SIS & RA Break-out Sessions - IATA

Multilateral Option for 

Simplified Settlement in Case 

of Involuntary Rerouting 

Harold Schwart 

Project Leader-Revenue Accounting 

Delta Air Lines

Background 

Many airlines expressed interest to simplify settlement in case of 

involuntary rerouting at RA46 

The infrastructure using ATPCO, NFP, and ACH, as administrator, 

currently exists and is easily expanded for global reach 

ACH Participants have successfully employed this process for over 25 

years 

AA, AC, AS, DL, F9, UA and US have endorsed the concept and have 

committed to participation 

10 IATA airlines have reviewed test files earlier this year 

AC, AF, AS, DL, KE, KL, NZ, QF, OA, TK 

Draft of the Multilateral Agreement has been completed 

ACH Agreement extended to include international environment 

ISW2: Simplified Settlement in Case of 

Involuntary Rerouting 

2

Objective 

 

 

 

 

 

Simplify the settlement process for involuntary reroutes 

Participation is voluntary 

Multilateral agreement, bilateral application 

Keep costs low 

Submission/authorization to use sales data is optional 



3

Benefits 

Supports intent of IATA Reso 735d and 735e 

Eliminates process to find and apply “applicable fare” 

Many airlines have stated involuntary rerouting represents 30-50% of 

monthly rejection volumes 

Eliminates lengthy rejection/correspondence stages 

Reduces costs for interline audit 

Reduces prior period revenue adjustments 

Internal customers receive accurate flown revenue data 

Potential to replace/improve/simplify existing bilateral agreements 

Reduced rejections = reduced SIS transaction fees 



4

Process 

Daily ISR/TCN for participating airlines is filtered by ATPCO to 

eliminate: 

Non-passenger type tickets as instructed by airlines 

Zero fare tickets 

Infants and Child (based on ticket designator) 

Reissued tickets 

Non Revenue/Industry Discounted tickets (ID, AD, ZED) 

Filtered ISR/TCN file for each participating (issuing) airline is sent to 

Accelya (NFP) daily 

Authorization to submit sales in the process is voluntary and optional 

The file contains IT/BT/unpublished fares if fare field (FNUM) reflects a 

value >$0.00 



5

Process 

The NFP extracts 1% sample for proration based on IATA sample digit 

NFP prorates the sales 

MPA proration, including provisos, applies 

YQ/YR is excluded 

Normal MPA procedure shall apply to Q surcharges shown in the Fare 

Calculation Area 

Prorate results for each coupon are assigned to one of ten geographical 

regions based on the coupon’s geography 

ATBP: OSL-AMS-HKG-TYO 

OSL-AMS = Region Within TC2 

AMS-HKG = Region TC2-TC3 

HKG-TYO = Region Within TC3 



6

Process 

10 Regions are: 

Within North America 

Within TC 1 (Exc. North America) 

Between North America and TC1 

North America and Southwest Pacific 

Transatlantic 

Within Area TC 2 

Transpacific 

Within TC 3 

Between TC 2 and TC 3 

Other 

Example: 

Ticket: LAX DEN FRA 

LAX DEN – Within North America 

DEN FRA - Transatlantic 



7

Process 

The IATA Weighted Mileage Factor is determined based on the O&D of 

the each coupon 

The sum of all prorate values are compared to the sum of all Factors, 

by issuing airline, for each geographical region to derive a % of prorate 

value to Factor 

Airlines with less than 50 transactions in the geographical region are 

excluded from the calculation 



8

Process – Results by Region 

Survey 

Participant 

No. of 

Coupons 

Original Segment Coupon Values 

of WM Coupons (in USD) 

Segment Weighted 

Mileage Factors 

Rate (%) 

