous professional develop-ment).

acculturation The process by which dif-ferent cultures absorb customs. Despitewidespread tourism, some culturalaspects have proved remarkably resist-ant to change. The phenomenon ofwesternization is, perhaps, the most sig-nificant example. The WTO definition ofacculturation is: ‘Process of interactionbetween two societies or groups thatresults in some degree of culturalchange. While it is recognised that thetourist may change slightly because ofinteraction with the residents of a desti-nation area, the area residents usuallyexperience greater pressure to adopt theways of the tourists’ [Source: WorldTourism Organization and Secretariat ofState for Tourism of France (2001),Thesaurus on Tourism and LeisureActivities, p. 280]. The same phenome-non is described in some tourism text-books as adaptation, a term applicableto the behaviour of people in generalwhen they have been subjected to a newor changed environment. Thus termshost or tourist adaptation specify whichgroup is changing as a result of theculture of the other. Anthropologicalstudies sometimes use the word ‘pass-ing’ when referring to the absorption oftourist’s values and culture by anindigenous population. See tourism arealife cycle. See also demonstration effect.

ACE Association for Conferences andEvents; an international coordinatingbody for the meetings industry withover 1000 members in more than 50countries. Members are both suppliersto and organizers and users of confer-ence, exhibition and travel incentivefacilities. Publishes the ACE Yearbook –a Who’s Who of the Meetings and Eventsindustry. See ACE web site for moreinformation www.martex.co.uk/ace

ACET Asociación Chilena de Empresasde Turismo. See www.achet.cl

ACEx Aircraft Exchange (IATA).Acey deucy Slang at sea for backgammon.ACH US Airlines Clearing House

Incorporated. See also IATA ClearingHouse.

achieved average room sales See roomrates.

ACI1 Airports Council International isthe international trade body for airports;it provides statistics on annual through-put of cargo and passengers for over600 airports worldwide. Seewww.airports.org

ACI2 Assist Card International, based inFlorida USA.

ACLS Automatic carrier landing system.ACM Agency Credit Memo, a BSP docu-

ment.ACN Aircraft classification number.ACOND International hotel code for

room with air conditioning.ACOS Autofile Coach Operators was a

British coach operators’ reservation andaccounting system, introduced in 1983by Autofile Software Limited.

acoustic coupler This small device hastwo rubber collars matching a tele-phone. The coupler changes sound intodigital signals recognizable by a com-puter. Although valuable for mobile ter-minals, acoustic couplers have intrinsicdisadvantages and, if at all possible, lap-tops should be connected direct to tele-phone lines, bypassing the ordinaryspeech instrument. See also adaptor.

acoustic sounding Used at sea to indicatedepth of seabed, by using sound waves,which travel in water five times fasterthan in the air, 4900 ft per s. Called anecho sounder because it records the‘echo’ from the seabed.

ACP Airline control protocol; early soft-ware in the 1970s used by airline reser-vation systems.

ACP 80 The world’s most advanced cargoinventory control and customs’ facilitiessystem operated by British Customs atLondon’s Heathrow and Gatwick air-ports and at Manchester airport.

acquirer See merchant acquirer.ACR Aircraft control radar.ACRA American Car Rental Association.ACRISS Association of Car Rental Infor-

mation System Standards. Europeangroup set up in June 1989 to facilitate

8 acculturation

AD75 9

the use of computerized reservation sys-tems. Initial objectives to standardizecar rental vouchers, CRS screen formatsand codes. See www.acriss.org

ACRS Accelerated Cost Recovery System.ACSSP Air Carrier Standard Security

Programme.act of god See force majeure.ACT1 Actual time of arrival (whereas

ETA is estimated time of arrival).ACT2 Association of Couriers in Tourism.ACTA1 Association of Canadian Travel

Agents. See www.acta.net ACTA2 Alliance of Canadian Travel

Associations, the members of which areCanadian travel associations throughoutCanada. See www.edmc.net/butte/acta.html

ACTA3 Association of Cyprus TravelAgents. See www.pio.gov.cy

ACTE Association of Corporate TravelExecutives. ACTE, covering Africa, theAsia Pacific region, Canada, Europe, theMiddle East and the USA, has around2500 members. In February 2005announced merger with the Institute ofTravel Managers in Industry andCommerce in the UK and Ireland. Aswell as UK representation on the ACTEBoard, a UK Regional Advisory Councilhas been formed. See www.acte.org Alsosee list of 70 other business travelrelated entries which follows corporatetravel contracts, some of which lead tofurther entries.

Active Travel Group A Yorkshire UK-based consortium of travel agents, mem-ber of Worldchoice.

activities host American terminology forEntertainment Organizer, known as ananimateur in Europe. The World TourismOrganization and Secretariat of State forTourism of France (2001), Thesaurus onTourism and Leisure Activities states‘employee of a hotel, resort or cruise shipwho arranges, oversees and sometimesencourages guests or passengers to takepart in optional entertainment activities’.But the WTO is wrong to suggest that theEnglish word ‘animator’ is equivalent –this is a cartoon artist!

activity holiday See special interest holi-days.

ACTO1 Association of Camping TouringOperators Ltd in the UK.

ACTO2 Association of Caribbean TourOperators in the USA.

ACTOA Airline Charter Tour Operatorsin the USA.

actual demand for tourism The distinc-tion has been made in some textbooksbetween the number of people actuallytravelling and the potential demand.There are no generally accepted defini-tions so that usage of the wording‘actual demand for tourism’ may some-times be taken to mean the total poten-tial demand. In this dictionary, theopinion preferred is that of Cooper et al.in Tourism Principles and Practice (2ndedn) that ‘actual demand’ should alwaysmean the actual number of touriststravelling.

actual flying time Duration of an air jour-ney regardless of time zone differences.Travel literature now commonly onlyrefers to ‘flight durations’. ElapsedFlying Time, terminology with the samemeaning, is now obsolescent.

ACV Air cushion vehicle, commonlyknown as a hovercraft. ACV forms ofvarious types are the certificates ofinsurance cover offered by Lloyd’s onhovercraft.

AD Airworthiness Directive.ad hoc One-off or individually arranged;

for example, an ad hoc charter of anaircraft, ship, train or coach is a singlearrangement, contrasting with a seriescharter. See charter.

Ad valorem Literally translated from theLatin, ‘in proportion to the value’.Customs duties on items imported bytravellers in excess of the duty-freeallowances are often of this type whileairport departure charges and taxes aremore usually fixed amounts.

AD75 75% Agent’s Discount. IATA reso-lution 880 allows each appointed IATAagency to be issued with up to two 75%rebated tickets per calendar year by eachIATA airline. Normally only full-timeemployees involved directly in thepromotion and sale of travel facilitieswho have been working for the IATAagency for 12 months continuously areeligible. Lists of staff eligible forreduced-rate transport are meant to bemaintained in each country. Similarly,in the USA, ARC and IATAN are meantto keep lists based on information sub-mitted by appointed agents. In the USA,an ‘agent’ frequently refers to a person,so that an agent eligibility list lists

10 ADA room

‘people’ entitled to facilities rather thanbusinesses.

ADA room Accommodation (or othertypes of room) which meets the specifi-cations of the US Americans withDisabilities legislation.

ADAP The Airport Development AidProgram is organized by the US FAA tohelp communities develop their airportsby giving grants of up to 50% of the costof land acquisition and construction andup to two-thirds of the cost of airportplanning.

adaptation See acculturation.adaptor A connector for travellers,

enabling their equipment (shavers,hairdryers and laptop computers) to beconnected to telephone or electric sock-ets in countries where systems varyfrom their own. The wide range of typesof sockets makes it crucial for travellersto take appropriate adaptors with themon a foreign journey, if equipment use isessential.

ADAVI Asociación de Agencias de ViajesDominicanas.

ADC1 Air data computer.ADC2 IATA abbreviation for additional

collection, where, due to rerouting, up-grading or other itinerary alterations ofthe traveller’s choice, a higher fare is due.

add-on US term for optional items thatcan be bought with a tour or other travelarrangements. For example, it may be aslittle as travel insurance or can be therail or air fare to get to the start point ofthe main arrangement, such as a cruise.

add-on fare Add-on fares are used to con-struct through international fares to andfrom points not otherwise published inairline tariff manuals. Also, an amountto be added to a fare as signified by thepreceding descriptive word, for exam-ple, domestic add-on. When con-structed, such fares are then treated forall normal purposes in the same way aspublished fares, with a maximum per-mitted mileage being derived by the useof a mileage add-on for the domesticsector, added to the internationalmileage. Where the fares’ rules in thetariffs for a particular journey allow forconstructing mileages to or from a point,then the lowest combination principleapplies.

ADF Automatic direction finding equip-ment.

ADI Attitude/direction indicator.ADIZ Air defence identification zone.adjacent rooms (or seats) See adjoining

rooms, next entry.adjoining rooms (or seats) Hotel rooms

which are situated next to each other,typically requested by a family withyoung children with whom they do notwish to share. In modern hotels, suchrooms are seldom inter-communicating.Adjoining seats are seats next to eachother, on a mode of transport or at anevent. By definition, rooms on oppositesides of a corridor, or seats either side ofan aisle, are NOT adjoining.

ADM Agency Debit Memo, a BSP docu-ment.

ADME Association of DestinationManagement Executives in the USA.Qualification is DCMP (DestinationManagement Certified Professional). Seewww.adme.org

admeasurement The official size of aship.

Administrative Office Official IATAdefinition is an office which is not anApproved Location, but which isentered in the Agency List foradministrative purposes. Term ingeneral travel industry use, for exam-ple, to indicate the head office of anABTA member not actually function-ing as a travel agency or tour operatingcentre.

Admiral of the Open Sea Award InAmerica, a small silver statue ofChristopher Columbus is presentedannually to someone who is consideredto have given outstanding service to theshipping industry. Recipients are given(and may use) the title Admiral of theOpen Sea.

Admiral’s Club Was the name of UKSealink incentive scheme for regularcross-channel travellers.

Admirals Club Name of AmericanAirlines Frequent Flyers’ Club. Seeairline clubs and FFP (frequent flyerprogramme).

Admiralty Measured Mile Defined inThe Marine Encyclopaedic Dictionaryby Eric Sullivan (1988 Lloyd’s ofLondon) as 6080 ft or 1853.184 m com-pared to the nautical mile of 6076.1 ft.See nautical mile.

ADNS ARINC Data Network Services.See ARINC.

ADO1 Agent’s Debit Order. A BritishAirways form which replaced AXOs in1980, itself becoming obsolete upon theintroduction of BSP in autumn 1984.

ADO2 Agency Distribution Office of IATA.See Agency Programme Liaison Group.

adoption rate Percentage of travellers ortravel bookers in a corporate entity fol-lowing an agreed corporate travel policyor taking up use of a self-booking tool.Note the misnomer that the term usesthe word ‘rate’, implying that it refersto speed of take-up, whereas it is a pro-portion. For example, a survey of NBTAmembers found that at the end 2003,over 90% of US companies with man-aged travel programmes booked individ-ual travel online. In respect of travelpolicy, ‘compliance’ is often used. Termmay also apply to travel situations in ageneral sense of the meaning. A list of70 other business travel related entriesfollows corporate travel contracts, someof which lead to further entries.

ADP Automatic Data Processing. In the-ory the term applies to any processingundertaken by automated machinery,but in practice, this term is used todescribe work done by punched cardand similar equipment, so as to contrastwith EDP (Electronic Data Processing)(general technical terms).

ADR Advisory route (aviation term).ADRM Airport Development Reference

Manual.ADS1 Agency Data Systems, the US mar-

ket leader. See Sabre for more informa-tion.

ADS2 Automatic dependent surveillance(aviation term).

ADS-B ADS broadcast.ADSL An Asynchronous Digital Sub-

scriber Line. Normal copper telephonewires can be transformed into high-speed digital lines, which are particu-larly valuable to the needs of the travelindustry.

ADT1 Alaska Daylight Time or AtlanticDaylight Time.

ADT2 Approved departure time (airtravel).

ADTF The Agency Distribution TaskForce of IATA was set up at the begin-ning of 1984 by the IATA TrafficCommittee to review the agency distrib-ution system for air travel worldwide.

adult fare In respect of international

scheduled air transport, adult fares arecharged upon passengers reaching their12th birthday, children’s fares beingcharged from 2 to 12 and infant’s faresunder 2. Reductions are often given tostudents and other young persons. Rateswithin countries and for other modes oftransport vary widely; for example, fordomestic rail journeys in the UK, under5 travel free while children aged 5 to 15travel at half fares. For international railjourneys from the UK, from 4 to 11inclusive travel at half fare, with youthfares available up to 25.

adv Advanced (Boeing aircraft nomencla-ture).

Advance Booking Charter Any charterwhere governmental or other rulesrequire a minimum advance bookingperiod, in order to protect scheduledcarriers. Prior to April 1973, many peo-ple travelled between Britain andAmerica or Canada on Affinity Groupcharters. Any organization, provided itwas not formed specifically in order toarrange travel, could become involvedin the provision of charter flights formembers.

Charter flights in general were given abad name because of many disreputableincidents and, from 1973, ABCs weresanctioned by the CAA in the UK andthe CAB in the USA. During the follow-ing years, relaxation of the regulationsresulted in a complete range of alterna-tive low transatlantic fares and there isnow little or no difference between ABCrates and similar scheduled airlines’rates offered on APEX or other low fares.

Advance Passenger Information SystemFrom October 2003, the US Governmenthas required comprehensive data inadvance of arrival in the US for air trav-ellers arriving from abroad. PNR(Passenger Name Record) details mustbe sent soon after a flight’s departure.Although much of this information isprovided by machine readable pass-ports, other information such as homeresidence and address while in the USAis also required. From 26 October 2004,travellers from 21 countries to whichthe visa waiver programme applies arerequired to have machine readable pass-ports and have their fingerprints andphotos taken on entry to the US. Seealso CAPPS.

Advance Passenger Information System 11

Advance Purchase Excursion FareOriginally, a low scheduled air fare fortravel in the discount or lowest class ofcabin. Passengers must book and pur-chase tickets a minimum period beforetravel, varying from some months toseveral days. Now, APEX type fares areoffered by many transport operators.

advance timetable A transport servicestimetable for a future season, preparedfor planning convenience of both pas-sengers and the travel industry, often insummary form, and always likely tochange when the definitive timetable ispublished for the period concerned.

Advanced Passenger Train See APT.Advantage Travel Centres (in the UK)

Brand name under which NAITA(National Association of IndependentTravel Agents) operates in the UK. SeeNAITA www.advantage4travel.com

adventure Followed by words such ascruise, holiday or tourism, means tripswith an element of excitement, discov-ery, discomfort and risk. The term isnot specific, so that arrangements couldbe for backpacking through disease-ridden snake-infested equatorial forestsor carefully guided visits causing theleast possible disturbance to naturalhabitats.

Adventure Activity Licensing AuthoritySee AALA and www.aala.org

adventure tourism Recreational travelwhich is hazardous, varying fromextremely dangerous activities toinvolvement in thrilling but relativelysafe pursuits. The World TourismOrganization and Secretariat of State forTourism of France (2001), Thesaurus onTourism and Leisure Activities is felt tobe wrong in suggesting that the termonly applies to ‘soft’ adventure activitiessuch as rafting, hot-air ballooning,trekking, four-wheel driving, helicopterriding and mountain climbing.

Adventure Travel Society (USA) Seewww.adventuretravel.com

advertised tour Originally this was an IT(inclusive tour) meeting airline require-ments, so that the operator could pro-duce a package using ITX fares whichwere lower than the normal rates. InEurope, this use is now obsolescent andthe term usually only means a travelarrangement described in a brochure. In

the USA, however, IT numbers are stillassigned to approved tours by a fewairlines that still remunerate agents bycommission.

advertising media See promotionalmedia.

AE Via Atlantic and Eastern Hemisphere.See routing.

AEA Association of European Airlines.See www.aea.be

AEADVE Asociación Empresarial Agen-cias de Viajes Españolas, the SpanishAssociation of Travel Agents.

AECMA Association Européen desConstructeurs de Matériel Aerospatial.

AEF Aviation Environment Federation.See www.aef.org.uk

AEO Association of Exhibition Organ-isers in the UK. See www.aeo.org

AERO Air Education and RecreationOrganisation in the UK, aims toprovide a general information andadvisory service in its sphere bylinking education and industry. Seewww.pilotweb.co.uk

aerodrome See airport; an aerodrome inthe UK is often a small airport for lightaircraft.

Aerodrome Owners Association Thetrade body of UK aerodromes, whichrepresents their interests.

aerofoil See airframe.Aeronautical Radio Inc See ARINC.aeronautics The study of the engineering

and science of flight, derived fromthe word aeronaut, the original, nowobsolete, name for the first pilots andballoonists.

aeroplane Now airplane. See aircraft.AETA Used to be the Association of

European Travel Agents. See www.aeta.co.uk

AETF Airline Economic Task Force (ofIATA).

AETR European Agreement Concerningthe Work of Crews of Vehicles engagedin Road Transport. The Agreement is inrespect of the hours which commercialvehicle drivers are allowed to drive, andapplies to international journeys involv-ing travel through or to Austria,Czechoslovakia, Norway, Common-wealth of Independent States (formerlyUSSR), Sweden and the states whichwere formerly Yugoslavia.

AEVT Asociación Ecuatoriana de Viajes yTurismo. See www.astanet.com

12 Advance Purchase Excursion Fare

AEW Airborne early warning.AF1 Via Africa. See routing.AF2 Airframe.AFA Association of Flight Attendants in

the USA. See www.afanet.orgAFCAC African Civil Aviation Com-

mission. The objectives of the Com-mission are to promote coordination,better utilization, and orderly develop-ment of African air transport.Membership is open to African states,members of the Economic Commissionof Africa and the Organization ofAfrican Unity. See www.afcac-cafac.org

AFCS Automatic flight control system.Affinity Charter Prior to April 1973,

many people travelled across theAtlantic between America or Canadaand Britain by virtue of their member-ship of a club, company, trade body,religious or similar organization. Solong as it was formed for a purposeother than merely to circumvent the lawas it then was, and arrange cheap travel,the group was acceptable both by theBritish CAA and the American CAB.

Widespread abuse finally led to inter-national agreements permitting AdvanceBooking Charters (see separate entry),on which any individual could makereservations. Gradual relaxation of therules allowed the introduction of otherforms of cheap transatlantic air travel,so that affinity charters now onlyoperate on a genuine basis and are nolonger a major part of the transatlantictravel market.

Affinity Group See Affinity Charter. Theterm now applies to any group of peoplewith interests in common who gettogether for the purposes of travel.

Affinity Group Fares Fares restricted tobona fide groups of members of acorporation, club or legal entity.Individuals must have membership forat least 6 months before the date onwhich group is to fly. Groups can onlybe formed by solicitation limited to per-sonal letters, circulars or telephone callsaddressed to members of the grouptravel organization. Public soliciting isprohibited. Such groups must not begathered directly or indirectly by travelagents or anyone else engaged in organ-izing or selling transportation services.

AFI Africa/Indian Ocean; an IATA region.

AFIS Aerodrome flight informationsystem.

AFORR Association of Foreign RailwayRepresentatives in the UK; now AIRC,Association of International RailCompanies.

Afos See car ferry CRSs in the UK.AFRAA African Airlines Association.AFRC Australian Family Reunion Club.

See Reunion Clubs.Africa Travel and Tourism Association

For details of this UK-based organiza-tion see www.atta.co.uk

Africa Travel Association Formed topromote travel to and within Africa byofficial national tourism organizationstogether with travel service operators.See www.africa-ata.org

African Civil Aviation Commission SeeAFCAC.

AFS1 Aerodrome fire service.AFS2 Aeronautical fixed service.aft The rear of a vessel or aircraft.AFTA1 Association of Finnish Travel

Agents. See www.astanet.comAFTA2 Australian Federation of Travel

Agents. See www.afta.com.auafterbody The back half of a ship or air-

craft.AFTN Aeronautical fixed telecommuni-

cation network.AGAS Association of Guide Booking

Agency Services in the UK.age groups (for tourism data collection)

The WTO recommends that travellers’statistics should be collected for the ageranges 0–14; 15–24; 25–44; 45–64; 65years plus.

Agency Administrator Official IATAdefinition is the IATA official designatedby the Director General of IATA fromtime to time as the holder of that officeor his authorised representative. Theperson who manages agency affairs forIATA, often in partnership with agents,in a designated area.

agency agreement A contract between atravel agent and a principal, setting outthe terms and conditions under whichbusiness is transacted on behalf of orwith the principal. The IATA PassengerSales Agency Agreement operatesworldwide in various forms, except forthe USA, under IATA Resolutions PAC1,PAC2 and PAC3 (22) 824. In EU andEAA countries it is PAC2 (22) 814b.

agency agreement 13

After 2 years of hard bargainingthe Global Consultative Committee(GCC), which consists of eight airlineand eight agency representatives, rec-ommended a new contract because theexisting agreement was thought to betoo one-sided in favour of the airlines.But on Friday 28 June 2002 the newdeal, which needed unanimousapproval, was quashed by the airlinesat the IATA Passenger AgencyConference in Miami and the meetingsuspended. Agents worldwide wereencouraged to call on their respectivegovernments to review the antitrustimmunity granted to IATA members tocontrol the distribution system; initiatean urgent study into the developmentof an alternative to the present IATAaccreditation system; establish anindustry task force to immediatelyimplement a global alternative to theIATA BSP system; actively support andparticipate in legal class actions againstairlines; and suspend until furthernotice all dialogue and consultationswithin the IATA Agency Programme.At the time of writing nothing whatso-ever has happened!

agency appointment See appointment.Agency Board Official IATA definition is

any of the three Agency AdministrationBoards established for the three trafficConference Areas by the PassengerAgency Conference.

