What Fare Filing means
A filed fare is more than a price. The airline also files the fare's rules, footnotes that restrict travel or sales dates, and routings that set which paths the fare may be used on. Rules are organised into numbered categories that act as a common grammar: Category 1 covers eligibility, Category 2 day and time restrictions, and Category 3 seasonality, with further categories covering conditions such as stays and penalties. The fare basis code ties a priced ticket back to the filed fare and its rules.
Historically there were two collection points. Travelport describes ATPCO and SITA as single points of collection where airlines filed fares and pricing data that were then sent electronically to the GDS. In January 2021 ATPCO took over SITA's Airfare Insight fare management system, and SITA users moved to ATPCO's Architect tool, leaving ATPCO as the main filing route.
Airlines can file public fares that any seller can see and private fares limited to specific agencies or corporate customers. Volumes are large: ATPCO reports 17.6 million fare and rule changes a day (as of 2026).
Filing is the foundation of traditional distribution. In offer-based retailing, airlines price in real time through NDC instead, although many still use filed fares as an input.
How Fare Filing works
A typical fare change moves from the airline's pricing team to every selling system in a defined sequence.
- Decide the pricing actionPricing and revenue management teams decide to launch, match or withdraw fares in specific markets.
- Build the fare recordsAnalysts set fare amounts, origin and destination, fare basis codes and booking classes, then code the rule categories, footnotes and routings.
- Submit to the distributorThe airline files the data with ATPCO, usually through its fare management tools, with effective and discontinue dates.
- Validate and distributeATPCO validates and processes the data and sends updates to GDSs, OTAs and other subscribers.
- Price and auditSelling systems price tickets with the new data, and the airline checks that fares price as intended in each channel.
Fare Filing in practice
Illustrative filing: an airline files an economy fare between Karachi and Dubai with fare basis VLOWPK. The record holds the fare amount and currency, the booking class V, a routing allowing only nonstop travel, a rule requiring 14-day advance purchase and a footnote limiting sales to the next 30 days.
Once distributed, any GDS agent quoting a V-class seat on that route prices it at the filed amount. When the sales date in the footnote expires, the fare stops pricing, even though the seats remain in inventory for other fares.
Industry consolidation: SITA's Airfare Insight users, including Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Virgin Atlantic and Xiamen Air, agreed to move to ATPCO after the deal closed on 1 January 2021.
Who uses it
Advantages and limitations
Advantages
- Filed fares price the same way across all subscribing systems, which supports fair comparison between airlines.
- Standard rule categories let agents and systems interpret conditions consistently.
- Airlines can change prices in many markets at once through a single distributor.
Limitations
- Filed fares are fixed price points, which limits real-time, personalised pricing.
- Rule coding is complex, and filing errors can produce wrong prices that are hard to unwind once tickets are issued.
- Fares not filed, such as many LCC and NDC-only offers, are invisible to systems that rely only on filed data.
Frequently asked questions about Fare Filing
Where do airlines file their fares?
Most airlines file fares with ATPCO, the airline-owned fare distributor. SITA historically offered a second filing route, but ATPCO acquired SITA's Airfare Insight fare management system in January 2021 and its users moved to ATPCO's tools. ATPCO then distributes the data to GDSs, online travel agencies and other subscribers.
How quickly do filed fares reach travel agents?
Filed fare changes are processed and distributed to subscribers on a regular schedule, and urgent filings can move faster, but the exact timing depends on ATPCO's processing and each GDS's loading cycle. Agents may see a short gap between an airline announcing a sale and the fare pricing in their system.
What is the difference between a filed fare and an NDC offer?
A filed fare is published in advance with fixed rules, and the GDS calculates the price from that data and availability. An NDC offer is built by the airline in real time for a specific request and can include bundles and extras. Many airlines use both during the move to offers and orders.
Can airlines file fares for only one travel agency?
Yes. Airlines can file private fares restricted to particular agencies, consolidators or corporate accounts, so only authorised sellers can see and price them. Access is usually controlled by agency identifiers, such as a pseudo city code, within the GDS.
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