Prorate/WMF 

AC 804 131,155.64 1,317,886 9.95% 

AF 28,880 4,786,491.00 36,979,833 12.94% 

DL 3,285 537,293.37 5,615,687 9.57% 

KE 10 991.03 9,342 

KL 14,746 1,779,510.88 19,438,279 9.15% 

NZ 30 4,640.19 53,157 

OA 376 26,160.77 213,275 12.27% 

QF 398 121,558.62 1,287,644 9.44% 

TK 14,168 1,909,295.88 24,010,600 7.95% 

Total 9,291,466 

Excluded due less than 50 coupons 

88,863,204 10.45% 



9

Process – Summary of Rates 

Inv 

Month 

Within 

NA 

Within 

TC 1 

Excl NA 

NA-TC1 

NA- 

SWP 

TA 

Within 

TC2 

TC1- 

TC3 

Excl 

SWP 

Within 

TC3 

TC2-TC3 

Other 

Apr-14 12% 13% 14% 15% 15% 10% 9% 8% 7% 6% 

May-14 

Note: Rates noted above are for display purposes only 



10

Process 

The resulting % of the IATA Weighted Mileage Factor is the rate to be 

applied in the following month for interline settlement 

March sales will determine rate applicable to May transactions 

Rates are rounded: 10.45% rounded to 10% for application 

Rates are distributed to multilateral participants no later than the 15 th of 

each month for application the following month 

Published to website is envisioned 

Prorate files are available upon request but only for your ticket stock 



11

How to Apply Internally 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prorate systems will be coded similar to SPAs to apply rates for each 

region 

Prorates are calculated on your ticket stock with sector on 

participating other airline 

Prorates are calculated for participating other airline ticket stock with 

sector on your airline 

Rates are updated monthly 

Applicable rate is determined based on ticket issue date 

For FIMs the applicable rate is determined based on invoice month 



12

How to Apply Internally 

Process applies to tickets issued in accordance with IATA Reso 735d 

(involuntary rerouting) and to FIMs issued in accordance with Reso 

735e 

The process provides prorate value only. TFCs and ISC are applicable 

in accordance with standard industry procedures 

The rate x Weighted Mileage Factor (prorate factor) = the prorate value 

to be settled 

The settlement value is not discounted for passenger type 

In case of FIMs the settlement rate applies per passenger 

Bilateral settlement agreements will supersede this agreement and 

should be considered when coding your system 



13

Getting Started 

Review the Agreement 

Partner with your Commercial team 

Identify and engage your partners for greatest benefit with simplification 

Compare participating carriers to your interline volumes 

Express your interest to IATA Mgr. RA and ACH 

Determine if you will supply sales data 

Code and test your prorate system 

Run parallel vs. in-house results 

Determine your start date and sign participation agreement 



14

Dates to Remember 

Launch Dates 

January 1, 2014 – may sign the Multilateral Agreement 

April 1, 2014 – may authorize ISR data (sales) to be used 

June 1, 2014 – may enter into concurrence with other parties 

ISW2: Meeting and Name of Presentation 

15

Questions 



16

Thank you for your Participation! 

Harold Schwart 

Harold.Schwart@delta.com 

delaneyt@iata.org 

Ltully@airlines.org 


17

IATA/ATPCO Monthly TTBS 

The Future of Tax Billings 

Antoinette Nelson 

David Smith 

Air New Zealand 

ATPCO

Interline Billing of TFCs 

(Taxes, Fees, Charges, 

Commonly referred to as “Taxes”) 

RATD 

(Revenue Accounting Tax Database) 

or 

TTBS 

(Ticket Tax Box Service) 

ISW2: IATA/ATPCO Monthly TTBS 

19

Business Schedule 

Part 1: 

How did we get to where we are today? 

Part 2: 

Solution for the future 


20

Background 

RA Vision Group Project 

Mandate: To simplify interline tax billings 

2003 RATD was introduced 

Extract from TTBS 

Database for interlineable taxes only 


21

Simplifications in the RATD 

Single Source for Interline Tax Billings 

Only contains Interlineable Taxes 

“Access” format online 

Downloadable XML format 


22

Advantages 

Simple determination of tax amount to be billed 

Single amount for a given sector/class 

No carrier-specific taxes 

Differences on same tax for different airlines were minimal and acceptable 

No carrier exemptions 


23

Disadvantages 

Access database mainly useful for manual determination of billable 

taxes 

XML database contains too much free text for auto downloading 

Costly for IATA to maintain two separate databases 


24

…as time went on… 

TFC filings became “creative” and complex 

More and more “undeterminable” taxes 

Passport holders of a certain country 

Children up to the age of 14, infants up to the age of 4 

Visiting heads of government 

Passengers remaining airside 

Airline staff travelling in uniform 

Etc. 