Agency Investigation Board See AIP1.Agency Investigation Panel See AIP1.Agency List Official IATA definition is

the list more fully described in sectionD of the Passenger Sales AgencyAdministration Rules containing thenames and addresses of approvedagency locations and, where appropri-ate, the addresses of their administrativeoffices. In the USA, an equivalent list ispublished by the ARC and by IATAN.

Agency Management System In the USA,is a computer system which undertakesthe full administration of an agency, aswell as ticketing, while in Britain, theterm is more usually applied to ‘backoffice’ administrative and accountingsystems.

agency manager In general usage, themanager of a travel agency. But in theUSA and some other countries, it is theperson designated as such to gain or

hold an airline appointment. Threeyears’ retail agency experience andother requirements are laid down.

agency payment systems See agents’ pay-ment systems.

Agency Programme Official IATA defini-tion is the various IATA Resolutions,rules and procedures adopted by airlinemembers and approved by the regula-tory authorities to maintain overallstandards and industry practices for thesale of international air transportationby Approved Agents.

Agency Programme Joint Council (LiaisonGroup) Currently, IATA Resolution814 has been implemented in all mem-ber states of the European Union and in31 other countries, mainly in Europeand Africa. Under this Resolution, anAPJC is set up to consider all aspects ofthe IATA Programme in the country con-cerned. Membership of the Councils islimited to 18 representatives, withagency representatives being not lessthan one-third nor more than one-half ofthe 18 members. In the UK, under IATAResolution 808, an Agency ProgrammeLiaison Group was set up in 1988, withnine airline and nine agency representa-tives. In 1990, following the adoption ofIATA resolution 814 in the UK thisbecame the Agency Programme JointCouncil. This APJC now has overallcontrol, the UK AIP having been wounddown and its responsibilities havingbeen taken over by the IATA AgencyDistribution Office in London. It is thisoffice which now makes initial deci-sions as to whether IATA accreditationstandards have been met by applicants.Of the nine UK agency seats ABTA havethe majority, together with representa-tion from the Guild of Business TravelAgents and the Scottish PassengerAgents Association. The APLG concernsitself with policy matters. It began byestablishing criteria to obtain and retainIATA passenger agency approval.

It is the Agency Distribution Office inthe UK that administers applications forIATA approval and has a review pro-gramme to ensure that standards aremaintained by existing approved agents,both in accordance with Resolution 814and with APJC policies.

The APJC has established a pointssystem for the assessment of staff qualifi-

14 agency appointment

cations and has laid down approved syl-labuses at two levels. In the UK IATAagents must have at least two qualifyingstaff members who together achieve aminimum of 40 points. Successful com-pletion of a Level 1 air fares and ticket-ing course gains 10 points, while Level 2passes gain 20 points. Recent experiencein an IATA agency can gain up to 40points.

The APJC has also laid down finan-cial criteria. UK agents are required toshow a profit before tax and to have anexcess of current assets over current lia-bilities, at the end of a trading period,otherwise a bond is required. Minimumfully-paid share capital levels start at£40,000 for agencies with £2 million orless of IATA sales, rising to £200,000 ifsales are £10 million. Companies thathave been trading for 3 or more yearsonly need half these share capital levels.

Bonds, if required, vary from 16% offorecast or actual IATA turnover for anagency able to provide less than 3 years’audited accounts; 12% thereafter.

agency representative See rep.Agency Services Manager (of IATA) IATA

official designated by the AgencyAdministrator to head the AgencyServices office in a country or area, whois responsible for agency accreditation.

agency tour A term sometimes used inthe USA to describe a fam trip. Seefamiliarization tour.

Agenda 21 See sustainable tourism.Agenda for Research on Tourism by

Integration of Statistics/Strategies forTransport See ARTIST.

agent See travel agent.agent bypass In the USA, when travel

providers deal directly with customers.In the UK this is known as bookingdirect.

agent eligibility list See AD75agents’ discount Travel agents gain a dis-

count varying according to the form oftransportation or other arrangement.50% hotel offers are common, whilecoaches in the UK and buses in the USAoften provide free travel to good agents.For details of the 75% reduction offeredto IATA agents for international airtravel see AD75.

agents’ IATA Incentive Scheme Wasterminated in the UK at the end of 1978.In autumn 1979, agents received 4%

extra commission on all 1978 eligiblesales which were in excess of 110% of1977 sales. See commission.

agents’ accounting and ticketing systemsSee travel agents’ computerizedaccounting and ticketing systems in theUK.

agents’ coupon Most transportation tick-ets have many coupons with the topcopy servicing as an audit or accountingcoupon. The agents’ coupon of a ticket,also known as the issuing office copy, isthe one an agent retains. Fraud isavoided because the other coupons areall carbon copies of the top one, unlessagents resort to the practice of card-boarding, so called because a piece ofcardboard or thick paper through whicha carbon impression will not be created,is inserted between the coupons of anair ticket before it is written out. Thisenables one or more of the coupons toshow different information. Providedthe alternative data is entered throughcarbon paper of the same colour as thecopy material with which the ticketcoupons are impregnated, the falsifica-tion is impossible to detect unless allthe coupons are compared. See airtickets.

agents’ legal status See legal status of atravel agent.

agents’ payment systems The way inwhich travel agents report sales of air-line tickets and pay for them was thefirst to be automated. In the USA, theInteractive Agent Reporting (IAR) sys-tem and associated direct debit arrange-ments are described under the ARCentry while the UK Bank SettlementPlan is under BSP. Whereas in Britainthe basic cycle is calendar monthly,with agents’ payments being debitedfrom their accounts on the 17th of thefollowing month, in the USA, the basiccycle is weekly. In the UK, there is anABTA members’ scheme, ‘SinglePayments System’ (SPS) operative forsales outside BSP; unfortunately, thishas had limited success, even thoughpackage holidays account for over 50%of the sales of British agents. One of themain reasons for this is that the maintour operators in the UK all have theirown direct debit systems such asThomson’s TABS, Airtours’ SPACE andKuoni’s KAB. Worldchoice consortium

agents’ payment systems 15

agents use their own member’s directdebit system ACAS. See direct debitsystems.

However, despite these difficulties,SPS is still developing towards becom-ing the standard UK agency paymentsystem. There is no charge to travelagents but a small charge to tour opera-tors, less than it would cost them tohandle the transaction in-house. Part ofthe costs of running a system such asSPS are covered by the interest earnedon the money in transit between agentsand operators.

How does SPS work? Operators pro-duce weekly listings of deposits andamounts due on late bookings, togetherwith money due for departures duringthe next 42 days. This information isavailable for viewing by agents on NTL’sviewdata system from Monday toWednesday. During this period agentscan amend the account, deleting incor-rect charges. After this, NTL reports tooperators any changes that have beenmade. Agents’ bank accounts are deb-ited on Friday morning and operators’accounts are credited with the moneypaid on Monday morning.

In the USA agents can process ser-vice fees and other credit card paymentsthrough the ARC Travel Agency ServiceFee Program (TASF). ASTA memberscan get a better deal through ASTA’sPayment Processing Program via ChaseMerchant Services.

agents’ sales return See ASR.agio 17th-century term for the percentage

commission charged when changingpaper money into cash. No evidence canbe found for the assertion in severaltourism dictionaries that the word agio isused to describe the commission chargedby a bank or bureau de change whenexchanging one currency for another.

AGL Above ground level.AGNIS Azimuth guidance for nose-in

stands.Agreement on the international carriage

of passengers by road by means ofoccasional bus and coach servicesAlso known as ASOR; replaced from1 January 2003 by the EC InterbusAgreement on the international occa-sional carriage of passengers by coachand bus. See www.europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/124264.htm

agricultural tourism As with manydescriptors preceding the word tourism,it is not specific. May mean merely ruraltourism or, at the other end of the spec-trum, tourism associated with workingfarms. See farm tourism.

agritourism See farm tourism.agrotourism See farm tourism.AGT Automated Guideway Transit, is a

system where public service vehicles,currently usually rail or monorail, rununmanned to a fixed schedule alongreserved track.

agt Travel industry abbreviation for agent.AGTA1 Association of Gibraltar Travel

Agents.AGTA2 Association of Greek-Cypriot

Travel Agents in the UK.AGTE The Association of Group Travel

Executives in the USA is a trade bodyfor those who operate or promote grouptravel.

AH Artificial horizon.AH&MA The American Hotel and Motel

Association is the largest US trade bodycovering the US hospitality industry. Itis a federation of state and regionalaccommodation industry trade bodiescovering Mexico and Central and SouthAmerica as well as the USA andCanada. See www.ahma.com

AH&MA Educational Institute Seewww.ei-ahma.org/ei/index.htm

AHTA Association of Hungarian TravelAgents.

AI Artificial Intelligence systems enableintelligent activities of humans to bemodelled and emulated. Work in thisfield was undertaken by the OpenUniversity in the development of theUK travel industry’s Computer BasedLearning scheme.

AIA Aerospace industries of America.AIAA1 Area of intense aerial activity.AIAA2 Aerospace Industry Analysis

Association (US based).AIAA3 American Institute of Aeronautics

and Astronauts. See www.aiaa.orgAIB1 Accidents Investigation Branch of

the UK Department of Transport, RoyalAircraft Establishment is the Britishauthority responsible for the investigationof all air accidents occurring in Britain aswell as those of British registered civilaircraft abroad.

AIB2 In some countries means AgencyInvestigation Board. See AIP1.

AIC Aeronautical information circular.

16 agents’ sales return

AIDS Aircraft Integrated Data Systemaims to store in a database all the infor-mation about an aircraft.

AIH Association Internationale del’Hôtellerie; was known in English-speaking world as the InternationalHotel Association. Changed its name in1990 to International Hotel and Restaur-ant Association. See www.ih-ra.com

AIIC Association Internationale desInterprètes de Conférence. The Inter-national Association of ConferenceInterpreters based in France.

aileron See airframe.AIM Accord International de Marchand-

ises, the international agreement con-cerning the carriage of goods by rail.

AIMS1 Agency Information ManagementSystem.

AIMS2 IATA meaning is Airline Informa-tion Management Study.

AIOA Aviation Insurance Officers Associ-ation in the UK. See www.iua.co.uk

AIP1 Agency Investigation Panel (in somecountries called an AgencyInvestigation Board). A group of seniorairline staff, set up by the IATA AgencyAdministration Board of the TrafficConference concerned. Mainly under-takes investigation and consideration ofapplications for appointment of newagents and reviews existing agents. Inthe UK, under IATA Resolution 808, anAgency Programme Liaison Group wasset up in 1988, with nine airlineand nine agency representatives. ThisAPLG was then replaced under IATAResolution 814 with the AgencyProgramme Joint Council, which nowhas overall control, the UK AIP havingbeen wound down and its responsibili-ties having been taken over by the IATAAgency Distribution Office in London.It is this office which now makes initialdecisions as to whether IATA accredita-tion standards have been met by appli-cants. See Agency Programme JointCouncil (Liaison Group).

AIP2 An alternative IATA meaning isAeronautical Information Publication.

AIPC Association Internationale desPalais des Congrès.

AIR Meaning ascribed by IATA’s Informa-tion and Marketing Services division isAviation Information Research.

Air Accident Investigation Branch (ofCAA). See www.aaib.detr.gov.uk

air conditioning When applied to accom-modation or a mode of transport, meanstemperature control by means of a con-tinuous air flow. In a guest’s hotel roomor private vehicle, the temperature isusually adjustable by the user. Evenwhen it is centrally controlled, the airsupply to a room can usually be shutoff. In public transport or public rooms,control is usually centrally operated.

air credit North American term for areduction in the price of travel arrange-ments including air travel for thosewho do not want this element. Forexample, travellers joining a coach touror cruise.

air cushion vehicle A hovercraft. Seeentry under this name.

air draft The height of a ship above theInternational Load Line. Differences inwater salinity and the loading maycause a vessel to ride higher out of thewater while decorative funnels andmasts may be capable of lowering.These are some of the factors which theMaster of a vessel will take into accountwhen deciding whether his ship will beable to sail under a bridge. See Plimsollline.

Air Education and Recreation Organisa-tion See AERO.

air fares Official IATA definitions are: Afare means the amount charged by thecarrier for the carriage of a passengerand his allowable free baggage and isthe current fare which an IATA member,in the publication it normally uses topublish fares, holds out to the public, orthe appropriate segment of the public,as being applicable to the class of ser-vice to be furnished. An adult fare is thefare for a person who has attained his12th birthday and a children’s fareapplies to a person who has attained hissecond but not his 12th birthday. Aninfant fare applies to a person who hasnot attained his second birthday.

A constructed fare is a fare other thana specified fare. An economy fare,which is equivalent to a tourist fare,means the fare established for aneconomy- or tourist-class service, whilea first-class fare is that established for afirst-class service.

A joint fare is one which applies forcarriage over the lines of two or morecarriers and which is published as a

air fares 17

single amount. A local fare, which is thesame as an ‘on-line fare’, means a farewhich applies for carriage over the linesof a single carrier.

A normal fare is the highest fareestablished for a first, or economy-/tourist-class service during the period ofapplicability. A proportional fare meansa fare published for use only in combin-ation with other fares for carriage from,to or through a specified point. A pub-lished fare is one for which the amountis specifically set forth in the carrier’sfares tariff.

A sectional fare means a fare fortravel by one class of service which isestablished and used by a scheduled aircarrier(s), including any individual jointfares, for a section of a through route. Aspecial fare is one other than the normalfare. A specified fare is one the amountof which is specifically set out in acarrier’s tariff.

A through fare means the total farefrom point of departure to point ofdestination. A tour basing fare means afare which may be used only for airtransportation and part of an inclusivetour. Combinations of fares means anamount which is obtained by combiningtwo or more fares.

See also under children’s fares andvarious types of air fare, e.g. APEX,Eurobudget, Excursion, IPEX, PEX,Superpex etc. and under ‘airline classand fare designators’ for comprehensivelist of fare types and codes which desig-nate them on air tickets.

Air, Freedoms of the See Freedoms of theAir.

air hostess Female airline cabin attendant(the male equivalent is a cabin steward).

Air League The Air League is a voluntarybody in Britain which states as its mainaim, ‘To inculcate among the young therealisation of the importance of success-ful endeavour in the air and to encour-age participation in air activities.’ Seewww.airleague.co.uk

air mile same as the nautical mile of6076.1 ft or 1842.8055 m. See nauticalmile.

Air Miles From launch in 1988 untilOctober 2000 was the name of the BritishAirways frequent flyer incentive schemeand also the brand name of BritishAirways promotion scheme whereby

traders, mainly not in the travel industry,offer Air Miles vouchers as a sales incen-tive. From October 2000, the ‘currency’for British Airways Executive Club fre-quent flyer programme was renamed BAMiles. The vouchers are not onlyexchangeable for British Airways,American Airlines and other airline’sflights; they can be used to buy packageholidays through Thomson Holidays,Kuoni and other operators, cruises, ferrytravel and Eurostar. Air Miles customerscollect their vouchers by shopping withone of the 50 UK High Street and on-linepartners which include Shell, NatWestand Tesco. By purchasing with a NatWestcredit card, Air Miles may be obtainedtwice, when for example, buying petrolor shopping with Tesco. The scheme isvast in size: in 2004 over one milliontravellers redeemed Air Miles. Forfurther details see www.airmiles.co.uk

air miss Obsolete ICAO term which hasbeen replaced by ‘AIRPROX’, meaningan incident where two aircraft avoidedmid-air collision. See AIRPROX.

Air Operators Certificate See AOC.air passenger average weights For many

calculations, it is assumed for USdomestic journeys that travellers weigh190 lb (86.2 kg) inclusive of their freebaggage allowance. For internationalfirst-class travellers from the USA, theequivalent figures are 215 lb (97.5 kg)and for tourist class 200 lb (90.7 kg).The Joint Aviation Authority which setsstandards in 23 European countries, wasplanning to increase passengers’ weightallowances from 77–84 kg. In May 2003,a US Federal Aviation Authority surveyof regional airline passengers found thatpassenger weights averaged 88 kg. Atthe time of going to press, no action hadbeen taken to increase the officialfigures, although airlines worldwide areunderstood to be working on highernorms than those stated above.

air pocket unpredictable area of low orhigh pressure, causing an aircraft inflight to rise or fall suddenly. See alsoexplanation of clear air turbulenceunder ‘turbulence’.

air pressure See pressurization for air-craft cabin pressure.

air rage Non-specific term for disorderlybehaviour by air passengers, often as aresult of excessive alcohol intake.

18 Air, Freedoms of the

air safety See airline safety.air/sea interchange Agreement between

shipping and air carriers allowingacceptance of each others’ tickets andgranting round trip rebate, if applicable,enabling a complete trip to be under-taken utilizing both types of transport.

air/sea program North American equiva-lent of a fly cruise programme. See flycruise.

Air Services Agreement See ASA.air sickness Type of motion sickness

particular to air travel. Modern aircraftusually fly above the weather, avoidinga bumpy journey.

air space See FIRs.Air Tariff Publishing Company See

ATPCo.air taxi In Europe, the term applies to

any small aircraft available for privatehire by organization or individuals.During the existence of the AmericanCAB, the term applied to any aircraftcarrying up to 19 passengers and operat-ing up to a 250 mile radius of its base.CAB rules were far less restrictive for airtaxi services than for ordinary sched-uled or supplemental carriers.

air terminal A passenger or cargo handl-ing building on an airport. Passengerterminals provide check-in facilities fortravellers and their baggage and baggagereclaim facilities for arrivals.

air ticket revalidation Whenever there isa change in the routing of air travel,with or without a change in the fare,tickets must be reissued. Changes toreservations on air tickets are made bymeans of a reservations alterationsticker. It is particularly important tocheck that the new reservation does notcontravene the applicable conditions ofthe fare used, such as night timings,validity, minimum stay or stopovers.

A line must be drawn through anyentry in the flight/class, dates, time andstatus boxes of the reservation beingchanged on all coupons of the ticketbefore the completed sticker is placedover the top. The ticket must be authen-ticated by means of an entry identifyingthe issuing office. Where BSP is in oper-ation, and stickers are printed in dupli-cate, the extra copy is fixed to thepassenger coupon.

air tickets Air tickets sold in the UK bytravel agents are accounted for through a

system called Bank Settlement Plan(BSP). Sales are reported by travelagents either electronically or by postand agents are billed for the value oftickets, less any commission due, soldevery month, payable by direct debit onthe 17th of the following month. Mostair tickets are currently issued throughticket printers, used in all major travelagencies and all airlines. ATB printers(automated ticket and boarding pass) areloaded with individual cardlikecoupons, one card being printed foreach sector of an air journey. TAT print-ers are loaded with TransitionalAutomated Tickets in the form of con-tinuous stationery. Once printed, TATand ATB coupons are almost impossibleto alter; forging them by alterationwould require so much time and effortas to make it not worthwhile. Because ofthis, ticket alteration problems usuallyonly occur in respect of tickets issuedby smaller travel agencies who have astock of international air ticketsintended for manual handwritten issue.These consist of a series of couponsbacked with a red self-carboning sub-stance. There is an audit copy sent toBSP, an issuing office copy, either two orfour travel coupons and a back cover ofthe ticket also serving as the passengercopy. BSPs operate in many countries ofthe world; for USA agency reportingarrangements see ARC1. For more infor-mation on air ticket types see ticket andMPD2.

Air Traffic Conference Until 1 January1985, this was a part of the AirTransport Association responsible forself-regulation of American andCanadian domestic airlines, which alsovetted and appointed travel agents. Thislatter function is now undertaken by theARC.

Air Traffic Control The services thatcoordinate and control air trafficthroughout the world. See SingleEuropean Sky.

Air Traffic Control Centre A locationfrom which air traffic within a specifiedarea is managed. See FIRs and MLS.

Air Traffic Controller A qualified personwho directs and manages aircraft move-ments.

air traffic in Europe and forecasts up to2015 (See table on next page.)

air traffic in Europe and forecasts up to 2015 19

Air Transport Action Group See ATAG.Air Transport Association See ATA2.Air Transport Association of Canada See

ATAC.Air Transport Licence See ATL.air transport of animals See animals by

air.Air Transportation Stabilization Board

A US $10bn fund set up following the11 September 2001 terrorist outrages toaddress problems faced by the US air-line industry.

Air Travel and Aviation Internet sitesSee air travel on the Internet.

Air Travel Card The general name for acredit card issued by an airline in con-nection with the IATA Universal AirTravel Plan. See UATP for full descrip-tion of card types.

air travel current forecasts See www.boeing.com/commercial

air travel deregulation See airline dereg-ulation in the EU and airline deregula-tion in the USA.

air travel on the Internet See www.aeroseek.com an aviation search engine;Aeronet www.aeronet.co.uk; Air Inter-national mag www.keymags.co.uk;Airlines of the Web www.itn.net/airlines/; Aviation On-line www.aviation.com.br; AeroWorld Netwww.aeroworldnet.com; AviationInternet Resources www.airlines-online.com; Check-ins airline databasewww.checkin.com/air-db.html; FlightInternational mag www.flightinternational.com; for pilots and flyingenthusiasts www.pilots.co.uk TheFarnborough site has information on

the theory of aircraft design and flighttheory www.farnborough-aircraft.com/main.html Cranfield University in theUK has developed AERADE, an Internetgateway to aerospace informationwww.aerade.cranfield.ac.uk The GeneralAviation Awareness Council in the UK(GAAC) is at www.gaac.co.uk

Air Travel Organizer’s Licence See ATOL.Air Travel Reserve Fund See ATRF; now

replaced by Air Travel Trust See ATT.air travel safety See airline safety.Air Travel Trust See ATT.air turbulence See turbulence.air waybill The shipping document used

in air freight transportation by carriersas evidence of a shipment. The docu-ment contains shipping instructions, adescription of the goods and the trans-portation charges applicable. Whenused internationally, an air waybillshould be in the standard form denom-inated by the Warsaw Convention.

air web sites See air travel on theInternet.

airbridge A mobile pier or telescopicwalkway connecting the airport runwayend of a passenger terminal with an air-craft, facilitating passenger access; inNorth America, a jet loader or Jetway.See gate.

