Available seat miles

One seat, occupied or not, moved on mile. Used as a measure of airline capacity.

Charter

To lease an aircraft or other mode of transport for the use of a group.

CRS

Computer Reservation System. Any of several proprietary computer systems allowing real-time access to airline fare, schedules, and seating availability and offering the capability of booking reservations and generating tickets.

Destination Management Company

A local company that handles arrangements for tours, meetings, transportation, etc, for groups originating elsewhere.

Fam trip

Familiarization trip for travel agents and others to educate them about a destination

FIT (Foreign independent tour)

Familiarization trip for travel agents and others to educate them about a destination.

GDS

Global distribution system. A computer reservation system (CRS), typically owned joingly by airlines in different countries, that includes reservation databases of suppliers in many countries.

High season

Time of year at any destination when tourist traffic and (usually) rates are highest.

Leisure travel

Travel undertaken for pleasure, as opposed to business travel. Often used to indicate a trip of seven days or longer, regaradless of its purpose.

Load factor

The percentage of available space on a plane or other mode of transportation that has been sold to date.

Open jaw

Fly into one city and take a return flight or depart for an additional leg of the trip out of another city.

Tarmac

The paved area of an airport.

Taxi

To drive an airplane on the ground.

Tour

A journey for business, pleasure or education in which one returns to the starting point.

Tour Operator

A company that assembles the various elements of a tour.

Vertical integration

Combination within a single enterprise of various stages of a production process or of various production processes, of which one is ancillary to the others.

Yield management

The practice of adjusting prices up or down in response to demand in order to control yield.