25

…as time went on… 

Carrier-specific tax amounts started to vary significantly between 

carriers in some markets 

Carrier conditions and exemptions included in comment field 

IATA tax filing criteria was relaxed 


26

What’s the situation? 

Tickets priced based on TTBS 

Interline bills based on summarized and simplified monthly file, the 

RATD 

This results in settlement not matching the taxes collected 

Higher manual processing costs 

Lack of automated data 

Significant revenue impact for some airlines purely based on location 


27

Problems: “Undeterminable” Taxes 

Additional manual work by airlines to determine why the ticketed 

amount was different from the billed amount 

Mainly manual decision what the correct TFC amount is 

Default TFC application 

Depending on carrier’s interpretation 


28

Problems: Carrier Exceptions 

Carrier Exceptions 

Lack of automated data 

Shown in “Comment” field 

Filed by government authorities 

Filed by airlines 

Filed by authorities 


29

Problems: Carrier-Specific Taxes 

High revenue impact 

Gap between TFCs collected and official amounts widens 

Official amount is billed, irrespective of amount collected 

Always the same carrier absorbs loss or gain 


30


Example: Under Collection 

Carrier-Specific TFC 

collected on ticket 

Official Amount in 

RATD Billed by the 

uplifting carrier 

Loss to ticketing 

airline 

$ 7.75 $15.23 $7.48 

One carrier lost USD 78,000/year on one TFC code alone! 

Geographic location can mean that certain carriers are always 

disadvantaged as the first international, and therefore generally the 

ticketing, carrier 


31


Example: Over Collection 

Official Amount in 

Carrier Specific TFC 

Loss to uplifting 

RATD Billed by the 

collected on ticket 

carrier 

uplifting carrier 

Tax authorities 

$ 12.00 

require the 

$9.80 

correct amount to be 

$2.20 

paid 


32

The RATD: the story so far 

Various papers submitted to the RA over the years: 

RA 43 – Ignore Carrier information in Comment Field 

Passed 

RA 44 – Allow Carrier Exemptions in RATD 

Passed 

Only selected exemptions authorized in published legislation can be included in the RATD, exemption 

code CE 


33

The RATD: the story so far 

Various papers submitted to the RA 

RA 44 – Include Carrier-Specific TFCs in RATD 

Failed 

RA 46 – Again Proposal to include Carrier-Specific TFCs in RATD 

Failed narrowly 


34

The TTBS: The story so far 

IATA TTBS 

Repository for government and taxing authority taxes, fees, and charges 

After August 2014, no further carrier exceptions will be included 

Changing focus for TTBS 

Itinerary taxes, Official amounts, Cleaner 

IATA/ATPCO Tax Product Strengths 

IATA’s tax governance and provision of TTBS 

ATPCO’s data application and provision of cleaner, more automated data 

Launched in 2010 

All TTBS data for taxes 

Carrier exceptions instructed directly to ATPCO 

Economies of scale for distributing Service Fee tax information 

Consistency across all systems and all processes 


35

Tax Working Group 

Representatives from 

OZ 

Kyeong Seo Kim (1 st Chair), So Young Choi, Ji Yeon Kim 

NZ 

Antoinette Nelson (2 nd Chair) 

EK 

Shankar Shanbhog 

KL 

Frans van Schie, Nick Westerveld, Robert Lieverse 

QF 

Stefanus Ari, Ian Alfred 

S7 

Alexei Kalashnikov, Ekaterina Koroleva, Ekaterina Osipenko 

IATA David McEwen, Terry Delaney 

ATPCO David Smith, Ginnette Harmon 


36

Approach 

Initial Approach 

Establish new RATD incorporating carrier-specific taxes 

Design fully automated and downloadable TFC Billing Database 

Light bulb moment 

Use a version of monthly TTBS (all exemptions and carrier exceptions) for 

TFC billings 


37

Meeting at ATPCO 

Explained issues carriers experience with the current RATD 

ATPCO introduced the new tax product they created with IATA 

Suitability of this product for Revenue Accounting 

One database for both sales and billing 


38

. . . and . . . 