Air-Britain Founded in 1948 Air-Britainis for people interested in the historyof aviation. It has around 4000 directmembers and many more associatedwith it through a network of indepen-dent branches. It claims to be the lead-ing organization of its kind in the worldand works closely with similar organiza-

20 Air Transport Action Group

Air traffic in Europe and forecasts up to 2015.

Domestic and international annual growth rate (%) Passengers (millions)

Country 1998 2015 1995–1998 1998–2015

UK 143.9 310.3 6.6 4.6Germany 106.3 220.4 7.3 4.4Spain 92.8 173.5 6.8 3.8France 83.1 161.1 5.5 4.0Italy 57.0 115.1 7.0 4.2Holland 34.0 80.3 8.8 5.2Switzerland 28.3 52.9 5.6 3.7Turkey 27.8 65.9 14.5 5.1

ATAG suggests that in 2004 over 1.8bn passengers flew on the world’s airlines, expected to rise to 2.3bnpassengers by 2010. Adapted from European Air Traffic Forecasts 1985–2015 Air Transport Action Group2000 edition.

tions, museums and correspondentsworldwide. See www.air-britain.com

AIRC Association of International RailCompanies in the UK.

aircraft Although in theory the termapplies to anything man-made used forflying, in practice, the term is restrictedto a heavier-than-air machine with anon-board means of propulsion, airshipbeing the term for one that is lighterthan air, and glider for a craft withoutany means of propulsion. Helicopters,although they have rotors instead of afixed wing, are still referred to as air-craft. See also many immediately fol-lowing entries, SST, VSTOL and VTOLand air web sites.

aircraft deliveries worldwide See GAMAweb site for latest half year data.

aircraft design For theory see www.farnborough-aircraft.com/main.html andfor engineering drawings of Boeingand McDonald Douglas aircraft seewww.myboeingfleet.com

aircraft emissions Substances producedfrom aircraft engine exhausts. Carbondioxide from aircraft is indistinguish-able from that from other sources as areother emissions. Aviation contributessome 2.5% of emissions of CO2 fromfossil fuels and some 12% of all CO2from transport worldwide. It also pro-duces 2–3% of man-made nitrogenoxides. Nitrogen oxides emitted atcruise altitudes have two effects; onecooling and one warming. There isuncertainty about these effects. They donot cancel as they are geographicallydistinct. There is equal or greater uncer-tainty over the effects of water vapouremitted at cruise altitudes, through theformation of condensation trails and cir-rus clouds, both of which could causesignificant warming. Altogether, avia-tion is believed to be responsible for3.5% of the total radiative forcing(causes of global warming) by all humanactivities. Improvements in aircraftengine technology have resulted in thevirtual elimination of carbon monoxide,unburned hydrocarbons and smoke.Information sources are ATAG (AirTransport Action Group), IATA, ICAO,IPCC and www.british-airways.com. Seealso contrails, ICAO and air web sitesalso radiative forcing.

aircraft engine types See jet aircraftengine, piston aircraft engine, propjet,turbine aircraft engine, turbofan jet, tur-bojet, turboprop and air web sites.

aircraft frame See airframe.aircraft grounding See grounding.aircraft leasing Hire of an aircraft with

all services provided, for travel betweenspecified points is a charter; whereas alease implies ownership of the aircraftfor a specific period, during which thelessee is responsible for it. A dry leaseinvolves only the provision of an air-craft. A wet lease is the term applied tothe provision of both aircraft and crewby the lessor. ILFC (International Lease& Finance Corporation), a wholly ownedsubsidiary of America InternationalGroup, is the international marketleader in the leasing and remarketing ofadvanced technology commercial jet air-craft. In July 2000 it owned a portfolioof more than 450 aircraft, 2% of the jetsand turbo prop aircraft in service, val-ued at US$19 billion.

aircraft manufacture For latest informa-tion access the Internet sites of the mainmanufacturers. See www.airbus.com;www.boeing.com; www.aero.bombardier.com; www.bae.co.uk;www.dasa.com (Daimler Benz); www.embraer.com; www.faidor.com(Fairchild Dornier); www.galaxyaerospace.com; www.atraircraft.com;www.cessna.textron.com; www.gulfstream.com; www.dassault-aviation.fr

aircraft noise New aircraft are around 20dB (decibels) quieter than those of 30years ago. Each reduction of 10 dB isperceived by the human ear as a halvingof the noise experienced. Internationalaircraft noise certification standards arecontained in Chapter 16 of theConvention on International CivilAviation, widely known as the ChicagoConvention. At the time of writing, dis-cussions were ongoing concerning fur-ther reducing aircraft noise, by phasingout current chapter 3 aircraft. See ICAOfor explanation of chapter 2/3 aircraft.

Aircraft Owners and Pilots AssociationSee AOPA.

aircraft piracy See hijacking.aircraft pressurization See pressurization.aircraft register www.aviation-register.

com provides details of over 400,000aircraft registered in over 50 countries.

aircraft register 21

22 aircraft sharing

The web site is run by the UK CAA, itsItalian counterpart ENAC and Frenchcompany Bureau Veritas. Informationincludes aircraft types, engines, certifi-cation and airworthiness detailstogether with the operator’s name andaddress.

aircraft sharing When two or more orga-nizations, usually tour operators, jointlycharter an aircraft, or alternatively whena main charterer subcharters a share ofthe aircraft seats to other organizations.

aircraft slot See FIRs.aircraft stacking At busy times, there are

insufficient runways for all arrivingaircraft to land at the world’s majorairports. They are, therefore, required tofly in huge circles, each stacking levelbeing separated to ensure absolutesafety.

aircraft types See fixed wing aircraft, QCaircraft, regular body aircraft, STOL,VSTOL, VTOL, SST, wide body aircraftand GEM.

aircrew All the airline staff on duty onboard an aircraft during a flight.

AIRDES Automated interline revenuedata exchange system.

AIREP Air report form used for reportingposition and weather conditions duringa flight.

Airfare Brand names of ThomsonHolidays’ variety of minimum-ratedpackage tours. Of course, an ‘air fare’is the price charged for an air ticket.

airfield See airport.airfoil North American usage for aerofoil.

See airframe.airframe The structure of an aircraft

excluding the engines and accessories.The principal parts of an airframe arethe fuselage which is the body; wings;empennage, which is the assembly ofstabilizing and control surfaces at thetail; landing gear, and nacelles or podswhich house the engines.

The tail fin acts like a giant sail pre-venting yaw, the movement of the frontof the aircraft from side to side.Elevators are the movable edges of thetailplane, which alter the altitude of anaircraft up or down.

An aircraft flies because of the shapeof the wings – an aerofoil. The airflowover them results in less air pressure onthe top surface than at the bottom. It isthis difference in air pressure that con-

tinually forces the wings of a planeupwards. The many hinged surfaces onthe wings have different names accord-ing to their purpose. Ailerons cause anaircraft to bank or turn when they areoperated. Those on the side towardswhich aircraft is turning will rise whilethe ailerons on the other side will turndown.

Passengers looking out of an aero-plane’s window on to the wing’s uppersurface may see panels which come upduring a landing. These are known asspoilers and they help to brake the air-craft by blocking the air flow. This alsoreduces the normal aerodynamic effectof the wing shape that, so because of theloss of lift, the aircraft descends quickly.Everyone who has flown is familiar withthe flaps that come out of both front andback edges of the wings of an aircraft. Ajet plane needs an efficient wing forhigh speed cruising with little drag. Butthis wing will not satisfactorily supportthe aircraft at low speeds when takingoff or landing. Flaps not only hingedownwards, trapping the airflow; theyalso considerably increase the wings’surface area by extending outwards.Names such as blown, towler, split andzap are common types of flap on thetrailing edge. An additional extension tosome flaps is nominated as slotted.Flaps on the leading wing edge are evenmore efficient at maintaining an air-craft’s altitude at low speed pushing thewing surface both further forward andangled down. Common flaps in this situ-ation are variable camber flaps, whichare also known as slats, droops andkreugers.

AIRIMP ATA (Air Transport Association)and IATA Reservations InterlineMessage Procedure, in the form of acode requesting or altering bookings.Also the name for the booklet incorpo-rating this information.

airline An operator of aircraft, flying pas-sengers and/or freight on a commercialbasis.

airline alliances An agreement betweenairlines for business cooperation aimedat increasing revenue and achieving costsavings. The extent of integrationbetween alliances, varies from completemarketing integration to little more thansharing income on some routes. Some

alliances share equity in partner carriersand may codeshare so that journeysusing several alliance carriers appear totravellers to be continuous, on one flightcode. If US anti-trust immunity hasbeen provided by the Department ofTransportation, the US airlines maydiscuss pricing with partner airlinesdesignated in the immunity grant.Otherwise, neither scheduling nor faresmay be discussed. For full informationconcerning the three main alliancesaccess the web sites following thesummaries below:

Star Alliance: Established in May1997 as the first global airline alliance. Itis the biggest, handling around a quarterof all world air traffic. Operates to 772airports in 133 countries. Is a three tieralliance with core founding members infull alliance, code-share partners in asecond tier and feeder regional airlinesin a third tier. United Airlines togetherwith Lufthansa, SAS and Air Canadahas had US anti-trust immunity since2001. Negotiates purchasing agreementson behalf of members. Plans that during2005 there will a dedicated Star area atTerminal 1 Paris Charles de Gaulle air-port and at Miami International AirportSouth Terminal, including check-in,baggage and gate. Member airlines areAir Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA,Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOTPolish Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS,Singapore Airlines, Spanair, ThaiAirways, United Airlines, USair andVarig. There are also regional memberssuch as Adria Airways and CroatiaAirlines. See www.star-alliance.com

OneWorld: Founded in 2000. Codesharing is not a formal part of thisalliance even though many of the mem-bers codeshare with partners, for whichAmerican Airlines/Finnair andAmerican/Iberia as well as BritishAirways/Qantas have US anti-trustapproval. Member airlines are: AerLingus, American Airlines, BritishAirways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia,Lan Chile and Qantas. Seewww.oneworldalliance.com

Skyteam: Founded in 2000. US anti-trust exemption applies to Delta’s asso-ciation with Air France, Alitalia andCSA Czech Airlines. With Korean Air

the exemption is transPacific. The ninemember airlines are Aeromexico, AirFrance/KLM, Alitalia, ContinentalAirlines, Czech Airlines, Delta, andNorthwest Airlines. Negotiation for fullmembership of Aeroflot and ChinaSouthern were at an advanced stage attime of going to press. Operates 14,320daily flights to 658 destinations in 137countries. See www.skyteam.com formore information.

Wings: Was the oldest airline pairalliance, Northwest and KLM havinggained anti-trust immunity in the USAin 1993; it disbanded 10 years later.

Qualiflyer: Following the collapse ofSwissair, this alliance disbanded inFebruary 2002.

airline automated reservation systems fortravel agents See CRS.

airline class and fare designatorsPrimary codes are combined with a sea-sonal, part of the week, part of the day,fare and passenger type and fare levelidentifier code in the order stated to pro-vide a designator with a completedescription of the class and conditionsapplicable to a traveller.

Some typical prime codes are:

R – Supersonic (Concorde Class)P – First Class PremiumF – First Class A – First Class DiscountedJ – Business Class PremiumC – Club or Business ClassD, I or Z – Business Class DiscountedW – Economy/Coach PremiumS or Y – Economy/CoachB, H, K, L, M, N, Q, T, V or X –

Economy/Coach Discounted

Some seasonal codes are:

H – Peak or high season of a fare withmore than one seasonal level.

K – Second level of a fare with morethan two seasonal levels.

J – Third level of a fare with more thanthree seasonal levels.

F – Fourth level of a fare with more thanfour seasonal levels.

T – Fifth level of a fare with more thanfive seasonal levels.

Q – Sixth level of a fare with more thansix seasonal levels.

airline class and fare designators 23

Y – Seventh level of a fare with morethan seven seasonal levels.

L – Lowest level of a fare with morethan one seasonal level.

Part of the week codes are:

W – WeekendX – WeekdayThe only part of the day code is N

meaning Night.

Fare and passenger type codes associ-ated with the other letters describe theactual fare type that the customer haspaid, for example:

AB – Advance Purchase Fare (lowerlevel)

AD – Agent (followed by percentage dis-count)

AF – Area FareAP – Advance Purchase FareAS – Air/SurfaceAT – Attendant travelling at a dis-

counted fare to accompany disabledpassenger

BB – Budget FareBD – Budget DiscountedBP – Bonus Programme (Frequent Flyer

Scheme)BT – Bulk Inclusive Tour Operator

Package (TOP) fare in EuropeCA – Cargo AttendantCB – Extra Seat for Cabin BaggageCD – Senior CitizenCF – Cabotage FareCG – Tour Guide (Conductor)CH – ChildCL – ClergyCT – Circle TripDA – Discover AmericaDD – DiscountedDE – Discover Europe PassDL – LabourDF – Government FareDG – Government OfficialsDH – Reduced Fare when travelling to

Travel Agency Commissioner hearingDM – Discount not covered by Industry

RegulationsDN – Discover North America FareDP – Diplomats and dependantsDT – TeacherEE – ExcursionEM – EmigrantGA – Group – AffinityGC – Group – Common Interest

GE – Group – Vocational Training Tripsfor Travel Agents

GI – Group – IncentiveGM – Group – MilitaryGN – Group – Non-affinityGO – Group – Own UseGP – Group – SchoolGS – Group – Ship’s CrewGU – Group – ExcursionsGV – Group – Inclusive TourGX – Group – Advance Purchase FareGY – Group – Youth FareGZ – Group – Pex FareIB – ATA Employee travelling on indus-

try businessID – Air Industry EmployeeIE – Escort to accompany an

Inadmissible passengerIF – Introductory FareIG – Inaugural GuestIN – Infant FareIP – Instant Purchase FareIS – Late Booking FareIT – Inclusive TourMA – Military – Category AMM – MilitaryMR – Military RecruitMU – Military Standby FareMY – MissionaryMZ – Military – Category ZOJ – Open JawOR – Orphan/Orphan EscortOW – One Way SingleOX – Excursion One Way FarePD – Family Fare – family membersPF – Family Fare – applicable to both

family head and family membersPG – PilgrimPH – Family Fare – Head of FamilyPX – PEX FareRG – General Sales AgentRP – Regular Passenger FaresRT – Round Trip or Return fareRW – Round the WorldSB – Seriously Disabled Passenger FareSC – Ship’s Crew Member (Individual)SD – StudentSE – Special EventSF – Bilaterally agreed First Class

EntitlementSH – Spouse Fare (husband or wife)SR – Special Euro Round Trip FareSS – Super Saver FareST – Spouse Fare – accompanying

spouseSX – Superpex FareSZ – Extra seating for stretcher

24 airline class and fare designators

UD – National Travel Agent AssociationOfficials and delegates to jointIATA/UFTAA meetings

UU – Standby FareVU – Visit USAZS – Youth Fare for which student cer-

tificate requiredZZ – Youth Fare

Other codes used commonly in com-bination with the above are figures fol-lowed by % to indicate a percentagediscount; figures followed by D, M or Y,indicating validity in days, months oryears, or figures on their own indicatingthat a fare is the highest (1), secondhighest fare level (2) etc. FTT meansFamily Travel Together and GTT meansGroup Travel Together, when used in anair ticket endorsements box.

airline clubs Most major airlines offerfrequent flyers’ membership of specialclubs. Benefits include use of first-classor Club/Executive class lounges, depen-dent on the airline, whether or not thetraveller is in possession of a first- orclub-class ticket, express check-in andbaggage handling, reservation priority,discounts on car rental and accommoda-tion, emergency cheque cashing facili-ties and a club magazine.

Unless otherwise stated, airline clubslisted under their respective headingsinclude all of the above benefits. SeeAdmirals Club, Al Fursan, AmbassadorClub, Business Club, Cedar Jet, ChieftainClub, Clipper Club, Club Affaires, Clubdes 2000, Club Pacific, Courtesy CardClub, Crown Room Club, Diamond Club,Empress Club, Executive Club, FinnairClub, Flight Deck, Flying Colonel,Frequent Traveller Card, Global Club,Golden Falcon Executive Club, GoldenWing, Ionosphere Club, Kanata Club,King David Club, Mabuhay Club, MapleLeaf Club, Marco Polo Club, MorningClub, Navigator Club, President’s Club,Prestige Club, Red Card Club, RoyalViking Courtesy Card, Service Plus, TaraCircle, Top Traveller, Travel Club, VClub, Winged Arrow Club, Worldclub.

airline codes By international agreement,for older airlines, two-character airlinedesignators are used in reservations,timetables, ticketing, legal documents,tariffs, schedule publications and in air-line inter-line communications as well

as for other industry applications. Whenthe two character codes ran out, it wasnecessary to begin using three charac-ters. For example, BA is BritishAirways, AA is American Airlines andQF is Qantas. These designators are dif-ferent from the two-letter codes used foraircraft operating agencies, aeronauticalauthorities and services assigned by theInternational Civil Aviation Organiza-tion upon request by the State Registryconcerned. ICAO designators are pub-lished in ICAO Document 8585. Foraccounting convenience IATA have allo-cated all carriers a three-figure codenumber to be used by members on airtickets and air waybills as a prefix to theserial numbers of the document.

The airline industry began conver-sion from two-character to three-letterairline designators by assigning three-letter designators to non-scheduled air-lines from 25 October 1987. It wasplanned that the scheduled airlines con-vert to three-letter designators for allpurposes on 26 October 1995, 2 yearslater than the end of October 1993 dateoriginally agreed. For example, AerLingus, currently EI, is planned tobecome EIN.

Because there are insufficient two-let-ter codes, since August 1981 combina-tions of figures and letters have beenallocated, mainly to commuter airlines.Over 160 companies now have thesealphanumeric codes. The numbers 1and 0 are not used to avoid confusionwith the letters I and 0. An example isAir National, whose planned three-letterdesignator is ANE, but which is cur-rently 6A.

airline deregulation in the EU K.J. Button(1997) writing in Asia Pacific AirTransport: Challenges and Reforms, p.170 stated, ‘EU policy has changed dra-matically in the last decade after a movefrom aviation markets being a series ofheavily regulated, discrete bilateral car-tels, dominated by nationally ownedflag carriers to a structure.… which hasbecome a liberalised multinational civilaviation market’. The EU has aimed forgradual evolution rather than the rapidrevolution which took place in the USA;however, the result is similar.

The first stage from January 1988 wasgeneral agreement to move towards a

airline deregulation in the EU 25

single aviation market within the EU.The second stage from June 1990removed ‘government-to-governmentcapacity-sharing arrangements, intro-duced in stages the principle of doubledisapproval of fares and prevented gov-ernments discriminating against air-lines, provided that they conformedwith technical and safety standards’.Involvement of non-EU airlines wasmade easier, with fifth freedom (seeFreedoms of the Air) rights facilitated.The third stage was adopted in January1993, so that by 1997, the EU wasregarded as one domestic market, inwhich full cabotage rights applied. Faresbecame completely deregulated. Foreignownership of EU airlines is now permit-ted in principle, although the nationallaws of some EU countries govern theownership of their flag carriers andother airlines. The EU still has the rightto ‘intervene’ in various circumstances,for example, maintenance of competi-tion and avoidance of air fare pricewars.

airline deregulation in the USA TheAirline Deregulation Act of 1978 sched-uled the elimination of the CivilAeronautics Board from 1 January 1985.Originally, the Act transferred authorityto grant anti-trust immunity for the UStravel industry’s collective agreementsincluding travel agency programmesfrom the CAB to the US JusticeDepartment.

This was altered subsequently andtogether with the remaining economicregulation of the US airline industry,control of anti-trust immunity rules hasnow been vested in the Department ofTransportation. Immunity disappearedaltogether on 1 January 1989. TheDOT now decides on policy mattersand, through the Federal AviationAdministration, regulates safety.