39

We have a new 

PROPOSAL PAPER... 


40

Using simplified tax data 

was necessary, but 

more airline exceptions 

and complex tax rules 

cause airlines to 

lose revenue

Envisaged Solution 


Fully automated data with text version 

Managed by IATA, ATPCO, and an airline working group 

Data application 

Implementation 

Communication 


42


Revenue accounting data based on comprehensive tax information 

All carrier exceptions 

All pricing exemptions instructed by governments 

Monthly snapshot for ease of revenue accounting interline processing 

Subscriptions file sent monthly for systems 

Manual version distributed to support non-automated processes 

Reconciliation to automated pricing data (same source) 

Not implemented until 1 March 2015 to give systems and airlines time 

to work through the changes 


43


IATA 

TTBS 

IATA validated 

official 

amounts 

ATPCO 

Taxes 

IATA/ATPCO 

Monthly 

TTBS 

Interline Billing and 

Audit Systems 

Shopping Systems 

Carrier 

specified 

amounts and 

exceptions 

Sales Audit Systems 

Pricing Systems 


44

Pros 

Cons 

 

Removes revenue impact of 

Exemptions used in pricing not 

being used in revenue accounting 

Different rates used for settlement 

and pricing 

 

RA systems will need to be 

enhanced to handle automated 

feeds of multiple tax rates and 

more exemptions 

 

Reduces manual costs 

 

Speedy development by reusing the 

best of existing formats from ATPCO 

and IATA 

 

Fully automated process comes from a 

100% data-driven solution 


45

In Summary 

IATA/ATPCO Monthly TTBS will be the single source 

Eliminates discrepancies 

Two formats: automated and manually readable 

All carrier exceptions and all exemptions used in pricing 

Implementation (1 March 2015) 

The RATD will be retired 

Systems will need to be ready to process the new data 


46

Related news items for thoughts 

Taxes on services for interline billing 

IATA migration of carrier specified amounts to ATPCO 


47

Please consider voting for 


at the General Meeting 

Agenda item P2 


48

Thank you to our coffee 

break Sponsor

Improvement Opportunities in 

Interline Billing and 

Settlement 

Matt Holden 

RAWG

Last year we discussed 

SIS billings rejected outside SIS 

Habitual billing at default full fare 

Incorrect migration of billings into SIS 

Bills outside time limits without prior consent 

Lazy rejection texts 

"..reject prorate difference“

SIS billings rejected outside SIS 

ICH closed to non-SIS debits in April 2013 

Habitual billing at default full fare 

Observe RAM A2 1.1.1 and A2 3 

Many systems can automate this 

Existing rules are clear, SIS does not play a role 

Use E-ticket data to identify fare and value 

Communicate – consider SPA

Incorrect migration of billings into SIS 

Since Mar-P4 2013 SIS offers optional validations 

% of invoices failing validation: 

April 2013 – 9.91% June 2013 – 7.87% 

Bills outside time limits without prior consent 

Time limits are detailed in RAM A10 5.1 

Use IS-validation flags and reason code 2D

Lazy rejection texts "..reject prorate difference” 

Last year we discussed: 

Satisfy RAM A10 paragraph 2.3 

Use SFI 43 SIS Prorate Slip, use supporting documents 

Use SIS Rejection Reason codes 

Tell the carrier what they have done….. Educate them 

Guaranteed to get you a rejection right back.