The DOT inherited the CAB’s author-ity to regulate charters, overbooking,baggage liability, smoking, computerreservation bias and similar matters thatconcern the public. The DOT also con-trols international route and rate mattersas well as the provision of essential airservices to small communities, operat-ing the small communities service sub-sidy programme. The DOT has not beengiven the power to directly negotiate

international air treaties. This continuesto be undertaken by the US StateDepartment. Before deregulation in thelate 1970s, agent’s share of US air travel was around 40%. Unexpectedly,this rapidly rose to about 80% ofdomestic sales and over 90% for inter-national business; by mid-2002, despitecommission rates reduced to zero,agents still handled 75% of the busi-ness. This alteration in distributioncosts was one of the factors leading tocommission reduction, fully describedin the ‘commission’ entry. See openingparagraph of ARC entry for how deregu-lation led to the establishment of theARC and IATAN. Also see DOT Internetsite www.dot.gov

airline flight schedules Travel industrystaff access comprehensive flight infor-mation through the major computerreservation systems, known as GlobalDistribution Systems (GDS), Galileo,Sabre, Amadeus and Worldspan. Each ofthese holds flight availability for over700 airlines; but only for those airlineswith which that particular GDS has anagreement. All the Internet generalscheduled air flight booking systemsgain their inventory from one of theGDSs. OAG (Overseas Airways Guide)publishes a unique two-volume guide toall flights worldwide. In August 2000OAG relaunched its Internet portal,OAG.com. The site provides web accessto the OAG ‘Flight Engine’, the most up-to-date and comprehensive global flightschedules database in the world. Thesite also supports OAG Mobile, whichoffers wireless access to OAG travelinformation, and OAG E-Notification,providing details about the status of acurrent flight. More than 800 airlinesare included in the OAG database, thelargest of its kind anywhere. Seewww.oag.com

airline hub See hub and spoke.airline liability See Warsaw Convention.airline losses/profits See airline.Airline Passenger Service Commitment

See explanation in ‘denied boardingcompensation’. An agreement betweenairlines to maintain minimum standardsrelating to service and quality.

airline plate In countries without BankSettlement Plan, individual tickets pro-duced by each airline are supplied to

26 airline deregulation in the USA

travel agents, which merely need vali-dating with the agent’s airline platebefore issuance. BSP tickets and docu-ments are, however, neutral, requiring adifferent type of validator which inaddition to the date and agency locationdetails also imprints air tickets with anairline logo and identification. See BSPfor further details of Bank SettlementPlan in the UK.

airline representative See rep.airline reservations systems There are

now two main types of airline reserva-tions system. A ‘single host’ system isowned and operated by one airline forthe purpose of providing automatedreservations and other facilities to itsown offices. Inventory records are main-tained solely for the airline owning thesystem. The schedules of other airlines,on which reservations can be made, arestored and displayed according to theselling agreements concluded betweenthe system owner and each of the otherairlines.

Some single host systems are in effectsimple extensions to a number of partic-ipants. The inventory-controlled ser-vices of the participating airlines aredisplayed. The display of non-partici-pating airline schedules is dependent onthe agreements the system owner haswith those airlines. Although the basicfunctions of the system are used by allparticipating airlines, the system isdesigned for each to use as though itwere its own. Each hosted airline has itsown compartment and can utilize thebasic functions of the system to meet itsown requirements. Each airline usuallyloads into its system the schedules to beused for that airline. The schedules ofthe prime host airline’s services areobtained from its own schedulingdepartments.

Generally, other airline scheduleinformation is obtained from an airlineguide publisher on magnetic tape forautomatic loading into the system of theprime host airline. Not necessarily allthe city pairs published in the guidesmay be made available for display tousers of the system. Hosted airlinesselect those to be displayed in accor-dance with their marketing require-ments and the agreements they havemade with other airlines.

However, with the requirement toinclude departure and arrival times inreservations messages requesting or sell-ing space, there is an increasing ten-dency for airlines to obtain, and store intheir system, the basic schedules of allother airlines worldwide. In order to besold, a seat has to be available. Each sys-tem maintains the exact numeric avail-ability of each inventory-controlledflight.

Additionally, as interline sales are avital feature of air transportation, eachsystem maintains availability informa-tion for flights of other airlines, to pro-vide for the immediate confirmation ofspace to the passenger. This availabilityinformation, which is incorporated indisplays, is dependent on the interlineselling agreements concluded betweenthe prime host airline and each of theother hosted airlines. Availability maybe on the basis of ‘sell and report’(including first posting), ‘free sale’,‘request and reply’ or a combination oftypes.

For flights covered by a free sale orrequest and reply agreement, no avail-ability information needs to be main-tained in the system of the prime hostairline, as the sale is either free ofrestriction, or has to be requested fromthe other airline. For flights under a ‘selland report’ agreement, the system cansell a seat only if its records show thatspace is available. Keeping this avail-ability information up-to-date becomescrucial and is achieved by the extensiveexchange of availability status messages(AVS2).

As each prime host airline has differ-ent selling agreements with its interlinepartners, the availability displays varyfrom one system to another. Availabilityinformation may be maintained by hostairlines up to 1 year in advance. ThePassenger Name Record (PNR) is anintegral part of the airline reservationsfunction. It presents a record of eachpassenger’s travel requirements, andcontains information necessary toenable reservations to be controlled.

A PNR is created, filed/stored andmaintained for every passenger forwhom a reservation transaction hasbeen completed. The booking airlinemust maintain a complete record. Every

airline reservations systems 27

transaction or change to the itinerary isrecorded so that the PNR provides acomplete historical record. Other air-lines involved in the itinerary need onlyrecord information associated with thepassenger’s travel on the flights onwhich they are to take action.

All modern systems offer automatedfare display, fare determination andautomatic fare calculation for compli-cated international itineraries. No exist-ing system can automatically quote orcalculate the fare for every itinerary; butin the author’s experience, it is only avery complex itinerary which nownecessitates manual fare calculation.

These systems are capable of facilitat-ing automated ticket issue, and can sup-port provision of boarding passes withthe ticket. Alternatively an ‘e-ticket’ canbe produced. This is a virtual ticketwhich only exists electronically,although, of course, the traveller willprobably be given the trip details in aprinted form. All major systems can alsomake reservations for hotel accommoda-tion, car rental and, to some extent,tours; some may include ground trans-portation. Additionally, each systemprovides a comprehensive fares determi-nation system and a large amount ofsupporting information such as farerules, weather, tourism, documentrequirements, flight or travel restrictionsetc.

Airlines have automated departurecontrol systems which use PNRs as theirdatabase. These systems include: per-sonal name check-in, automated seatassignment, automated issue of boardingpasses and baggage tags, flight reconcili-ation and load control (weight and bal-ance). See also CRS.

airline safety This dictionary entry con-centrates on ICAO, EU and FAA activi-ties in the sphere, although all countrieshave legislation in force on the subject.In October 1995, ICAO membersadopted a voluntary safety oversightprogramme. Unfortunately, it is onlyinstigated upon a request for help. Theprogramme permits ICAO to identifydeficiencies related to civil aviationsafety and offer advice and assistance toresolve them.

EU countries already have extensivesafety legislation in place concerning air

travel, airports and aircraft. CommonPosition (EC) N037/98 was adopted bythe Council on 4 June 1998 and is likelyto result in an EC Directive around thetime of publication of this dictionary.The purpose of the Directive will be toensure that information is collected anddisseminated so that sufficient evidencecan be established to decide on mea-sures required to ensure the safety of thetravelling public, as well as those on theground. Operation and crew of aircraftoutside the control of a member statewill be inspected, when there is suspi-cion that safety standards are not beingobserved, and grounded if necessary.

In September 1994, the FAA beganassessing the ability of certain countriesto oversee air safety; category 1 coun-tries are designated as those with civilaviation authorities which comply withICAO standards. Category 2 may indi-cate, for example, that the authority hasnot developed or implemented regula-tions in accordance with ICAO stan-dards; it may lack the technicalexpertise or resources to license or over-see civil aviation; there may be concernsabout flight operations or aircraft main-tenance. A total of 28 ‘unsatisfactory’countries were listed in 2000, namely,Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia,Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic,Ecuador, El Salvador, Gambia,Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kiribati,Malta, Nauru, Saba St Eustatius,Nicaragua, St Kitts and Nevis, Pakistan,Paraguay, Russia, Suriname, Swaziland,Turks and Caicos, Uruguay, Venezuela,Zaire and Zimbabwe. It should bestressed that the FAA assessments donot indicate whether particular carriersare safe; they only identify the extent towhich there is a competent civil avia-tion authority in those countries, over-seeing air safety to the satisfaction of theFAA. See also next entry and followingtable.

airline safety scoring Overall accidentrates are falling; in 1999, 674 peoplewere killed in passenger air crashes,much under the average for 1990 to1998 of 1326. The information in therest of this entry was provided byFlightSafe Consultants Limited, a UKcompany. Their web site www.flightsafe.co.uk includes a database of

28 airline safety

airport 29

air accidents going back to 1988; at thetime of writing, this site covered thesafety records of 477 airlines, with moreinformation available on subscription.The concept of airline safety scoringwas first devised in 1997 by JohnTrevett, now managing director ofFlightSafe. Ten safety factors areassessed, with a theoretical maximum often points achievable. Fleet age andcomposition are considered; Russian-built planes have a worse safety recordthan European- or American-builtplanes, while the newer the technology,the less the chance of accident. Otherfactors include management structure;safety regulations in the airline’s homecountry, air traffic control and airfieldenvironments. By the time this dictio-nary is published, a definitive set ofassessment guidelines will have beenagreed – check the web page for up-to-date information, including the lateststatistics. The table overleaf should onlybe used as illustrative of the situation.

After calculation of ‘accidents per100,000 flights’, these statistics areadjusted, for example by counting anaccident with fatalities as two and aminor incident as a half, so as to arriveat a safety multiplier. This multiplier isthen applied to the marks-out-of-tensafety assessment to produce a finaltotal. Under the FlightSafe scoring sys-tem, a rate of one accident per 100,000scores 0.8; 4 per 100,000 scores 0.6; 9per 100,000 scores 0.4; 16 per 100,000scores 0.2 and 25 or more accidents per100,000 scores zero. It will be seen fromthe table that many airlines have scoredzero; this is because a multiplier of zeroresults in a zero total score regardless ofother considerations. It is suggested thatwhere there has been a single accidentearly in the life of an airline, this skewsthe result; readers may feel that thetreatment by the scoring system of theseairlines is somewhat harsh, as they mustall have run fewer than 2000 returnflights. (See table on next page.)

Are any long-term trends discernible?In a previous edition of this dictionary itwas stated, ‘In 1986 there were 830 acci-dents involving aircraft operated bycommercial air transport carriers. 150 ofthese caused 900 fatalities. At the timeof writing (June 1989), only preliminary

figures for 1987 were available, therehaving been 780 accidents. 200 of thesecaused 1600 deaths. This high numberof fatalities must be viewed in the con-text of increasing traffic. For scheduledservices, passenger deaths per 100 mil-lion passenger km were 0.09 in 1978;0.08, 1983; 0.02, 1984; 0.09, 1985; 0.03,1986; 0.06, 1987. For non-scheduledflights, for accidents of aircraft greaterthan 9 tonnes maximum take-off weight,figures were 1978, 0.17; 1983, 0.00;1985, 0.33; 1986, 0.09 and 1987, 0.00. Itcan be seen that there is no recognizabletrend. (Readers should note that the fig-ures quoted from IATA sources do notinclude USSR.)’

There are arrangements for thereporting and investigation of ‘nearmiss’ aviation incidents. See AIRPROXfor UK statistics.

airline seats Vary in width and pitchbetween seats depending on class oftravel and journey length. The world’slargest airline seat is currently beingflown by ANA on a Boeing 747 on theTokyo/London route, 76 x 34 inches inFirst Class. See pitch of seat and reclin-ing seat. Fully reclining seats are oftenknown by airline brand names, such asDormette, Skyrecliner (JAL), Sleeperette(Finnair), Sleeperseat (BA) andSlumberette (Swissair).

Airline Tariff Automated CollectionFacility See Genesis.

airliner A large passenger aircraft; theword is imprecise and not technical.

Airlines Reporting Corporation SeeARC1.

airlines statistics See CAA Data Unit.airpass Generic word for multi-sector air

tickets allowing random travel within aspecified area, usually for a limitednumber of stops. Often used as part of abrand name.

airplane See aircraft.AirPlus An airline credit card. See UATP

for further explanation.airport A modern term denoting a place

where aircraft land and take off.Dependent upon the size and destina-tion of flights, facilities vary greatly,from the vast size international airportwith many passenger terminals, customsand immigration facilities and hangarsfor storage and maintenance of aircraft,down to the small local airport, which

may be little more than several smallterminal buildings and re-fuellingpumps.

The word aerodrome, the normalterm for these facilities at the beginningof the 20th century, is now obsolescent.Airfield is a common term in the armedservices, often reduced to the usage‘field’. Sometimes this word is used inan attempt to denote an airport with fewfacilities which may be little more thana landing strip.

airport art Pejorative term descriptive ofthe poor quality of souvenirs availablefor tourists’ purchase at airports.

Airport Associations Coordinating CouncilSee AACC.

airport codes Airports worldwide havebeen given three letter codes so as toshorten reservation communications.The codes were originally assigned byIATA in Montreal and the Canadiansattempted to make most airport codes co-incide with their initial or similar letters.

By the time they had concluded theirwork, they were not left with appropri-ate letters for their own airports. This iswhy the three letter codes for Canadianairports are so unusual, e.g. YYZ forToronto and YUL for Montreal.

Some codes, which have not beenassigned by IATA, are also in generaluse. There is often a general city codefor a town where there are several air-ports, in addition to the individualcodes, e.g. LON for London, LGW forGatwick and LHR for Heathrow.

Airport Consultative Committee SeeACC3.

Airport Operators Association See AOA3

and www.aoa.org.uk airport passenger handling automation

See SPT.airport runway lengths A large modern

jet may require a runway several mileslong (more than 3000 m).

airport service charge See ASC1.airport tax See ASC1 (airport service

charge) and departure tax.airport terminal Part of an airport desig-

nated to handle incoming and outgoingflights on particular routes, providing allnecessary customs, immigration andpassenger facilities. Some airports haveseparate domestic and international ter-minals. Others have terminals which areexclusively for the use of one airline.

airport transfer See transfers.airport–city rail links The problems of

road traffic congestion in urban areas areexacerbated by large airports; increas-ingly, rail links are being seen as thebest solution for fast convenient accessto airports. Over 70 such links are cur-rently in operation worldwide witharound 150 planned or under construc-tion. The first link opened in 1935between London’s Victoria station andGatwick airport. Some links are an inte-gral part of their national railway net-works, for example, Amsterdam, Berlin,Birmingham (UK), Dusseldorf,Frankfurt, London Gatwick and ParisCharles de Gaulle. Others have theirown dedicated rail tracks, such as theservices to London Heathrow and fromMilan, Oslo and Stockholm. Some ofthese stations incorporate airline check-in desks, for example, Airport Express’sLondon Paddington station forHeathrow, London Victoria for Gatwickand Hong Kong. The development ofNew York’s Jamaica station as a virtualJFK tenth terminal makes this the largestfacility of its type; AirTrain JFK beganoperating in 2003. In autumn 2001AirTrain services began operatingbetween Newark airport and New YorkCity connecting with the airport’s freeinternal monorail service.

Airports Council International See ACI1

and www.airports.org airports in America The top ten US air-

ports in 2003 ranked by preliminarypassenger traffic figures in millions were:Atlanta 79.1Chicago O’Hare 69.4Los Angeles 55.0Dallas/Fort Worth 53.2Denver 37.5Phoenix 37.4Las Vegas 36.3Houston Bush 34.1Minneapolis/St Paul 33.2Detroit 32.7

airports worldwide outside USA The topten airports worldwide, outside the USAin 2003 ranked by preliminary passen-ger traffic figures in millions were:London Heathrow 63.5Tokyo Haneda 63.2Frankfurt 48.4Paris 48.1Amsterdam 40.0

30 airport art

Madrid 35.7Bangkok 30.2London Gatwick 30.0Hong Kong 26.8Tokyo Narita 26.5

AIRPROX Air proximity; a ‘near miss’aviation incident which might haveresulted in a collision. This ICAO termhas now replaced ‘AIRMISS’. The UKAIRPROX Board (UKAB)’s fifth reportstates that during 2000, there were 99AIRPROX incidents involving commer-cial air transport aircraft (CAT), thesame number as in 1999 and just onemore than in 1998. Of these 99 cases,85 were assessed as ‘no collision’,eight as ‘safety compromised’ and sixas ‘collision risk existed’. Significantly,the risk-bearing rate for CAT incidentsin 2000 fell to an all time low of 1.01cases per 100,000 flying hours – down62% on the figure for 1999. Seewww.ukab.org.uk

AIRS1 Aircrew incident reporting system.AIRS2 Aviation Industry Report System (in

Micronesia the equivalent is IATA ARP).airscrew Obsolete name for an aircraft

propeller; but note that ‘screw’ is still inusage meaning a ship’s propeller.

airship A ‘lighter-than-air’ flyingmachine; distinguished from an aircraft,which is heavier than air, and a balloon,which has no means of propulsion. Alsoknown as a blimp in the USA. Obso-lescent name is dirigible. The demise ofairship travel was hastened by the R101disaster in 1930.

airside That part of an airport not acces-sible to the general public. After a trav-eller has passed through immigrationcontrols, customs and security checks,they are designated as being airside.Conversely, public area before passingcustoms etc. is known as landside.

airspace See FIRs.airspeed Aircraft speed in nautical miles

per hour (knots).airstream A current of air, such as a jet-

stream. See turbulence for fuller expla-nation.

airstrip Sometimes called ‘landing strip’.Any cleared piece of ground longenough to enable aircraft to land andtake off. The term does not imply theprovision of any facilities.

AirTrain Originally designed as NewYork’s Newark airport monorail system,

linking the three terminals, a $650minvestment extended the track one mile(1.6 km) to connect with a new Newarkairport station linking the airport withregional services provided by NewJersey Transit, including Manhattan; thestation is also served by Amtrak’s NorthEast corridor services from Washington,DC, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.Also see airport–city rail links.

AirTrain JFK New York’s KennedyAirport AirTrain runs 60 feet above thecentral reservation of the Van WyckExpressway from Jamaica station inNew York’s south eastern borough ofQueens. The $1.9 billion light-rail sys-tem provides services between the air-port’s nine terminal buildings and to anew subway station called HowardBeach, an interchange with Line A.Passengers can travel from the centralterminal area to midtown Manhattan inabout 50 minutes using Howard Beachstation and in as little as 30 minutes tothe much expanded Jamaica station. The service is provided by 32 driver-less Bombardier trains powered bylinear induction motors. The service ispart of the LIRR network. See LIRRand http://www.airtrainjfk.com andairport–city rail links.

airways See FIRs.airworthiness certificates Issued by gov-

ernmental aviation authorities to denotethat an aircraft or component part per-forms its function to the authorities’ sat-isfaction.

AISC See Skal.aisle seat A seat with open space to one

side, in a means of transport, theatre orcinema etc. In wide-bodied jets, onceside seats have been allocated, cus-tomers often prefer not to be seated inthe centre part of five abreast seatingand therefore request aisle seats.

AIT Alliance Internationale de Tourismeis a grouping of over 100 national auto-mobile associations founded in 1898.See www.aitgva.ch

AITA Alliance for Independent TravelAgents in the USA. See Alliance.

AITAL Asociación Internacional deTransporte Aereo Latinoamericano (Inter-national Association of Latin AmericanAir Transport). See www.aital.com

AITO The Association of IndependentTour Operators is the UK trade body of

AITO 31

around 100 small tour operators, aroundthree-quarters of which are also touroperating members of ABTA. The reasonfor their existence is because ABTA isdominated by its travel agent and majortour operator members, the latter alsobeing able to exercise their voicethrough the Federation of TourOperators. Membership is restricted tothose who either hold a valid Air TravelOrganizer’s Licence or are tour operatormembers of ABTA. Its aims are commer-cial cooperation between members andthe joint solution of common problems.See www.aito.co.uk

AIV Accord International de Voyageurs,the international agreement covering thetransport of passengers by rail.

AJENTS System which connects UKdomestic rail agents with ATOC’s RailJourney Information System via anInternet connection, providing an infor-mation, reservations, ticketing andaccounting service. Through an appro-priate printer, credit card sized rail tick-ets are produced, similar to those issuedat rail stations in the UK. Some litera-ture still describes an initial phasewhere connection was via X-TANT orFastrak viewdata systems and ticketproduction was not automated.

Al Fursan Name of Saudi ArabianAirlines’ airline club for frequent trav-ellers. See airline clubs.

Alabama Bureau of Tourism and TravelSee www.touralabama.org

Alaska Tourism Office See www.dced-state.ak.us/tourism

Alaska Travel Industry Association Seewww.alaskatia.org

alba International hotel code for a single-bedded room.

Albuquerque Convention and VisitorsBureau See www.abqcvb.org

alcove A small area set off from a largerroom. In some European or Americanself-catering studio suites, there may bea main living space and separate alcoveswhere the kitchen and bed may belocated.

ALEX Iceland’s agency CRS; an Amadeuspartner.

alien Any person outside the country oftheir nationality. The word ‘alien’ isbecoming increasingly difficult todefine. For example, freedom to traveland work anywhere within the

European Community are some of manyrights enjoyed by all EC citizens.Nevertheless, under the laws of each ECcountry, other EU member states’ citi-zens are aliens. The WTO designatestourists as being away from their normalplace of residence, disregarding theiractual nationality.

all or nothing assignment See transportmodelling.

All Purpose Ticket Issue System SeeAPTIS.

all suite hotel Simplistically, a hotelwhere all accommodation is in suites.Unfortunately, the meaning of suitevaries between countries both by law andcustom. Increasingly, the term means anapartment hotel targeted at businesstravellers or other corporate staff seek-ing more space than usually provided ina hotel room, perhaps intending a longstay. Kitchen facilities of some type arepart of the facilities. Typically, pricesare 25% lower than an equivalent dou-ble room in a hotel; but there are seldomrestaurants and room service. See suite,junior suite and en suite.