Lazy rejection texts "..reject prorate difference" cont… 

The Prorate slip is available to all carriers. Its use should be 

promoted 

Billing Month RM Count RM Prorate Slip Count Prorate Slip % 

Aug ’12 845,329 435,647 52% 

Sep ’12 993,754 544,801 55% 

Oct ’12 939,382 488,452 52% 

Nov ’12 983,715 544,910 55% 

Dec’12 899,001 454,347 51% 

Jan ’13 1,024,279 487,783 48% 

Feb ’13 940,037 460,637 49% 

Mar ’13 998,689 484,780 49% 

Apr ’13 1,010,902 502,402 50% 

May ’13 1,057,149 513,645 49% 

Jun ’13 1,038,012 459,824 44% 

Jul ’13 1,028,560 454,008 44% 

Total 11,758,809 5,831,236 50%


The Prorate slip is easy to find in 

all rejection memo coupon 

breakdowns


The acceptable standard is in RAM A10 2.3 – particularly 2 nd & 3 rd stage 

Prorate slip uses “system friendly” 80 characters width. 

Can “Paste” into IS-Web pop-up or create an SFI 43 file. 

Reduces risk of a rejection back to you. 

Look in ISPG 9.2.1 page 191 for example and details 

Asking for ticket image at 2 nd stage rejection – billing carrier has full E-tkt 

details

New practices seen in 2013 

Abuse of the Billing Memo 

The billing memo is a specific means of billing only: 

 

 

Bilaterally agreed items, or: 

Items permitted by RAM but not prime coupon billing nor rejections against 

prime billings


Examples... 

Carriers break the audit trail with a BM 

Carriers attach non-SIS invoice/scan to a BM 

BM contains no remarks, attachment or coupon records 

Over-use of 8Z (avoiding coupon records) 

Carriers use reason code 8Z when a 6A/B is required 

Carriers reject 6A and 6B billings with another billing 

memo


Examples cont... 

Carriers use BM’s for bulk rejection “get-around” A10 4.1.2 

Carriers unwilling to populate SC44 FIM coupon breakdowns 

Original billing purged from SIS, so carrier rejects with BM 

Form C deadline missed, so carrier sends a BM 

All cause great disruption to carrier receiving the BM


Insufficient/wrong contact details filed in SIS Member Profile 

 

 

Old/discontinued Email addresses filed 

Contacts filed, but no helpful info on role/department 

Visit the SIS Operations desk in the foyer…. Check and confirm 

your airline details are correct – Prize Draw!


Recognising who a correspondence item is to/from 

 

“01250000001 - SPA Issue” 

….is better if named: 

“01250000001 – BA initiated to AA: SPA Issue” 

 

A technical solution is not necessary


Abuse of RAM A10 5.2.1.5 and 5.3 

 

 

5.2.1.5 “…. Correspondence may be initiated only if the total value in 

dispute is USD 50.00 or more….” 

5.3 “Both the carrying airline A and the issuing airline B are entitled to 

increase or decrease their previous evaluations during any 

rejection/correspondence stage….” 

Airlines are mis-using 5.3 in order to circumvent 5.2.1.5 

An amendment to 5.3 and IS-Web may be tabled if abuse continues

So, in summary… 

 

 

 

SIS is still a new way of doing business. 

Some naivety, learning, maturity needed by users 

New SIS validations are there to help 

 

 

….but emphasis remains on playing your part correctly 

Too many behaviours and billings are ignoring the RAM

And Finally… 

Bill right first time. Best 

practice saves everyone 

time and money


Matt Holden 

Matthew.holden@ba.com

SIS and RAM Rules 

SIS and RAM Rules 

Kirk Pereira & Valentina Pisapia 

SIS Operations 

ISW2: SIS and RAM Rules 

67

Background 

During the past 2 years we had numerous queries on 

SIS in relation to RAM rules 

How Why Can are did I grant duplicate SIS time not stop limit billings an extensions airline handled billing in in SIS? 

me 

a FIM in a wrong source code? 


68

Agenda 

Todays session covers 

Some of the RAM rules that are in SIS 

Your inputs on SIS and RAM 

We will cover 

how the rules 

work in SIS 

We will take 

your inputs and 

pass it on to the 

WG’s 


69

But before we start 

A couple of points to always remember 

Should there be any conflict between the contents of 

the ISPG and any rule in the RAM, the RAM rule in 

question shall prevail 

However should there be a conflict between the RAM 

and the IATA Resolution, the Resolution shall prevail 


70

RAM rules existing in 

SIS 


71

Time Limits for Billing and Rejections 

RAM CH A10. Para 5 defines 

the timelines when a 

Passenger or Cargo 

transaction in SIS can be 

billed or rejected 

These timelines are 

validated in SIS. However 

SIS does not stop the billing 

of the transaction, but flags 

it in the IS-IDEC / IS-XML to 

the billed carrier - that this 

transaction has been billed 

outside the RAM time limit 


72

So can I ask for a time limit extension? 

Yes. In exceptional cases please request your Interline partner 

NOTE that due to the purging policy of SIS the transactions are kept 

only for 2 more additional months from the time limit specified in the 

RAM 

Once a transaction for a fully migrated member has been purged it will 

not allow it to be rejected or rebilled through the normal process 

The only option is to raise a Billing Memo with reason code 

‘8M - Outside Time limit billings’ 


73

Q1 - RAM CH A10 para 5 

We will take 

your Feedback 

to RAWG 

PAX and Cargo rejections currently have a time limit of 6 months 

With all processing now electronic in SIS, do you think it is time to reduce 

these deadlines? 

No, I think this is right. No change required 

Yes, I think it is too long. It should be ….. 

I think it is too short. It should be …. 

N/A 


74

Q2 - RAM CH A13 para 4.4 

We will take your 

Feedback to E- 

Invoicing WG 

For Misc category as well, the time limit for raising a rejection is 6 months 

Do you think it’s time to reduce the time limits for MISC? 

No, I think this is right. No change required 

Yes, I think it is too long. It should be ….. 

N/A 


75

Time Limit for Correspondence 

RAM CH A10. 5 defines the 

timelines when a Passenger 

or Cargo correspondence 

can be initiated or 

responded to in SIS 

RAM A13. 4.5 is for 

Miscellaneous 

correspondence 

These timelines are 

enforced in SIS. If a carrier 

does not respond within 

these time lines then SIS 

expires the correspondence 

and the member is unable to 

re-open it 


76

Extension for Correspondence? 

For Correspondence SIS does not permit extension of time limit 

Workaround: If both carriers agree – settle the dispute via email 

and the resulting billing memo can be raised in SIS using a 

reason code both parties agrees to. 

Note - Complete audit trail for the transaction will be missing in 



77

Duplicate Billings for same coupon 

RAM CH A3 Para 4 gives 

details on handling of 

multiple billings for a 

coupon 

SIS flags duplicate billings 

for coupons billed twice 

within the same invoice or in 

a previous invoice for the 

same billing / billed 

combination 

SIS does not flag a coupon 

as duplicate when billed by 

two different carriers 


78

How does SIS identify duplicates? 1/2 

Prime Coupons - Any transaction that has been billed twice to the 

same billing /billed carrier pair. This check is performed for invoices 

billed in the last 12 calendar months 

Exception: Sampling UAF re-billings under source code 27 

Exception: Billing Memos for Supplementary billings 

Any duplicate identified is indicated in the outbound IS-IDEC / IS-XML 

file from SIS to the billed member 


79

How does SIS identify duplicates? 2/2 

Rejection Memos - Any coupon belonging to more than one rejection 

chain will be considered as a duplicate. 

This check is performed for invoices in the last 12 calendar months 


80

Q3 – Duplicate checks 

Feedback to 

RAWG 

Currently SIS flags duplicate coupons. Do you think SIS should error out 

these coupons? 

No, I think the system should continue to just flag it 

Yes, I think it would be better if SIS does not allow 

duplicate billings 

N/A 


81

PAX Supplementary charges 

RAM CH A2 Para 1.12 allows 

for supplementary charges 

to be raised against an item 

previously billed if the error 

value exceeds USD200 per 

individual coupon 

Supplementary charges 

should be billed via a Billing 

memo with reason code ‘8E’ 


82

PAX- rejections – Clubbing of coupons 

RAM CH A10 4.1.3 - Talks 

about clubbing of coupons 

in a rejection 

Q4) While SIS allows 

rejections to be clubbed do 

you feel we should be 

moving to only 1 coupon per 

rejection? 