Allbook Name of British tour operators’reservation and accounting systemintroduced in 1984, developed from aScandinavian system used since 1978.

all-expense tour US terminology forinclusive tour. See inclusive tour.

alleyway Passageway or narrow corridorof ship.

Alliance The ARTAC travel agents con-sortium in the UK changed its brandname to Worldchoice but because itstarted as the Alliance of Retail TravelAgency Consortia, the Alliance name issometimes used. AITA (Alliance forIndependent Travel Agents in the USA)is known as the Alliance, perhaps todistinguish it from the Association ofInternational Travel Agents Inc.

all-in Australian term for Inclusive Tour.Mistakenly stated in several Americanpublications as British terminology.

all-inclusive When applied to an accom-modation tariff it usually means inclu-sion of all meals, limited drinks andother facilities; hence the addition ofthese words to various accommodationtypes, as in ‘all-inclusive resort’, or ‘all-inclusive hotel’. When applied to apackage holiday, for example a coachtour, travel facilities and excursions maybe included. It is crucial that travellers

32 AIV

alternate restaurant 33

identify what is actually includedbefore purchasing all-inclusive arrange-ments. The 2003 CEN/EuropeanStandard official definition is ‘Tariff inwhich the price includes accommoda-tion, meals and specified beverages aswell as specified facilities’, convenientlyavoiding actually specifying anything!

all-inclusive car rental rates This appar-ently clear statement offers rates whichvary, according to the rental companyand the country, including some or allof the following typical items: unlimitedmileage, collision damage insuranceexcess waiver, local taxes, airport fees,surcharges and taxes, theft insuranceexcess waiver, all insurance excesses,public liability, property damage, fullfire, theft and third party insurance withcover varying between countries accord-ing to local laws, bail bonds whereneeded, insurance cover for additionaldrivers, a full tank of petrol, return ofvehicle out of normal hours and one-way rentals. See also car rental.

allocation See allotment.allocentric tourists Tourists who are con-

tinually looking for new experiencesand destinations; they are adventurousby nature.

allotment The provision by a travelindustry principal of part of its servicesfor onward sale to the eventual cus-tomer by another intermediary. Forexample, a tour operator may be givenan allotment of beds throughout a sea-son at a hotel. The contractual arrange-ments will determine whether part or allof the allotment is returnable withoutpenalty, rates and other conditions. Thetour operator may, in turn, give an allot-ment of part of one or more packageholiday departures to a travel agencygroup, who agrees to sell them. Theterm is general throughout the industry.It may apply to anything from the pro-vision of car hire, to seats on any modeof transport. It is fundamental that thegranting of an allotment to a third partyguarantees that space or beds have beenreserved and will not be sold to anyoneelse until or unless the allotment isreturned.

allowance of free baggage Baggage whichmay be carried without payment of acharge in addition to the fare. On inter-national IATA air journeys, the

allowance is either by weight or a num-ber of pieces of defined dimensionsdependent upon the route. The standardweight allowance is 20 kg (44 lb) foreconomy- and tourist-class passengersand 30 kg (66 lb) for first-class travellers.Many airlines have introduced withinEurope an alternative of allowing onelarge piece of baggage, the dimensionsof which do not total more than 67 in.plus a smaller case, the dimensions ofwhich must not be more than 40 in. fortourist-class passengers. On transat-lantic flights, two pieces are allowedwith a dimension limitation of 62 in.Domestic air travel baggage rules varyconsiderably between countries.

Rail companies in the UK allow sec-ond-class travellers 50 kg (110 lb) andfirst-class passengers 70 kg (154 lb) withhalf these weights for children travellingat half adult fares. Unless, however, bag-gage is being sent in advance, theserules are not normally applied.Similarly, the European rail limit of 20kg or 44 lb per person is only appliedwhere baggage is ‘registered through’.The UK coach allowance of one case isalso treated flexibly by coach drivers.

aloft Above the superstructure in, at ornear the masthead of a ship.

ALPA Air Line Pilots Association in theUSA.

Alpha 3 Name of Air France computer-ized reservation and administration sys-tem. For details of travel agencyterminal system in France see ESTEREL.

alphabet See phonetic alphabet.alphanumeric Featuring of both letters

and figures on a computer keyboard.ALSSA The Air Line Stewards and

Stewardesses Association is a US tradeunion. But the British Airline Stewardsand Stewardesses Association is abranch of the Transport and GeneralWorkers Union in the UK.

ALTA Association of Local TransportAirlines in the USA.

alterations to air tickets See revalidationstickers.

alternate distribution systems In theUSA implies a system which bypassestravel agents. See intermediation.

alternate restaurant US usage is a cruiseship restaurant for which a supplemen-tary charge is payable. British usage is

that any cruise ship restaurant separatefrom the main dining room may havethis designation, whether or not there isan extra charge for its use.

alternative airport Any airport to whicha flight may be diverted if a landing atthe original destination is no longer pos-sible.

alternative tourism See tourism, alterna-tive.

altimeter Instrument in aircraft which in-dicates height (altitude). See also altitude.

ALTIS A guide to Internet resources inhospitality, leisure, sport and tourism.See LTSN and www.brookes.ac.uk/ltsn

altitude Height above mean sea level. Seecontour.

altostratus See clouds.alumni rate US term for reduced price

offered to previous cruise travellers,suggests US web site www.hometravelagency.com Term is not yet in generaluse.

ALVA Association of Leading Visitor Attrac-tions in the UK. See www.alva.org.uk

a.m. From the Latin ante meridiem,meaning before noon. In most countries,the 24 h clock is used in the travelindustry, in order to avoid errors; but inNorth America it is not uncommon tofind the use of a.m. and p.m. in connec-tion with travel timings.

Amadeus This Global DistributionSystem (worldwide CRS) was created by12 European airlines: Air France, AirInter, Adria Airways, Iberia, Icelandair,Linjeflyg, Lufthansa, Finnair, Yugo-slavenski Aerotransport, Braathens,SAFE and SAS. The organization’s cur-rent literature suggests only that it wascreated by Iberia, Air France, Lufthansaand SAS (no longer a shareholder).Following development of infrastruc-ture, systems and software, operationsbegan in 1992; several years later,another CRS, System One, was takenover. The corporate HQ is in Madrid,Spain; the product marketing and devel-opment office is in Nice, France, and theoperations and data centre in Erding,Germany.

Hosts 220,000 agency terminals in67,000 travel agency locations, throughwhich can be accessed over 490 airlines,51,000 hotels, 45 car rentals companiesand other providers of tourism services.

In 2004 handled 454.1m bookings, 7.6%up on 2003. For detailed information seewww.global.amadeus.net

Amadeus Travel Agency Advisory BoardAn independent international body setup and funded by Amadeus to representagents’ interests concerning the system.

AMASS Airport Movement Area SafetySystem, a Northrop Grumman systemaimed at warning of and preventing air-port runway incursions. It is a develop-ment of the same company’s AirportSurface Detection Equipment (ASDE).At the time of writing installation wasproceeding at 34 US airports at a cost ofover US$90 million.

AMAV Asociación Mexicana de Agenciasde Viajes, the Mexican Travel AgentsAssociation.

AMAVE Asociación Mayoristas Agenciasde Viajes Españolas; the Spanish equiva-lent of the Multiple Travel AgentsAssociation in the UK.

Ambassador class Brand name given byTWA to passenger area immediatelyadjacent to first class, where passengerspaying full economy fares enjoyimproved service and facilities. Seebusiness class for full description.

Ambassador Club Name of TWA’sFrequent Flyers’ Club. Some guests’privileges, office and conference facili-ties are available in addition to the stan-dard benefits noted under the generalentry Frequent Flyer Clubs.

ambient resource The fundamental char-acter of an area which gives it tourismpotential, for example, attractive sceneryor guaranteed sunshine. The difficultywith terminology of this nature is inlimiting its scope. Some experts restrictthe application to purely physicalcharacteristics, while others wouldinclude interesting culture or even lowprices.

amenity kit The complimentary itemsprovided for guests in a hotel room orfor first- or business-class passengers ona means of transport.

American Automobile Association SeeAAA.

American breakfast A full breakfast witha choice of hot and cold foods; alsoknown as an ‘English breakfast’.

American Bureau of Shipping See ABS.American Bus Association See

www.buses.org

34 alternative airport

Amtrak 35

American Hotel and Motel AssociationSee AH&MA.

American Hotel and Motel AssociationEducational Institute See www.eiahma.org/ei/index.htm

American Institute of Aeronautics andAstronauts See www.aiaa.org

American Plan (AP) Full pension or fullboard – hotel accommodation inclusiveof full breakfast, lunch and dinner in thestated rate for the room. Sometimescalled Full American Plan or FullPension Plan in North America. See alsoMAP (Modified American Plan).

American Resort Development AssociationSee www.arda.org

American service Type of restaurant ser-vice where meals are ‘plated’ by cookingstaff and then served directly to cus-tomers; more usually called plate ser-vice, as distinct from silver servicewhere waiting staff carry food in cov-ered metal dishes to an adjacent servingtable. The food is then, after heating,served individually to customers. Seealso English Service and Silver Service.

American Society of Travel Agents SeeASTA2.

AMFORHT Association Mondiale pour laFormation Hoteliere et Touristique(World Association for HospitalityEducation and Training). Founded in1969 at the same time as the WTO withthe aims, ‘to define, develop, promoteand continuously adapt, tourism educa-tion on a world-wide basis to the evolv-ing needs and focus on the tourismindustry’. See www.amforht.org

AMHA American Motor Hotel Asso-ciation.

amidships Middle part of a ship. Halfwaybetween bow (front) and stern (back) ofthe ship.

AMP Airmail Panel; an IATA bodyformed in 1996, which reports to theCSC (Cargo Services Conference).

amsl Above mean sea level.AMTA Association of Multiple Travel

Agents in the UK.AMTOS Aircraft maintenance task orien-

tation system.Amtrak The brand name under which

the National Railroad Passenger Cor-poration operates 265 US intercity pas-senger trains daily, under contract withindividual railroads. Although operatingover 22,000 route miles, it only owns

around 3% of US rail track, 730 miles,most of which is the line betweenWashington, DC and Boston. Amtrak hasalso successfully tendered for contractsto run commuter services, such asCaltrain in California. The organizationwas set up in 1970 under the RailPassenger Service Act and began operat-ing the following year as a federallyowned railroad. Amtrak was granted theright of access to the tracks owned bythe freight railroads at an incrementalcost and with operating priority overfreight trains. Amtrak was also granted amonopoly to provide intercity rail trans-port over its route system. It wasintended that after a few years’ initiallosses, it would become profitable, butduring the last 30 years, subsidies ofover US$27 billion have been needed.Thus, in 1997, Congress set Amtrak theobjective of operational revenue cover-ing operation costs by December 2002.To oversee headway the 1997 Act cre-ated the Amtrak Reform Council (ARC);it also provided 5 further years of fund-ing, ended Amtrak’s rail passengermonopoly and permitted closure oflines making losses.

The traffic reductions following 11September 2001 terrorism served toexacerbate a worsening situation. As aresult in November 2001, the ARCdecided that Amtrak would not achieveself-sufficiency by the end of 2002 andthat Amtrak should draw up a plan forliquidation by 7 February 2002, whileby the same date, the ARC would drawup a plan for a restructured and ratio-nalized national US passenger rail sys-tem. The liquidation never happened!On 7 February the ARC submitted itsrestructuring plan to Congress. But read-ers should particularly note that, cru-cially, the original 1997 Act did notrequire either the House or the Senate toact on the ARC’s plan! The schemeenvisaged separating Amtrak’s functionsinto three units, each with separateBoards of Directors. The first unit wouldbe responsible for government pro-gramme administration and hold thestatutory franchise to access freightrailroad rights of way at incrementalcosts and with operating priority. Itwould maintain and improve a national

reservations system and ensure jointticketing. Insurance to train operatorsand limitation of their liability would becontinued.

The second unit would be responsi-ble for train operations, handling mailand express business, passenger andcommuter operations and equipmentand repair shops. The plan envisaged theeventual privatization of this unit. Thethird unit would be responsible for infra-structure; it would own and maintainthe North East corridor from Washington,DC to Boston, Massachussets.

The ARC plan would permit theintroduction of competition at the endof a 2 to 5 year transition period, by thetrain operating company offering exclu-sive franchises through competitive bid-ding. Franchises would be designed anda bidding process established. Amongideas floated in the ARC report are thecreation of a passenger rail trust fundand infrastructure financing through theenactment of a Railroad Infrastructureand Development Act for the 21stCentury (known as RIDE-21). The USgovernment responded to some of theARC proposals in July 2003 with theBush Administration Rail Plan. Thissought federal/state rail partnerships todevelop passenger rail services. Theplan supported proposals to divide therailroad into three separate corporationsaccording to function. Amtrak is stronglyagainst this.

In mid-2004 Amtrak updated its 5year strategic plan for US railroads.This called for federal funding of capi-tal projects of around $1.6bn annuallyand continuance of the $570m annualsupport for operating purposes. In fur-therance of the Bush proposals, Amtrakhas, together with the states involvedevaluated the readiness for immediatedevelopment of busy commuter railcorridors; those meeting the studycriteria have been designated Tier Icorridors. Amtrak’s ridership on keycorridors grew from 17m in 1999 to21m in 2004.

At the time of going to press, newspa-per stories suggested that some serviceswould be reduced as a cost saving mea-sure. However, Amtrak has assured cus-tomers that all trains will continue to

operate normally for the foreseeablefuture. See www.amtrak.com and NorthAmerican train services.

Amtrak Reform Council Following sub-mission of Action plan in February2002, work concluded. Seewww.amtrak.reform.council.gov andAmtrak.

amusement park In Britain, this may belittle more than a few fairground attrac-tions but in the USA, the term impliessomething on a grander scale. See themeparks.

analog (analogue) Data transmissionmethod, which is the normal way thatspeech goes along telephone lines. Mostcomputers transmit data in digital format.In this mode, sometimes called binary,there is a series of on or off pulses, allsymbols, alphanumeric characters orother information, being broken downinto such a series. Analog is a descrip-tive term that can be applied widely; butit is sufficient for travel industry usemerely to understand that continuouslyvariable analog waves, for example ontelephone lines, must be convertedbefore use by digital travel computers.For explanation of conversion seemodem.

Anasazi Computerized hotel reservationsystem.

ANATO National Association of Traveland Tourist Agents in Colombia. Seewww.alca-ftaa.oas.org

ANC Active noise control (systems).anchor Apparatus which attaches a

water-borne vessel to the seabed, usu-ally by its hooks. Classically of T shapeand of heavy metal. Hence the term‘anchors away’, which is the layman’smisunderstanding of the term ‘anchorsaweigh’, which means that a ship hastaken the weight of the anchor, so that itno longer secures the ship.

anchorage port Means a port with noquay or berthing facilities for cruiseships. But note particularly that theincreasing size of cruise vessels meansthat at some ports the large vessels can-not dock, but smaller ships may have aberth. See tender.

Andromeda Was the name of the UKAT&T ISTEL computer system fortravel agents, combining a direct per-manent connection from agency to

36 Amtrak Reform Council

AOA1 37

ISTEL’s central computer, Autobook,the enhanced PC-based viewdata sys-tem and Mycrom Abacas back officeaccounting and administration system.ISTEL is now called AT&T Business(Travel Division).

anemometer An instrument which mea-sures windspeed, various types of whichare to be found at sea or in airports.

Anguilla Tourist Board See www.anguilla-vacation.com

animals by air A special type of box, des-ignated in IATA regulations, must beused when an animal is being carried byair. One end of the box has to be virtu-ally open and covered with bars toenable the animal to breathe. There is acomplicated formula for determiningthe size of box necessary.

For example, if it is a dog, the lengthof the container required is calculatedby adding together the length of the dogfrom nose to root of the tail, to theheight from the ground to elbow joint.The container has to be twice as wide asthe width of the dog across the shoul-ders, and at least the height of the dog ina standing position.

Special containers suitable for live-stock are available from British Airwaysand other airlines. Largest normal sizeavailable is 36 � 18 � 26 inches. Travelclerks need to obtain special labels forcustomers, clearly indicating that thereceptacle contains a live animal, its typeand a sign showing the upright position.

Because of anti-rabies rules and otherregulations, dogs and many other ani-mals will not be allowed to enter Britainwithout undergoing a lengthy period ofquarantine, unless they are certified asrabies free on a special type of animalpassport. Clients should therefore beadvised not to take their animals abroadunless they are emigrating or intendingto leave the animal abroad.

animateur A leisure activities coordina-tor. The word is not used in the UK or,generally, outside continental Europe.The 2003 CEN/European Standard offi-cial definition is: ‘A person responsiblefor the planning and supervising ofleisure and sports activity programmeswho encourages travellers to participateand speaks the language understood bythe majority of the travellers.’ The prob-lem with this definition is that it sets a

standard in its final part; language facil-ity is not inherent in defining the mean-ing of ‘animateur’.

annexe Concerning a travel contract orbooking conditions, a separate part, usu-ally more detailed than the mainclauses. In respect of accommodation,extra rooms separate from the main part,often without many of the services pro-vided for guests in the main building.See also accommodation types.

ANO Air Navigation Order.ANSIX12 An EDI standard of the

American National Standards Institute,used by the travel industry.

Antarctic That part of the Southernhemisphere around the South Pole;technically, that part south of the line oflatitude 66° 33� S.

Antarctic Traveller’s Code Ecotourismrules operated by cruise operators to thearea with the aim of sustainabletourism, so that cruising does not affectthe environment being visited.

Anti Trust Travel Agent Coalition UStravel agents body mounting class actionlawsuit against airlines opposingchanges to zero commission.

Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Office Seewww.antigua-barbuda.com

antipodean day A day gained becausethe date goes backwards when crossingthe 180th parallel of longitude, travel-ling in an easterly direction. See alsoInternational Date Line.

ANTOR1 Association of National TouristOffice Representatives in the UK.ANTOR in the UK has a membership of85 countries. It was established in 1952to represent the views of its membersand facilitate the development of traveloutbound from the UK. Objectives are tocoordinate and improve, throughmutual cooperation, the services thatmembers offer to both the travel indus-try and British public. ANTOR has twoweb sites: www.tourist-offices.org.ukand www.antor.com

ANTOR2 Assembly of National TouristOffice Representatives with similarobjectives in the USA.

ANVR Algemene Nederlandse Verenigingvan Reisburo – the Dutch nationaltravel agency organization. Seewww.touring.nl

AOA1 Angle of attack (of an aircraft).

AOA2 Aerodrome Owners’ Associationis the British trade body of the smallerairports.

AOA3 Airport Operators Association isthe trade association that represents theinterests of British airports and is theprincipal body with whom the UK gov-ernment and regulatory authorities con-sult on airport matters. Membershipcomprises 71 airports representing all ofthe nation’s international hub and majorregional airports in addition to manyserving community, business andleisure aviation. See www.aoa.org.uk

AOC Air Operators’ Certificate from theCivil Aviation Authority is required inthe UK by any person or organizationwishing to start an airline or air taxi ser-vice. The Flight Operations Inspectorateinvestigates whether the applicant hassufficient managerial and technicalresources to carry out safe operationsand, once an OAC is granted, continu-ously monitors the holder.

AOCI The Airport Operators’ CouncilInternational based in the USA is aninternational trade body representingvarious governmental bodies responsi-ble for airport operation.

AODB Airport and Obstacle Database,created by IATA.

AOG Aircraft on ground.AONB Area of Outstanding Natural

Beauty (in the UK). The CountrysideCommission, Countryside Council forWales and Department of the Environ-ment for Northern Ireland all have theright to declare such areas, which are ona much smaller scale than nationalparks. The 50 or so AONBs are con-served and protected against most com-mercial or private development. InScotland, the equivalent designation isNational Scenic Area.

AOPA Aircraft Owners and PilotsAssociation of the UK represents privatepilots and aircraft owners in Britain,and has representatives on the interna-tional AOPA body, together with othernational AOPAs. See www.aopa.co.uk

AoReCa The International Union ofNational Associations of Hotel,Restaurant and Cafe-Keepers is a group-ing of various national and other tradebodies in this field.

AOTOS See Admiral of the Open SeaAward.

Ap Approach (lighting at an aerodrome).AP Via Atlantic and Pacific. See routing;

also American Plan.AP/DF Approach and direction-finding

facility.APALS Autonomous precision approach

and landing system.aparthotel In Europe, the term usually

means a hotel where all accommodationis self-catering apartments, with, at theminimum, a small kitchen area, toiletand bath or shower and bedroom. Thistype of accommodation varies greatly inthe hotel services provided and publicrooms. In Europe, the terms apartmenthotel, apartment complex and residenceare similar establishments. Whereas inEurope an aparthotel may be very large,in America the term is usually used todescribe a small hotel providing room orbed and breakfast only, which in Britainis a guest house or boarding house. Inthe USA, this type of accommodation,particularly when it is meeting theneeds of commercial clients, isknown as a hotel garni. The 2003CEN/European Standard official defini-tion misses a crucial point by not men-tioning self-catering or kitchen facilitiesin the definition.

apartment Self-catering accommodationproviding sleeping and sitting facilitieswith a kitchenette in one large room isusually known as a ‘studio apartment’,to distinguish it from an apartmentwhere the sleeping facilities are sepa-rate. The 2003 CEN/European Standardofficial definition of ‘apartment’ incor-porates separation as part of the stan-dard. It then designates aparthotels,apartment hotels, apartment complexesand residences as establishments whereaccommodation is provided in studiosor apartments.

apartment complex See aparthotel.apartment hotel See aparthotel.APAVT The Portuguese Association of

Travel Agents and Tourism.APCO Association of Pleasure Craft

Operators in the UK; founded in 1954, itis the trade association for operators ofself-drive hire, passenger/restaurant andhotel boats on Britain’s inland waterways.See www.canals.com/orgs/apco.htm

APD Air Passenger Duty; a UK tax onall air travellers flying from a Britishairport.

38 AOA2

APT 39

APEX Advance Purchase Excursiontransport fare.

API1 Air position indicator (aviation term).API2 Application Programming Interface;

a file or group of computer files forwhich a non-copyright interface is avail-able, so that other software can interactwith it. This is particularly important inthe travel industry so that APIs areavailable enabling reservation and otherdata from GDSs to be used in travelagents’ back office systems.

APIS See Advance Passenger InformationSystem.

APJC See Agency Programme JointCouncil.

APL A Programme Language, a computerprogramming language designed forbusiness planning.

APLG Agency Programme LiaisonGroup. See Agency Programme JointCouncil.

APMS Automated performance measur-ing system (aviation term).

APN Advance Passenger Notice.Apollo Originally was United Airlines’

automated reservation and informationsystem, operated by subsidiary, Covia,through which many US agents madegeneral industry and airline bookings;now integrated with Galileo. The Apollobrand name is still used for Galileo, thehuge global CRS, in the USA, Mexicoand Japan. See Galileo.

APP Approach control (aviation term).apparel Although the word means cloth-

ing in general English, in shipping, itapplies to all of a vessel’s equipment,including such things as anchors andropes. When chartering a ship, thewording is often extended to state‘apparel, tackle and appurtenances’,covering everything physical necessaryto enable the ship to function efficientlyand operate for the purpose for which itwas chartered.

application packages Computer pro-grammes tailored to handle the user’sparticular requirement, for example,preparation of an agent’s sales returns.(A general technical term.)

Application Processing System (of ARC)See ARC1.

appointment The term means both theagreement entitling a travel agent torepresent a travel industry principaland the process of approval. Unless an

agent is officially appointed, under theterms of a specific written agreement,major groupings such as IATA will notgrant commission. Although an in-accurate use of the word, it is commonin the UK to call appointments‘licences’.

approval criteria for UK IATA agents SeeAgency Programme Joint Council.

Approved Agent Official IATA definitionis a Passenger Sales Agent whose nameis entered on the Agency List. The termin general use in the travel industryapplies to any travel agent approved bya particular travel principal to sell thatprincipal’s services.

Approved Location Official IATA defini-tion is the Head Office, Branch Officeand Satellite Ticket Printer locationsappearing on the Agency List.

après ski Broadly, the leisure activities inwinter sports resorts.

APRO Airline Public RelationsOrganisation is a British group of PRmanagers of most airlines operatinginside and from the UK. See apro@onetel.net.uk

apron (or ramp) Hard surface area off theairport runways, where aircraft areparked for loading, unloading, servicingor any other handling.

APS1 Application Processing System ofthe US Airline Reporting Corporationfor accreditation. This now allowsapplications to be processed electroni-cally. See ARC1.

APS2 Aircraft prepared for service (avia-tion term).

APSC1 Airline Passenger Service Commit-ment, a May 2001 agreement drawn upby carriers, passengers’ representatives,European Civil Aviation Conference(ECAC) and the European Commission,as a voluntary code that commits airlinesto provide a clearly defined minimumstandard of service and sales informationto air travellers. See Airline PassengerService Commitment in ‘denied board-ing compensation’.

APSC2 Atlantic Passenger SteamshipConference – a rate-making conferenceof shipping lines operating on the NorthAtlantic. Dissolved with the formationof the International Passenger ShipAssociation.

APT Advanced Passenger Train. The pro-totype began trials in spring 1980, even-

tually coming into service several yearslater and then being withdrawn becauseof problems with the tilting mechanism.Other fast train services (see TGV andBullet Train) operate on specially builttracks with only slight curves. BritishRail’s APT used ordinary rail track;compensating against forces while trav-elling around a bend by tilting the train.The APT eventually went into regularservice on the London–Glasgow route in1984 carrying 8000 passengers withoutmishap. On 12 December 1984, the APTbroke the record from London toGlasgow with a time of 3 h 52.75 min,including a 3 min signal wait, for the401 mile run, at an average speed ofover 103 mph. The APT was capable ofover 160 mph on specially preparedtrack. Further development work on theAPT has ceased. Altogether BR isbelieved to have invested £50 millionon the APT project. Now, British Rail nolonger exists, having been split up into25 train-operating companies, NetworkRail and engineering companies etc.

APTG Association of Professional TouristGuides in the UK. See www.aptg.org.uk

APTIS ‘All Purpose Ticket Issue System’was the name of British Rail’s electronicticket issuing and accounting machine.The prototype was introduced to BRstations in 1982 in the form of a unitmeasuring 476 mm � 182 mm. Nowused by UK rail stations to sell ticketsfor ATOC members (Association of TrainOperating Companies).

APU Auxiliary Power Unit; planes stand-ing on the tarmac can become veryuncomfortable for passengers forlengthy periods without the enginesrunning, particularly in hot climates,because there is insufficient power tooperate the air conditioning.

aquapark Leisure facility strongly ori-ented towards water sports.

aquaplaning Phenomenon where thetyres of a vehicle suffer from lack ofadhesion to the surface in wet condi-tions, making it difficult to steer orbrake. Particularly dangerous for aircraftattempting to land in tropical rain-storms.

AQZ Area mean sea level barometricpressure zone.

ARA Agent Reporting Agreement (of theARC).

Arab International hotel code for a twin-bedded room. Also name for an inhabi-tant of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,often generally applied to the inhabi-tants of many Middle Eastern countries.

Arab Air Carriers Organization Seewww.aaco.org

Arbiter Throughout the world, there areairline/IATA agency programmes operat-ing under IATA resolutions 808 and 814,setting up organizations through whichdisputes between agents and the air-lines/IATA may be settled. In the USA,however, arguments between agents andthe Airlines Reporting Corporation aresettled by a particular person, whoholds the appointment of Arbiter.

arbitrary Alternative name for a propor-tional fare. See proportional fare.

arbitration See ABTA ArbitrationScheme.

ARC1 The Airlines Reporting Corporationbecame effective in the USA on 1January 1985. Following the AirlineDeregulation Act of 1978 and the CivilAeronautic’s Board’s CompetitiveMarketing Investigation, airlines losttheir anti-trust immunity. This meantthat each individual airline now had toset appointment standards, commissionlevels and cover a huge variety of busi-ness matters previously handled underthe umbrella of their IATA membership.To achieve efficient handling of airlinesales while avoiding anti-competitiveactivities, US domestic carriers formedthe ARC, while international carriersformed the Passenger Network ServicesCorporation, which became the parentcompany of IATAN, the InternationalAirlines Travel Agent Network.

An ARC-approved agency is openand accessible to the general public forthe retail sale of air transportation.Agents must employ at least oneCertified ARC Specialist (CAS). A man-agement ‘qualifier’ may be a person whothe ARC feel is qualified to open anagency because of past relevant experi-ence. New agents have, since July 1999,been required to have a ticketing spe-cialist who has become a CAS via awritten examination, designed to vali-date the ticketing qualifier’s knowledgeof the Industry Agents Handbook.Agents exert their influence via an ARCAdvisory Council. The system retained

40 APTG

some aspects of the Air TrafficConference travel agency programme,such as a central administrative system,accreditation, bonding, maintaining uni-form standards for agents and the AreaSettlement Plan by which agents pay forticket issues. Initially the ARC did notallow travel agents to use standardticket stock in unattended ticketingmachines. Under the ARC rules, agentshave the ability to operate in a dualcapacity, both under an ARC appoint-ment and outside this system on anindividual basis with air carriers. TheARC has coined a new term for thoseaccredited by them, namely IndustryAgents.

The ARC enables agents to varyremittance dates with individual air-lines, which may help them keep moneyin their accounts for a longer period oftime than the normal 7-day cycle. It is tobe noted that the normal payment cyclein the UK is calendar monthly on the17th of the month following ticketissuance. In the USA, to prevent mas-sive withdrawal errors, agents nominatea ‘maximum authorized amount’ thatthe ARC may withdraw from theiraccount. By mid 2000, ARC hadswitched from manual reporting to anelectronic automatic reporting system,Interactive Agent Reporting (IAR).Under this system a TAAD is a TravelAgent Automated Deduction, the equiv-alent of an ADM (Agency Debit Memo)in the UK. Often, US travel agentscharge for their services in providinglow commission or nett price air tickets.When passengers pay for their ticketsinclusive of the agent’s fee in a singlecredit card transaction, the agent cansubmit a Travel Agency Service FeeDocument (TAF) under ARC’s AreaSettlement Plan. At the end of 2001, anESAC authorization code was intro-duced, assigned by a carrier through aCRS when a void, refund or exchangerequest is made on an electronic ticket.Passenger name transmittal files haveenabled agents to send details to a back-office file.

Until recently, corporate traveldepartments (CTDs) in the USA couldonly get ARC accreditation in two ways.They could operate as an agency open tothe public, a route that was followed by

McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeingand Charles Schwab. Alternatively,arrangements could be made with anARC-accredited agency to use theirauthorization; the CTD undertakes allthe travel services, using the ARCagency number. This is known as ‘Renta plate’, referring to the plates that usedto be used in air ticket validationimprinters. In January 1999, following asuccessful Beta test, the ARC offeredCTDs the opportunity to be authorizedin their own right under a CorporateTravel Department Reporting Agreement(CTDRA). There are around 50 accred-ited CTDs. They are required to postfinancial performance bonds of betweenUS$50,000 and US$100,000. The appli-cation fee is from US$850 to US$1000plus an extra US$150 per authorizedlocation and US$625 for each SatelliteTicket Printer. As with travel agencies, itis a requirement that a member of staffbe a Certified ARC Specialist (CAS).

All ARC appointees, whetherIndustry Agents or CTDs have to followstrict security provisions concerningARC Traffic Documents, for which theappointee is absolutely liable. Thosewho undertake security arrangementseven more stringent than those required,may obtain relief from liability for theirARC documents. In conclusion, it isstressed that US agents are not requiredto be appointed through ARC. They cansell airline tickets, earn commission orobtain reduced-rate tickets dealingdirectly with individual airlines. It is,however, convenient to become auto-matically appointed by over 100 airlinesautomatically, using standard ticketstock of the ARC ASP (Area SettlementPlan). Sales and reporting for theseairlines and Amtrak is much simplerthan dealing with each airline. Forfull information about ARC seewww.arccorp.com also see hostagency, Restricted Access Location,TravelSellers.com number and TSI.

ARC2 Automated Revenue Collectionsystem was used by the Owners Abroadgroup. It was a UK travel agency directbanking debit system whereby theagent’s bank account was automaticallydebited, weekly, for the value of transac-tions with that operator due for pay-ment. Although the brand name is part

ARC2 41

of the First Choice UK tour operatorgroup, there is now generic usage of theARC acronym.

ARC3 Amtrak Reform Council. SeeAmtrak.

ARC Advisory Council See ARC1.ARC number The eight-digit code allo-

cated to ARC-appointed travel agents,the equivalent of IATA numbers in therest of the world. Continental Airlinesand Northwest Airlines require USdomestic air booking locations that arenot ARC accredited, but using a GDS,to obtain an RSP (Reservation ServiceProvider) number from ARC. Thisapplies to all non-ARC users of a GDSoutside contractors and corporatecustomers. In lieu of an RSP number,non-accredited international bookinglocations located outside the USA,Puerto Rico and USA Virgin Islandsmust obtain a TIDS (Travel IndustryDesignator Service) number fromIATA. Applications via www.arccorp.com/aguaform.htm (US$225for 3 years) or www.iata.org/tids(US$55).

architectural bias (of CRS) Refers to theway airlines’ computer reservationsystems used to be designed so that theparent airlines’ flights were given pre-cedence. Bias was prohibited in theUSA, prior to deregulation. It is still pre-vented by the EC Neutral CRS Rules(Appendix III). These are under reviewand likely to change within the currencyof this dictionary.

architecture Term used to describe thedesign of a computer system whichoften limits software programs that canbe implemented on the equipment.

archived files In general applies to filesin a travel agency which are no longercurrent, the customers having travelledand the accounting concluded. The termis also applied to computerized informa-tion stored on a disk or tape separatefrom the computer system, so that itmay be accessed if specifically loaded.

ARCHY Accounts and ReservationsComputer Holiday System; was theacronym for British Airways ToursDivision private Viewdata system, pro-viding full interactive communicationwith UK travel agents, enabling them tomake bookings direct from their officeterminals. Now obsolete, having been

replaced with the PAL section of BALINK, which itself became obsolete in2001.

Arctic That part of the northern hemi-sphere around the North Pole; techni-cally, that part north of the line oflatitude 66° 33� N.

ARDA American Resort DevelopmentAssociation. See www.arda.org

Area See the three geographical areasdelineated as IATA Traffic ConferenceAreas, listed under the headings TC-1,TC-2 and TC-3.

Area Bank Settlement Plan See BSP.Area of Bank Settlement Plan A country

or group of countries in which a BSPoperates.

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty SeeAONB.

Area Settlement Plan See ASP.Argentina National Travel Agency

Organization See AAAVT.Argentina Secretaria de Turismo See

www.turismo.gov.arARIES Was Agents Reservations and

Information and Enquiries System, theacronym for Global’s private Viewdatasystem in the UK.

ARINC Aeronautical Radio Inc. (alsoknown as ADNS) is a non-profit makingcomputer communications networkowned by American air carriers, whichalso offers facilities like other travel ser-vice providers such as hotels and carrental companies.

Arizona Office of Tourism See www.arizonaguide.com

ARMTA Association of Regional Mul-tiple Travel Agents in the UK.

ARP Agents Reporting Plan (of IATA airticket sales) in the USA.

ARR1 Arrival (aviation term).ARR2 Average room rate.arrival tax Payment required from trav-

ellers at their destination. Usually, butnot always, applied by a few countriesto international arrivals.

arrival time The 2003 CEN/EuropeanStandard official definition is ‘Timewhen the contracted service of transportends.’ Thus, the words have been givencontractual significance which maybecome important if this standard everhas the force of law. Most travellers, forexample, regard the landing time of anaircraft as their arrival time; it may well

42 ARC3

be up to an hour later that they finallypick up their luggage, thus concludingtheir contract.

ARS Automatic route setting. See TrainDescriber.

ARSR Air route surveillance radar.ARTA Association of Retail Travel

Agents, a trade association of US travelagents. See www.artaonline.com

ARTAC Alliance of Retail Travel AgencyConsortia but legally registered asAlliance Travel Ltd. Operates under thebrand name ‘Worldchoice’. In 2001,officially changed name to Worldchoice.Grouping of most of the local andregional UK travel agents cooperativeassociations, including Active, Consort,Diamond, E.F.T.A., F.O.S.T.A., Gwynedd,L.T.A.C., Sun Island, Sun West, Sussexand Unity. Alliance negotiates overridecommissions and other deals for mem-bers. It is as large as UK multiple travelretailers, creating sufficient nationalcooperative marketing effort to matchtheir buying power. In the 1990s, theCarlton group was owner of the AT Mays UK travel agency chain; the Worldchoice brand name wasacquired in return for a marketing dealwith ARTAC, giving the consortiumcombined with the chain even biggerbuying power. When Thomas Cookacquired the Carlton agencies, arrange-ments were made so that Worldchoicewas aligned with Thomas Cook ingeneral and its holiday brand, JMC. See www.worldchoice.co.uk, ACAS,travel agency consortia in the UK andconsortium.

Articles of Association A lengthy docu-ment detailing the activities a Britishlimited company may undertake andthe rules by which that company isgoverned. In the USA the term Articlesof Incorporation is used.

artificial beach A beach that has beenman-made, usually by the transportof sand and shingle from anotherplace.

ARTIST Agenda for Research on Tourismby Integration of Statistics/Strategies forTransport. A project funded by theEuropean Commission under theTransport RTD Programme of the 4thResearch and Development FrameworkProgramme.

ARTS Automatic Radar Terminal Systemenabling air traffic controllers to monitorand organize aircraft under their control.

Aruba Tourism Authority Seewww.aruba.com

AS/PAC Asia Pacific, an IATA region.ASA An Air Service Agreement is an

agreement between two or more states,regulating the air services betweenthem. The Bermuda Agreement wasmade in 1946, relating to air servicesbetween Britain and the USA. Thisbilateral agreement was subsequentlyrenegotiated in 1977. The original hasbeen used as a model for many othersimilar bilateral air agreements, hencethe term ‘Bermuda type agreement’ hasbecome generic.

The most important clause in thistype of agreement states that there shallbe a fair and equal opportunity for thecarriers of the two nations to operate onany route included in the agreement.Most international air operations arecontrolled by bilateral Air ServicesAgreements made between the govern-ments concerned. Sometimes trafficrights are restricted. Thus, an airline fly-ing from A to B to C and to D, may haveno traffic rights to carry passengers onlytravelling between B and C, but permis-sion to pick up or set down passengerstravelling between these and the otherpoints.

A multilateral ASA is one betweenthree or more countries. When the gov-ernments concerned have signed agree-ments, they do not specify fares. Theseare left to the airlines to decide, subjectto the ratification of governments. Seealso Bermuda, Traffic Rights, Freedomsof the Air, Five Freedoms of the Air andChicago Convention.

ASATA Association of Southern AfricanTravel Agents. See www.asata.co.za

ASAV Asociación Salvadorena deAgencias de Viajes.

ASB Air service bulletin.ASC1 Airport Service Charge. Charge on

all passengers leaving on an interna-tional journey from an airport under thecontrol of certain authorities, coveringairport handling charges and air trafficcontrol fees. In some cases this chargecan only be paid within the countryconcerned; in Europe it is now nor-mally included in the total charge for

ASC1 43

the ticket, but shown in a separate box.In 1999, in Europe, airlines began toseparate these charges from fares,denoting them in a tax box on air tick-ets. The effect of this was to denyagents commission on a significant partof the ticket value. Court cases againstairlines in Germany and Britain in1999/2000 found in favour of agents,forcing commission payments on pas-senger service charges. Now that mostairline commissions have ceased, thedecision is merely history. See APD anddeparture tax.

ASC2 Airport Services Committee ofIATA. See IATA.

ASC3 Association of Snowsport Coun-tries. This organization was formedin 1999 by the tourist boards of nineleading winter sports countries,Andorra, Austria, Canada, France,Norway, Slovenia, Sweden andSwitzerland and USA. See www.snowsportscountries.com

ASC4 Aviation Security Charge; ASCswere introduced in the light of theUS airline terrorist attacks on11 September 2001, to cover the extracosts of air travel security and insur-ance.

ASCII American Standard Code ofInformation Interchange. One of themain computer standards defining everycharacter or figure in an 8-bit digitalcoding system.

ASDA Acceleration stop distance avail-able (aviation term).

ASDE Airport Surface Detection Equip-ment. See AMASS.

ASEAN Association of South East AsianNations.

ASFA Association of Special FareAgents. A grouping of international airtravel consolidators.

ASG Air Safety Group.ASI1 Air speed indicator (aviation term).ASI2 American Sightseeing International,

an international trade body for localtour operators.

ASIA Airlines Staff International Asso-ciation based at Geneva Airport,Switzerland.

ASK Available seat kilometres. An airterm arrived at by multiplying passengercapacity (number of seats) by routedistances in kilometres. See also RPK.

ASM1 Available seat miles. An air termarrived at by multiplying passengercapacity (number of seats) by route dis-tances in miles.

ASM2 Ad hoc schedules message fromIATA providing details of an air sched-ule change.

ASMGCS Advanced surface movementguidance and control system (aviationterm).

ASO Agency Services Office (of IATA).Asociacao Brasileira de Agencias de

Viagens See www.abav.com.br ASOR Used to be the ‘Agreement on the

international carriage of passengers byroad by means of occasional bus andcoach services’; replaced from 1 January2003 by the Interbus Agreement on theinternational occasional carriage of pas-sengers by coach and bus. See www.europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/124264.htm

ASP Area Settlement Plan, the genericterm for schemes which enable travelagents to use standard air ticket stockand make one payment for eachaccounting period, rather than dealingwith a multiplicity of airlines. For a typ-ical example see BSP.

ASPA Association of South PacificAirlines.

ASR1 Airport surveillance radar.ASR2 Agent’s Sales Return, which is a

listing of all the tickets sold in a particu-lar period. Sales returns must be fur-nished to a travel industry principal byan agent by a date specified in theagency agreement, together with a remit-tance for the value of the tickets lessagency commission.

ASRP Aviation Safety ReportingProgramme (aviation term).

ASRS Aviation Safety Reporting System(aviation term).

assistance during travel The 2003CEN/European Standard official defini-tion is ‘information and support fortravellers during the contractedportions of their travel, including a 24h/365 day contact number’. It is sug-gested that this is an example of thedanger of making a group of wordswith an obvious meaning into a defini-tion. It is, for example, self-evident thattravellers getting information from atourist information centre after a flight

44 ASC2

but before continuing their journeyonwards by public or private transport,are being assisted during travel.

Associated British Ports (ABP) Seewww.abports.co.uk

Associated Travel Network See ATN2.Association for Conferences and Events

See ACE.Association Mondiale pour la Formation

Hoteliere et Touristique See AMFORHTalso www.amforht.org

Association of African Airlines (AAFRA)See www.yohannes.com/Africa/AFRAA.htm

Association of American Railroads Seewww.aar.org

Association of ATOL Companies in the UKformerly the Association of AirlineConsolidators. See www.aac-uk.org

Association of Bonded Travel OrganisersTrust See ABTOT; www.abtot.com

Association of British ProfessionalConference Organizers (ABPCO) Seewww.abpco.org

Association of British Tour Operators toFrance See ABTOF. See www.holidayfrance.org.uk

Association of British Travel Agents SeeABTA.

Association of British Travel AgentsCertificate See ABTAC.

Association of British Travel Agents TourOperators Certificate See ABTOC.

Association of Business Travellers (in theUSA) See www.abt-travel.com

Association of Canadian Travel Agents(ACTA1) See www.acta.net

Association of Car Rental InformationSystem Standards See ACRISS.

Association of Collegiate Conference andEvents Directors-International (in theUSA) See www.acced-i.org

Association of Cyprus Travel Agents(ACTA3) See www.pio.gov.cy

Association of Destination ManagementExecutives (in the USA) – Qualification isDMCP (Destination Management CertifiedProfessional). See www.adme.org

Association of European Airlines (AEA)See www.aea.be

Association of European CommunityTravel Agents and Tour Operators SeeECTAA.

Association of Exhibition Organizers(AEO) See www.aeo.org

Association of Flight Attendants (AFA)See www.afanet.org

Association of Group Travel ExecutivesSee AGTE.

Association of Independent TourOperators See AITO.

Association of Leading Visitor AttractionsSee ALVA and www.alva.org.uk

Association of National Tourist OfficeRepresentatives See ANTOR.

Association of Pleasure Craft OperatorsSee APCO.

Association of Professional Tourist Guides(APTG) See www.aptg.org.uk

Association of Retail Travel Agents SeeARTA.

Association of Snowsport Countries SeeASC3.

Association of Southern African TravelAgents See www.asata.co.za

Association of Teachers and Trainers inTourism See ATTT.

Association of Train Operating CompaniesSee ATOC.

Association of Travel MarketingExecutives See www.atme.org

Association of Travel Trades Clubs SeeATTC1.

Association of Women Travel ExecutivesA UK organization, affiliated to theWomen’s Travel Club of Great Britain.AWTE London organizes a mixture ofeducational and social events for itsmembers, including seminars, workshops,evening meetings and monthly lunchmeetings. See www.awte-london.co.ukalso see IFWTO – www.ifwto.org

ASTA Tour Operator Program WhereasABTA rules including consumer protec-tion are mandatory on all members,ASTA’s TOP is voluntary. ASTA’s touroperating members are encouraged tohighlight their reliability and financialstability through adherence to standardsset by ASTA and participation in a con-sumer protection plan. A TOP programmember must be an Active or Alliedmember of ASTA and have been in thebusiness of operating tours for at leastthe previous 3 years. US$1 millionErrors and Omissions insurance must beeffected naming travel agents as addi-tional insured parties. Travel agentbookings must be accepted and commis-sion paid; TOP participating operatorsmust ensure their promotional materialdoes not disparage agents. Operatorsagree to comply with applicable federaland state travel regulations. They must

ASTA Tour Operator Program 45

respond to Better Business Bureau andother consumer protection agency com-plaints within 30 days and cooperatewith ASTA’s consumer affairs depart-ment in resolving complaints.Compliance with the ASTA Code ofEthics and ASTA’s environmental codeis sought.

Under TOP, operators must partici-pate in one of the following consumerprotection plans: USTOA US$1 millionbond; NTA US$250,000 bond; NationalCity Bank Travel Funds Protection Plan(TFPP) or Federal Maritime Commission(FMC) financial indemnification. Fordetails of these see entries under theirrespective headings. For details of oper-ation of an escrow account and of theTFPP see escrow account. For moredetails concerning bonding, see ATOL,ABTA, ASTA, ATRF, BCC, BRF, FMC,NTA1, TOP3, TPA (obsolete), USTOAand the Internet sites associated withthose entries.

ASTA1 Airport surface traffic automation.ASTA2 The American Society of Travel

Agents is a US trade organization withits headquarters in New York, foundedin 1931. It represents travel agents andother travel industry businessesthroughout the world. With more than26,000 members it is the largest organi-zation of its kind. NACTA is a whollyowned subsidiary (see NACTA). Classesof membership are Active, International,Individual, Allied, Travel School, Asso-ciate, Associate Independent, Seniorand Honorary.

Active members must be located inthe USA, Puerto Rico, the US VirginIslands, Guam, Northern Mariana orAmerican Samoa. They must operatewith the intention of making a profitfrom the travel agency business andconduct the majority of their business inan agency/principal relationship withsuppliers. They must not be owned orcontrolled by a major supplier. Theymust also be accredited by the ARC, orARP, or endorsed by IATAN or holdErrors and Omissions insurance of atleast US$1 million.

International members must be IATAappointees not located in the USA andbe operated with the intention of mak-ing a profit from the travel agency busi-ness. Individual members must not be

agency owners, but full-time employeesof a retail travel agency either: (i)accredited by ARC; or (ii) accredited byARP; or (iii) endorsed by IATAN; or (iv)be an active member of the NTA. Alliedmembers are engaged in providing prod-ucts, services or information, sold orused by agencies. Travel School mem-bers educate and train individuals for acareer in the travel industry. Associatemembers are individuals employed byany organization in the previous cate-gories. Associate independent membersare independent outside sales represen-tatives for one or more active memberfirms. There are also Senior memberswho have retired and Honorary members.

Apart from the above, ASTA hasrequirements for membership concern-ing finance, turnover and obedience to acode of ethics. For full informationabout ASTA and its activities seewww.astanet.com; see also ASTA TourOperator Program and Bond.

ASTAPAC ASTA’s Political ActionCommittee.

astern Shipping term for travelling back-wards. Also applied generally to the rearpart of the vessel as distinct from for-ward pronounced ‘forrard’.

ASTOR Airborne stand-off radar.ASTRA Advanced System Training

Aircraft made their first flights in 1986.Hawk training jet planes have been fit-ted with computers enabling them tosimulate the flying characteristics of anyaircraft for which software has beendeveloped.

ASVA Association of Scottish VisitorsAttractions.See www.asva.co.uk

AT Via Atlantic. See routing.ATA1 Africa Travel Association. See

www.africa-ata.orgATA2 The Air Transport Association of

America is the United States’ scheduledairlines trade body, originally formed in1936. For more information seewww.air-transport.org

ATA3 The Czech Association of TravelAgents.

ATAAB See Amadeus Travel AgencyAdvisory Board.

ATAB Air Travel Advisory Bureau in theUK. See www.atab.co.uk

ATAC The Air Transport Association ofCanada is that country’s airlines tradebody. See www.atac.com

46 ASTA1

ATACF Airline Tariff AutomatedCollection Facility. See Genesis.

ATAG Air Transport Action Group, a UKlobbying organization. Seewww.atag.org

ATAS Advanced training avionics suitesystem (aviation term).

ATB and ATB2 An automated ticket andboarding pass. Boarding information,seat assignment and baggage data, untilthe 1980s, were entered on a boardingpass as passengers checked in at the air-port. IATA resolution 722c and recom-mended practice 1722c now govern thespecification and use of a combinedcomputer produced ticket and boardingpass. Automated tickets and boardingpasses are produced in multi-couponform by specialized air ticket printers,which became the norm in large UKtravel agencies by the mid-1990s, asmulti-layered carbon copy tickets werephased out. However, these continue tobe used by many medium- and small-sized travel agencies. ATB2 ticketsincorporate a magnetic strip enablingcoupons to be passed through electronicreaders, facilitating speedy check-inprocedures.

IATA set a deadline of 1 April 1996,by which time all airlines must issueATB2s instead of other types of ticket.At the time of writing, 11 years later, thechangeover is still not complete.However, IATA has now set an end 2007deadline for all paper tickets to finish.Whereas the original ATB was of onetype, there is an Off PremisesAutomated Ticket/Boarding Pass(OPATB2) for agency use. See also auto-mated ticket, bar code, bull’s-eye, com-puter airline ticket, e-ticketing, OCR,OPTAT, OPATB2, TAT, teletype airlineticket and ticket (main entry).

ATC1 Additional technical conditions(aviation term).

ATC2 Air Traffic Conference (USA).ATC3 Air Traffic Control. See also FIRs

and MLS.ATC4 Air Travel Card. See UATP.ATC5 Australian Tourist Commission.

See www.atc.net.auATC6 Automatic Train Control. Com-

bined signalling and automatic controlsystems which automatically stop atrain, if the driver fails to obey signalsrequiring a train to slow down or stop.

Typical early introduction was in theUSA, where a US$15 million invest-ment by CSX Transportation in theearly 1990s resulted in centralizationof 33 dispatch (control) centres for-merly located all over America. Whenexpress rail services between KualaLumpur and its airport were intro-duced in 2002, the 160 km per h trainsused the Siemens Swiss ZSL90 systemused by several Swiss narrow-gaugerailways introduced in 1996; however,this system is not suitable for complexnetworks. ATC’s success has resultedin driverless trains (see driverlesstrains).

In the UK, an important aspect ofATC is now called ATP (automatic trainprotection). This is the system that theUK government has targeted to be fittedon all British trains by 2008; mean-while, a less sophisticated system,TPWS is being installed (see TPWS).ATP is much more than ensuring thattrain drivers obey signal instructions.Transmitting information to a computercontrol unit on board a train enablesheavier traffic to be carried on a line,with shorter distances between trains.(Technically this is ‘running with mini-mum headways’.) See also AGT.

ATC Tour Order Was the standard formcovering the sale of advertised air toursthat had been authorised by the AirTraffic Conference in the USA.

ATCC Air Traffic Control Centre.ATCO The Association of Transport Co-

ordinating Officers in the UK.ATD Actual time of departure.ATE1 Automatic testing equipment (avia-

tion term).ATE2 Australian Tourism Exchange. The

annual Australian Tourist Commissiontrade fair.

ATF Aviation Trust Fund, raised from USFederal taxes on air transport.

ATHE Association for Tourism HigherEducation in the UK, renamed from theNational Liaison Group in November2000. Also see LTSN and ATTT.

Athens Convention International agree-ment which limits liability of shippingcompanies in respect of loss or damageto luggage and injury or death of passen-gers when travelling on internationalservices by sea. Originally adopted in1974, the Convention harmonized the

Athens Convention 47

two earlier Brussels Conventions of1961 and 1967. There have been twomajor revisions, the 1990 and 2002Protocols. The carrier is made liable fordamage suffered as a result of the deathor personal injury of a passenger and theloss of or damage to luggage, if the inci-dent which caused the damage was dueto the fault or neglect of the carrier, itsservants or agents.

Usually, in agreements of this nature,fault or neglect of the carrier, servants oragents is presumed always, unless thecontrary can be specifically proved bythe carrier, where a loss of or damage tocabin baggage arises from shipwreck,collision, stranding, explosion, fire ordefect of the ship. In respect of loss of ordamage to other luggage, the fault orneglect is presumed irrespective of thenature of the incident.

Cabin luggage is defined as not onlyarticles actually in a passenger’s cabin,but also those in his or her possession,custody or control. Cabin luggageincludes possessions in or on avehicle.

In the case of damage to luggagewhich is not apparent at the time ofdelivery, or when a loss is involved, aclaim in writing must be submittedwithin 15 days. Other occurrencesshould have been reported by the cus-tomer at the time.

The maximum liability limits of car-riers were originally set in terms of goldfrancs. These have now been replacedby Special Drawing Rights (SDR); seeentry under this heading for an explana-tion of SDR. The 2002 Protocol substan-tially raised liability limits. In the caseof death or personal injury to a passen-ger, liability is limited to 250,000 SDR(about US$325,000). However, there isno liability if the carrier can prove thecause resulted from an act of war, anunforseeable circumstance outside ofthe carrier’s control etc. When losses forwhich a carrier is liable exceed thelimit, then negligence on the part of thecarrier may raise the limit to 400,000SDR (US$524,000). However, states mayopt out of these limits and set lowerones, a matter outside the scope of thisdictionary. But, they may not opt for dif-ferent levels in respect of damage tobaggage or vehicles. For loss of or

damage to baggage, liability is limited to2250 SDR (US$2925) per passenger. Forvehicles, including associated baggage,the liability limit is 12,700 SDR (aboutUS$16,250).

This entry is only a summary of the‘Athens Convention relating to theCarriage of Passengers and their Luggageby Sea, 2002’. Readers using this in-formation should check that the newliability limits have been activated.

ATIDS Airport surface identificationsystem.

ATII Association of Travel InsuranceIntermediaries in the UK.

ATIPAC Air Travel Insolvency ProtectionAdvisory Committee which replaced theUK CAA’s Air Travel Trust Committeewith the new group. See ATOL and ATT.

ATIS1 Automatic terminal informationservice (or system).

ATIS2 The European EDI standard for thetourism industry. See Electronic DataInterchange.

ATITA The Air Transport IndustryTraining Association is a voluntary bodywhich advises air companies and air-ports, undertaking some aspects of theformer role of the ATTITB.

ATK Available tonne kilometres. An aircargo term arrived at by multiplyingcargo capacity by the distance involved.See also RTK.

ATL1 Air Transport Licence. Required byBritish registered aircraft before theycan operate scheduled services. Undersection 22 of the Civil Aviation Act1971, authority can be granted for theoperation of seven classes of flights. 1:scheduled services; 2: carriage of chartercategories other than ITCs and sole-use;3: ITCs; 4: carriage, on the same aircraft,of ITCs and other categories other thansole-use; 5: substitute charter flights,apart from exempted operation for otherairlines using UK registered aircraft; 6:charter flights for the carriage of cargoand attendants; 7: sole-use charterflights apart from exempted operations.Usually, this is for sole-use flights to andfrom London Heathrow or traffic to andfrom oil rigs. (ITC means Inclusive TourCharter.)

The full specifications for each of theseven classes of licence are published inthe CAA Official Record, Series 1. ATLsare not required for ambulance, test or

48 ATIDS

training flights or official governmentcharters.

ATL2 Arranged total loss (aviation andmaritime insurance term).

Atlantic Exellence Alliance Obsoleteairline alliance. Originally formed inJune 1996, bringing together AustrianAirlines, Delta, Sabena and Swissairand ended in October 1999, althoughthe code-sharing arrangements contin-ued until August 2000. See airlinealliances.

Atlantis Name of TAP Air Portugal in-flight magazine.

atlas A book of maps. The Mercator Atlasof Europe is believed by Dr Peter Barber,Deputy Map Librarian of the BritishLibrary, to be the first to have beendescribed as an atlas, so-named after theTitan forced by Zeus to support the skyon his shoulders. It was assembled byGerard Mercator, the Flemish geogra-pher, for his patron, Werner vonGymnich, who made a tour of Europe in1570 with the son of William V, theDuke of Cleves. The Crown Prince ofCleves was the cousin of Anne of Cleves.This famous atlas includes the only copyof Mercator’s wall map of 1554 and oneof only four existing copies of his wallmap of the British Isles of 1564. It wasMercator’s projection that has enablednavigators to plot a course on maps instraight lines. See map projection.

Although the Mercator Atlas wasprobably the first to be called as such, inthe same year, 1570, Abraham Orteliuspublished his Theatrum Orbis Terrarumin Antwerp, an atlas in all but name.Ortelius knew Mercator – there is evi-dence that they had met many yearsbefore at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Atlas Name of Air France in-flight maga-zine.

ATLB Air Transport Licensing Board(obsolete).

ATM1 Air Traffic Management.ATM2 Available ton miles – a US term

indicating air cargo capacity, arrived atby multiplying the cargo capacity by thedistance involved. More usual in Europeis Available Tonne Kilometres.

ATMA Asia Travel Marketing Asso-ciation. See www.asiatravel.org

ATME Association of Travel MarketingExecutives in the USA. Seewww.atme.org

ATN1 Aeronautical TelecommunicationNetwork.

ATN2 (Obsolete) Associated TravelNetwork in the UK. ATN originated inthe USA in the 1980s as a grouping oftravel agents which recruited interna-tional associates. When the ATN consor-tium in the USA was bought in 1989 bythe United States Travel Service (USTS),the name disappeared in America andthe British ATN was established as aseparate grouping. By April 1991 therewere 13 members with an annual salesturnover of around £150 million, with32 business travel locations and around120 ordinary agency sites between them.The largest companies involved wereWoodcock Travel, based in Sheffield,Sibbald Travel in Scotland and JohnHilary Travel in East Anglia. WoodcockTravel failed in the 1990s, while theother two companies were taken over.

ATO Automatic train operation. See AGT.ATOA Was the Air Transport Operators

Association which merged into theGAMTA; this, together with the BAUAformed the BBGA – British Businessand General Aviation Association. Seewww.bbga.aero

ATOC1 Association of Train OperatingCompanies in the UK. During the 1990sBritish Rail was privatized and split upinto 25 operating companies, Railtrackto manage the rail network and othercompanies. ATOC functions as a tradebody for the operating companies butalso has commercial and some statutoryresponsibilities. It appoints travel agentsto sell UK rail travel, requiring that atleast two members become rail experts,passing their ‘Quality of Service’ valida-tion. Bonds are also required of them.There are currently 1200 rail-appointedagents in the UK. Agency commisionwas cut from 9% to 7% in 2003.

The principle has been establishedconcerning IATA appointments in theUK and ARC and IATAN in the USA thatthese are not dependent on the turnoverthat will be produced. However, ATOCexpect applicants to provide a marketingplan showing that they will producenew rail business. Agents must effectreservations and undertake ticketingthrough one of two computer systems.Both provide a fully integrated informa-tion, reservation, ticketing and account-

ATOC1 49

ing system. Elgar, which is also theEurostar system, is the alternative foragents with Galileo or Sabre GDS, ticket-ing being through an ATB type printer.AJENTS connects to ATOC’s RailJourney Information System via theInternet and prints credit card sized tick-ets through a dot matrix printer. Seewww.rail.co.uk/atoc/public/index.htmfor comprehensive index of the exten-sive ATOC site; www.nationalrail.co.ukfor a comprehensive guide to all UKnational rail services; trains (this mainentry details many further references);also rail fares in the UK; rail reserva-tions in the UK and rail season tickets inthe UK.

ATOC2 The Association of TimeshareOwners Committees. See timeshare.

ATOL Air Travel Organizer’s Licence inthe UK, granted by the CAA (CivilAviation Authority). It gives comprehen-sive protection from losing money orbeing stranded abroad to people in theUK who buy air holidays and flightsfrom tour operators, consolidators andtravel agents. It is by far the largesttravel protection scheme in the UK, andthe only one for flights and air holidayssold by tour operators. From 8 October2003, a loophole in the regulations wasclosed, so that firms selling package hol-idays on the basis of split contracts wereunable to do so without holding ATOLs.‘Split contract’ sales are arrangementsunder which a holiday company sells aflight (which may be ATOL protected)and accommodation, or other travelproducts such as car hire, under sepa-rate contracts which may be protectedby other means, or even not all. Thissometimes caused financial loss if, forexample, the provider of the flight failedand the customer then either could notfind a replacement flight, or had to pay ahigher price to secure a flight thatenabled them to use the accommoda-tion. In March 2004 the CAA made revo-lutionary proposals recommending thatthe scope of ATOLs be widened toinclude all UK-originating scheduledflights booked direct and paid for inadvance of departure. The proposalswould probably mean a contribution byeach traveller to a protection fund; touroperators might opt for similar pay-ments instead of being bonded as at

present. It has been pointed out that in1996 there were 22.2m VFR (VisitingFriends and Relatives) and holiday trav-ellers, 96% of whom were covered bythe ATOL rules. By 2003, numbers hadrisen to 39.7m but only 69% were ATOLprotected. It is hoped to have new regu-lations in place by 2006. Followingextensive consultation, amended legisla-tion was being considered by the UKParliament at the time of going to press.

All tour operators selling flights andair holidays must hold a licence fromthe CAA. Before it gets a licence eachoperator is examined to ensure it isproperly managed and financiallysound, and it must lodge a bond, whichis a financial guarantee provided by abank or insurance company. If it fails,the CAA then uses the money to pay forpeople abroad to continue their holidaysand to travel home as planned, and tomake refunds to those who have paidbut not travelled. If the bond is notenough, any shortfall is met by the AirTravel Trust Fund, which is managed bythe CAA and backs up the individualbonds.

Over the past 17 years, ATOL hasmanaged over 300 tour operator failures,rescuing almost 190,000 people frombeing stranded and giving refunds tomore than a million others at a total costof £160 million. In the year to March2003, 3,900 people were rescued orrefunded, at a cost of £1.3 million.

There is no equivalent scheme cover-ing sales made directly by airlines. Mostpassengers carried on charter airlinesbuy their tickets through tour operatorsand are protected by ATOL. Passengerscarried on scheduled airlines are notprotected by ATOL unless they buy theseat, perhaps as part of a package, froman ATOL holder.

The ATOL regulations were intro-duced in the UK in 1972. Number oflicensees rose in 1992 to 603, followingthe introduction of the EC inspiredPackage Holiday legislation; there arecurrently 1862 holders. It is required byUK law that all promoters of grouparrangements by air operating in andfrom Britain obtain such a licence fromthe CAA, satisfying them as to theirfinancial stability and providing a bond.Other types of ATOL are for travel

50 ATOC2

agents and air travel consolidators.Licence numbers must be quoted in allliterature and advertisements.

It has already been pointed out thatlicensees must offer a bond, guarantee-ing payment of the sum required in theevent of their failure; this bond is exe-cuted in favour of the Air Travel TrustFund, which authorizes the CAA toadminister use of the bond if necessary.In 2000, the CAA replaced its Air TravelTrust Committee with a new group,the Air Travel Insolvency ProtectionAdvisory Committee (ATIPAC). How-ever, the Air Travel Trust Fund (ATTF)continues. Originally created followingthe Clarksons Group collapse in the1970s as the Air Travel Reserve Fund, itwas established by a levy on holiday-makers. The aim was to provide a per-manent second line of defence, shouldan ATOL holder’s bond be insufficientto cover repayments. Then in the early1990s, following the collapse of theInternational Leisure Group, a payout of£10 million necessitated borrowingmoney; currently (31 March 2004) theATTF is £9.7 million in deficit, guaran-teed by the UK government up to £21million.

Originally, licence numbers were fol-lowed by a letter indicating the type ofactivity for which a licence had beengranted. Now, however, licences autho-rize the holder to engage in all licens-able activities for group air travel,whether on part charter, scheduled orcharter air services.

The three types of licensable activi-ties under ATOL regulations are the pro-vision of seats: on advance bookingcharter flights, for the carriage by air ofpassengers on inclusive tours, for otherforms of air travel. Operators of aircraftare not required to hold an ATOLbecause they already hold an AirTransport Licence, nor are agents of air-lines. Travel agents who act as retailagents of airlines in selling inclusivetour and common interest travelarrangements based on specified indi-vidual or group fares on scheduled ser-vice such as ITX and GIT did notoriginally require a licence. However,now all travel organizers who makeavailable holidays by air in or from theUK, even on scheduled services, do

require a licence. The CAA has devel-oped a new streamlined processes forfirms selling fewer than 500 seats eachyear. ATOLs can now be issued to smallfirms on the basis of protection offeredby third parties. Guidance about this isavailable on the ATOL web sitewww.atol.org.uk or by telephoning020 7453 6361.

A travel organizer, which acts only asan agent of an airline or other licensedtravel organizer in making availableaccommodation to a passenger on anaircraft, does not itself need an ATOL.But a travel organizer which acts as aprincipal in making available accommo-dation, for example, chartering thewhole or part of an aircraft and sellingthe seats to passengers, does need alicence.

Whether a travel organizer acts as aprincipal or agent depends on the con-tractual relationship between the pas-senger, the airline and the travelorganizer. If the travel organizer buysaccommodation from an airline or fromanother licensed travel organizer andmakes it available for example by re-selling it to a passenger, then a licence isneeded. If, on the other hand, tickets forscheduled air services are sold on acommission basis as agent for an airlineor another licensed travel organizer, alicence is not normally required by anIATA-appointed ticket stock-holdingagent. This is providing the tickets or anairline document are issued and givento the customer at the time they pay, inwhole or in part as a deposit. Sub-agents, non-appointed agents and otheragents not holding stocks of blank airtickets are not able to comply with thisrequirement and may need an ATOL.Special arrangements for members ofABTA have been negotiated with theCAA, which are outside the scope ofthis book.

At the time of writing in April 2005,the non-refundable initial applicationfee in the UK for an ATOL for over 500passengers was £730 plus a further £730to be paid on the grant of the licenceand 10.99p for each one-way passengerseat authorized. Annual renewal fee was£250 plus £495 renewal grant charge. Inaddition a passenger charge of 10.99papplies. If organizations expect to carry

ATOL 51

more passengers than originally appliedfor, the licence variation fee is £48 plus£55 on granting of the application andthe usual 10.99p fee per passenger.

ATOLs are only granted if the holderhas entered into an agreement wherebya sum of money, will, in the event of theorganizer’s failure, become available to atrustee for the purpose of repatriatingany stranded passengers and reimburs-ing any clients who have paid in wholeor in part for a flight or holiday that hasnot yet taken place. This is usuallyundertaken by licence holders providinga bond. At one time ABTA member touroperators were in a privileged position,being allowed reduced-rate bonding butin 1985 rates were equalized. ExistingATOL holders must provide a bond of10% of their licensed annual turnover.New applicants for an ATOL must pro-vide a bond of 15%, normally reducingto 10% after 2 years.

UK travel agents, as can be seenfrom this description, often do notneed an ATOL. But they MUST pass onto customers an ATOL holder’s confir-mation and account, on the ATOLholder’s headed notepaper, otherwisethe agent may be liable in the event offailure. In November and May eachyear, the CAA publishes an up-to-date-list of all ATOL holders in its OfficialRecord Series 3. Up-to-date informa-tion and application guidance notes areto be found on their web sitewww.atol.org.uk Detailed statistics onUK tour operating and ATOL licenceholders are available through theDatabase option of the trade informa-tion section of the web site or directwww.atoldata.org.uk/database.htmlThe latest Air Travel Trust report anddetails of failures is accessible throughthe Publications option of the tradeinformation section of the web site.

atomisation Lack of coordination of eco-nomic activities in tourist resorts is thesuggested meaning in the World TourismOrganization and Secretariat of State forTourism of France (2001), Thesaurus onTourism and Leisure Activities.However, the term is not in general usein the English-speaking world, andappears to be limited to France.

ATOP Autofile Tour Operators System isa computerized British tour operators

reservation and accounting systemintroduced in 1982. It is the UK marketleader.

ATP1 Accredited Travel Professional inthe UK. See entry under this heading.

ATP2 Advanced turboprop. See jet air-craft engine.

ATP3 Automatic train protection. SeeATC6 (Automatic train control).

ATPCO The Air Tariff PublishingCompany which publishes the DomesticGeneral Rules Tariff in the USA, themain rule book guiding US air travelpublished on behalf of US airlines.ATPCO claims to be the world’s biggestdistributor of air fare data. Many airlinesare considering filing all their faresthrough ATPCO; within the currency ofthis dictionary their data will probablyhave become the best single source ofthis and similar information. Seewww.atpco.net

ATRF Air Travel Reserve Fund in the UK,which became the Air Travel Trust in1986. Organizers of group air travelmust have an Air Travel Organizers’Licence, which involves a substantialbond enabling the public to be protectedagainst financial failure of the operator.If this bond should prove insufficient,the public is further protected againstloss of their money by the ATRF.Originally all holders of an ATOL wererequired to contribute 2% of theirturnover to the fund. It was set up in theUK after the Court Line failure in 1974.Early in 1985 it was decided to wind upthe administrative body which con-trolled the fund, the Air Travel ReserveFund Agency and to transfer the fund tothe Civil Aviation Authority to adminis-ter it on a trustee basis as the Air TravelTrust. See ATT (Air Travel Trust), ATOL,ATIPAC and bond.

atrium A substantial, enclosed, coveredarea inside a building or ship; some-times naturally lit through a glass roof.In some modern multi-storey hotels theatrium may extend from the groundfloor reception to the top floor and insome ships, through from the top tobottom deck. On Royal CaribbeanInternational vessels, it is called acentrum.

atrium cabin cabin on a cruise ship witha window or porthole overlooking aninside atrium.

52 atomisation

ATRM Airport Terminal ReferenceManual, an IATA publication.

ATS1 Adventure Travel Society in theUSA. See www.adventuretravel.com

ATS2 Agents Ticketing System, which issoftware for a PC enabling UK travelagents to produce British Rail ticketsand to capture ticket details for accountspurposes.

ATS3 Air traffic services.ATS4 American Tourism Society.ATS5 Automatic train supervision.ATSB See Air Transportation Stabilization

Board.ATSORA Air traffic service outside regu-

lated airspace.ATSU Air traffic service unit.ATT Air Travel Trust in the UK.

Following the Court Line/Clarksons fail-ure in the UK in 1974; the Air TravelReserve Fund was set up the followingyear by a 2% levy on package holidaybookings. This enabled holidaymakersto be compensated in the event of com-pany failure and that operator’s ATOLbond being insufficient. At the begin-ning of 1986, the ATT was establishedto take over the assets and responsibili-ties of the ATRF. The funds wereexhausted by summer 1996 and the UKgovernment guaranteed the ATT to theextent of £21 million. The ATT accountsto end March 2004 showed an accumu-lated deficit of £9.7 million. The ATTtrustees were supported and advised bythe Air Travel Trust Committee. Thiswas reconstituted in April 2000, itsterms of reference widened andrenamed the Air Travel InsolvencyProtection Advisory Committee (ATI-PAC). The latest Air Travel Trust reportand details of failures are accessiblethrough the Publications option of thetrade information section of the ATOLweb site www.atol.org.uk See ATOL,ATRF and bond.

ATTA1 Africa Travel and TourismAssociation in the UK. Seewww.atta.co.uk

ATTA2 The Association of Travel andTourist Agents in Singapore.

Attache and Royal Canadian Class Brandname given by CP Air to passenger areaimmediately adjacent to first class, wherepassengers paying full economy faresenjoy improved service and facilities. Seebusiness class for full details.

ATTC1 The Association of Travel TradesClubs is the national organization ofover 40 UK Travel Trade Clubs. Similarclubs exist worldwide, the membersbeing all levels of employees in thetravel and tourism industry.

ATTC2 Air Travel Trust Committee of theUK CAA, replaced in August 2000 byATIPAC. See ATIPAC and ATOL.

ATTF Air Travel Trust Fund. See ATOL.ATTITB Air Transport and Travel

Industry Training Board in the UK. Wasone of the many Industrial TrainingBoards by the Manpower ServicesCommission, responsible for UK indus-try training, except for Northern Ireland.Upon its demise in 1982, some of itsmain functions as far as agents and touroperators are concerned, were assumedby the ABTA National Training Board.This was designated as a non-statutorygovernment-approved training authorityand was funded by ABTA. This wasthen reformed into an ABTA subsidiary,TTTC (The Travel Training Company)with no statutory or other non-commer-cial responsibilities. The Travel Tourismand Events National Training Organ-ization (TTENTO), which receivedgovernment approval at the end of 1998,was the voluntary body responsible togovernment for education and trainingin its sector in the UK. In autumn 2002TTENTO amalgamated with the Hos-pitality Training Foundation and the newbody, People 1st, became one of the UKgovernment’s Sector Skills Councils.

attractions Things or activities whichattract tourists, for example, the CNTower in Toronto, the tallest man-madefree-standing structure, to be contrastedwith the great natural attraction NiagaraFalls. See theme parks also sightseeingin Britain.

attractor An important (or the mostimportant) tourist attraction in a locality,area or region. Word has only its ordi-nary language meaning outside the USA.

ATTT Association of Teachers andTrainers of Tourism in the UK was origi-nally founded in 1975 as the ATT – anindependent body, becoming a sectionof the Tourism Society in 1981. Mem-bership includes most British tourismteachers as well as those involved ingeneral travel industry teaching andtraining. Also see ATHE and LTSN.

ATTT 53

ATZ Air Traffic Zone.AUAVI Asociación Uruguaya des

Agencias de Viajes Internacionales, theUruguayan national travel agency orga-nization.

auberge A countryside hotel or inn in aFrench-speaking country.

AUC Air Transport User’s Council in theUK. See www.auc.org.uk

audioguide Hand-held device with soundvolume control providing informationfrom an audio tape when activated byvisitors to museums, heritage sites orother places of tourism interest.

audit coupon All multi-part travel tick-ets, regardless of the mode of transportinvolved, have travel coupons which arecollected from the passenger when thejourney is undertaken, and an auditcoupon, used for accounting purposes.Most tickets also have an issuing officecopy and passenger coupon. The auditcopy is usually the top coupon, makingit more difficult to alter the carboncopies for fraudulent purposes. Auditcoupons are usually attached to a travelagent’s sales returns so that their accu-racy may be verified.

AUKDA Association of UK DomesticAirlines.

Australian Business Access CardObsolete; replaced in July 2000 withShort Business Electronic TravelAuthority. See ETAS.

Australian Federation of Travel Agents(AFTA2) See www.afta.com.au

Australian Tourist Commission Seewww.australia.com or www.atc.australia.com

Austrian Bundesnetzkarten Known inEnglish-speaking countries as AustrianGeneral Season Tickets, they entitle theholder to unlimited rail travel in first orsecond class over the lines of AustrianFederal Railways, as well as reducedfares on certain shipping services. Pricesvary according to standard validitylengths of 9 or 16 days or 1 month anddependent upon class and whether theseason ticket is for an adult or child. Asimilar Austria Ticket is available tothose aged between 6 and 25 yearsinclusive, giving unlimited travel in sec-ond class and certain other facilities,priced between adult and child generalseason ticket rates.

Austrian National Tourist Office Seewww.austria.info

Austrian National Travel Agency Organ-ization Osterreichischer ReiseburoVerband.

Auto Drop PNR The US term for a trav-eller’s flight booking which is automati-cally re-presented to an agent or anairline clerk for action to be taken. Forexample, when a booking made a longtime before is to be ticketed, or when arequested flight on a waiting listbecomes available.

autobahn German equivalent of motor-way in UK, freeway or expressway inNorth America.

Autobook Name of UK AT&T Istel’s PC-based viewdata system for travel agents.

autocue Presentation of a speaker’s scriptso that it is moving forward and visibleonly to the speaker. Older forms wereusually projection on to the lectern butcomputerized systems are now usingLCD displays.

autodial The ability to dial a telephonenumber automatically. Telephone com-panies worldwide make or rent devicesof this nature, enabling access and auto-matic dialling of hundreds of numberswith the most sophisticated equipment.Computers are programmed with thetelephone number of their Internet ser-vice provider so that, upon users select-ing this service, the computer autodialsand establishes a connection.

autogyro Word sometimes mistakenlyused as an alternative to ‘helicopter’.Autogyro was originally a trade namefor a flying machine where the wingswere similar to a windmill, but rotatingfreely rather than being powered, as in atrue helicopter.

automated The term that indicates com-puterization of any activity. For exampleautomated travel agency accounting,automated airline ticketing, automatedreservation systems. See informationtechnology in travel and tourism.

automated air reservation systems fortravel agents See CRS.

automated air tickets Computer-pro-duced air tickets can either be singledocuments, necessitating individualinsertion into a ticket printer, or ticketson a continuous roll, remaining in theprinter throughout the working day,

54 ATZ

each ticket being torn off after produc-tion. Automated Tickets and Boardingpasses (ATBs) are usually producedfrom hoppers of blank cards.

Each of these types of ticket can beeither dedicated to a particular airline orneutral, the airline’s name being printedat time of issue. Some automated ticketsare pre-printed with document num-bers, with or without a bar code orbull’s-eye to enable machine recognitionof the ticket number. Alternatively,ticket numbers can be printed at thetime of ticket issue. IATA has set an end2007 deadline for paper tickets to finish,so that within the currency of this dic-tionary, much of this entry may becomehistory. See also ATB and ATB2, auto-mated ticket, bar code, bull’s-eye, com-puter airline ticket, OCR, OPTAT,OPATB2, TAT, teletype air ticket andticket (main entry).

Automated Guideway Transit See AGT.Automated Neutral Ticketing Scheme A

scheme which enables an agent withautomated ticketing equipment to issueneutral tickets on behalf of airlines par-ticipating in that scheme.

Automated Revenue Collection (ARC)See ARC2.

automated ticket Official IATA definitionis any form of passenger ticket and bag-gage check described in IATAResolutions 722 and 722a, and Recom-mended Practice 1722c, designed forissue in various ticket printing devices forwhich data may be computer generated.

automated ticket and boarding pass SeeATB.

Automated Ticketing Services AgreementAn agreement between airlines whichallows a servicing airline to issue neu-tral tickets on behalf of itself and a num-ber of other airlines.

automatic guide A device providinginformation to tourists. In some largebuildings, this is achieved by radiobroadcasts which can only be receivedin a particular area. Static displays, inmuseums or similar places, often haverecorded sound or video descriptions ofexhibits, activated on the visitor’sinstructions. Guides in the form ofaudio tapes give directions for tours onfoot or by car around interesting placesall over the world, whether a tripthrough a nature reserve or around aworld-famous art gallery.

automatic train control See ATC6.automation in the travel industry – some

books In the UK, at the time of writ-ing, the standard works on this topicare: Electronic Information Distributionin Tourism and Hospitality by PeterO’Connor, CAB International; Infor-mation Technology for Travel andTourism by Gary Inkpen, 2nd edn,Longman. Concerning travel agencyautomation, readers seeking informationon the historical development shouldconsult Mind Your Own TravelBusiness, by Allan Beaver, 3rd edn,Beaver Travel Publishers. This replacedAgency Layout Design and Equipmentby Allan Beaver, published by ABTANational Training Board in June 1989,designed to complement the 1989 2ndedn of the ABTA TechnologyCommittee’s Survey of ComputerSystems Available in the UK for TravelAgents. In the USA, Complete Guide toTravel Agency Automation, by N.Godwin, published by Delmar in 1987,gave good coverage of the subject. Seetravel agents’ computerized accountingand ticketing systems in the UK.

Automobile Association See AA5.automobile clubs Organizations such as

the Automobile Association and RoyalAutomobile Club in the UK and theAmerican Automobile Association inNorth America, which provide substan-tial services to car owners, the most wellknown being repair or recovery servicesfollowing breakdown or accident. Theseclubs are of the nature of huge insuranceschemes, since the costs of an unfortunateemergency sustained by one member arecovered by the subscriptions of all themembers. Itinerary and route planningand the provision of travel tickets are alsooffered by the clubs mentioned.

autopilot The computer system and asso-ciated mechanics that can control an air-craft automatically; in fog, at someairports, an assisted landing andapproach system can take over controlof an aircraft and land it safely.

autoqueue See queue.autoroute French equivalent of motorway

in UK, freeway or expressway in NorthAmerica.

autostrada Italian equivalent of motorwayin UK, freeway or expressway in NorthAmerica.

autostrada 55

AUW All up weight (aviation term).availability Travel or tourism services

which are unsold, and therefore ‘avail-able’ for sale. Hence, an ‘availability dis-play’ is a computerized reservationsystem screen of information, generatedby the system, showing unsold serviceswhich can be booked immediately.

available seat kilometres See ASK.available seat miles See ASM.available tonne kilometres See ATK.avalanche warning An avalanche starts

off as loose snow which becomesdetached on a slope. As it gatherspace, ice, earth, rocks and trees arecarried down. In ski resorts, skiers arewarned when conditions are danger-ous; explosions are detonated to causesmall, less dangerous avalanches. Off-piste skiers ignoring warnings cancause avalanches.

AVE Name of Spanish high-speed trains(it is not an acronym; it means ‘bird’ in Spanish). For example, betweenMadrid and Seville, the route iscovered in less than 3 h at speeds of upto 250 kph. Eight coaches are carried,divided into three classes, first, cluband tourist.

average Two meanings – in normalusage, an average is a mean of a numberof figures. For example, the average rain-fall, humidity or temperature for amonth in a particular place is a mean ofall the daily figures.

Average is also insurance terminol-ogy for the process by which aninsurer assesses how much to pay toan under-insured claimant. Assume acustomer has a travel insurance policyoffering cover under baggage loss of£500. Now assume that the luggagewas really of a value of £1000. Thismeans that there was only insurancefor one half of the real value. In theevent of a complete loss, this may nothave any more significance than theclaim being limited to £500, althoughin some cases it might have the effectof voiding the whole insurance. Ifhowever, only part of the contents arelost, say for easy calculation half, thenalthough the customer has lost £500value, identical to the amount insured,the insurer will according to the prin-ciple of average, only be liable to pay

the equivalent of half the sum insured,in this case £250.

average air passenger weight See air pas-senger average weights.

average room rate See hotel statisticsworldwide for average rates and pricingof hotel rooms for calculation methodsand rate management techniques.

average yield See yield.AVGAS Aviation fuel (gasoline).Aviation Consumer Action Project See

ACAP and www.acap1971.org Aviation Environment Federation See

www.aef.org.uk aviation fuel Turbine jet engines usually

use paraffin, known in other countriesas kerosene. Piston engined planes needa very high octane petrol.

aviation on the Internet See air travel onthe Internet.

aviation safety See airline safety.Aviation Security Charge See ASC4.Aviation Trust Fund See ATF.Avis reservation system See Wizard.AVM Airborne vibration monitoring.AVN Aviation (not generally used – only

one usage of abbreviation identified).AVNET A joint ATA2 and IATA project to

develop EDI messages suitable for use intransactions between airlines and com-panies involved in the supply and/ordistribution of aviation fuel and relatedproducts and services.

AVOSS Aircraft Vortex Spacing System.AVS1 Address verification system; when

a provider of travel services accepts pay-ment by credit card and the cardholderis not present, through AVS, the addresssupplied can be checked. In a high pro-portion of attempted credit card fraud,the correct cardholder address isunknown.

AVS2 Availability status; a type of mes-sage exchanged constantly between air-line reservation systems.

AWB Air waybill. See air waybill.AWTE See Association of Women Travel

Executives.AWY Airway (not generally used – only

one usage of abbreviation identified).AXESS Name of JAL’s CRS.AXO Agent’s Exchange Order. Term-

inology in general travel usage althoughpreviously applied exclusively toBritish Airways document utilized byagents to obtain tickets they did notthemselves stock or to enable a traveller

56 AUW

Azerbaijan Ministry of Youth Sport and Tourism 57

to obtain a ticket on departure at an air-port. Replaced April 1980 by ADO –Agent’s Debit Order. Upon the introduc-tion of BSP in autumn 1984, agents wereinstructed to use MCOs instead.

AYTO Association of Yugoslav TravelOrganizations (until 1991).

Azerbaijan Ministry of Youth Sport andTourism See www.tourism.az andwww.myst.gov.az