Yes, easier to process. 

No, let it be as it is 

N/A 


83

Q5 – Breakdown Records 

Feedback to 

RAWG/SIS SG 

Currently in SIS, it is possible to create rejections without coupons/ 

AWBs breakdown using reason code “Others”. Should breakdown 

records be mandatory? 

Yes, I think it would be better to make breakdowns 

mandatory for all reason codes 

No, Don’t make a change. We have scenarios where we 

cannot provide breakdown records. Please share it: 

_______________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________ 

N/A 


84

PAX- Source codes 

RAM CH A9 Attachment G 

lists the source code 

applicable for Passenger 

transactions 

While SIS invoice structure 

follows the RAM for listing 

of source codes, it does not 

validate the document 

series of the coupons 

Example: SIS will not check 

whether a FIM / EBT 

document number has been 

billed under source code 1 


85

Bilateral source codes 

SIS does not validate whether you and your interline partners have a 

bilateral agreement to bill bilateral source codes, example, for 

Frequent Flyer billings 

Please check with your interline partner before using bilateral source 

codes 


86

Invoices and Credit notes 1/2 

RAM CH A9 Para 3.1.1 - For 

all transactions, invoices 

and credit notes shall 

contain a serial reference 

number. Such number shall 

be 10 Alpha/Numeric, and 

must be unique within a 

calendar year 

SIS requires all invoices to 

be maximum 10 

Alpha/numeric and be 

unique across all billing 

categories within a calendar 

year 

Note: Invoice ‘ABCDE’ and 

invoice ‘abcde’ are 

considered duplicates 


87

Invoices and Credit notes 2/2 

RAM CH A9 Para 3.3 point b 

– Invoices and Credit notes 

cannot be prepared earlier 

than the IATA billing period 

within which the transaction 

was performed 

SIS has implemented a 

validation to ensure that 

PAX prime coupons are not 

billed earlier than the 

current open period. 

Example: A flight coupon 

uplifted on 5 th August 2013 

cannot be billed before 8 th 

August (August P1 opens) 


88

Q6 - RAM CH A10 3.1 

Minimum Value for PAX and Cargo Rejections: 

Except in the case of persistent errors, the minimum value for the first or 

subsequent rejection of passenger and cargo transactions shall be USD 5, 

or for tax billings USD 2, or the equivalent using the same exchange rate 

as used in the original billing. The USD 5 amount mentioned above is 

before deduction of Interline Service Charge (gross). 

Do you feel that the minimum value should move towards the net amount 

rejected? 

No, I think current amounts are ok 

Yes, I think it should be on net amount 

I have another option (please enter it below) 

_____________________________________________ 

N/A 

Feedback to 

RAWG 


89

Q7 - RAM CH A13 2.2 

Feedback to 

E-Invoicing WG 

Minimum Value for Misc invoices: 

Invoices should not be issued for less than USD25, however 

multiple items of less than the minimum value each may be 

combined on a single invoice totaling USD25 or more, provided that 

they all have the same Charge Category. 

Do you feel the Minimum value for Misc invoices is fine? 

Yes, I think USD25 is right 

No, I think USD25 is too low. I think it should be ….. 

No, I think USD25 is too high. I think it should be …. 

N/A 


90


Email: 

sisoperations@iata.org 

SIS Website: 

www.iata.org/sis 


91

LUNCH 

Hochelaga 1

SIS Release Management 

Breakout Session 

Paula FEINBERG 

Test Manager, SIS Operations 

Thierry CERPOLET 

Product Manager, Web Access Services 

93 

11 October 2010 

93

Agenda 

SIS Release Management Strategy 

SIS Evolution 

Q&A 

94


Release Management 

Strategy 

95

Type of Releases and Strategy 

Major Releases 

Aim > Changes to application / infrastructure functionality 

Periodicity > Twice a year in P1 Nov and P1 May 

Changes to record structures is scheduled in P1 May, so once a year 

Managed > as projects between Service Provider / IATA 

96

Type of Releases and Strategy (2) 

Maintenance Releases 

Aim > To fix software problems/bugs reported by SIS users or IATA 

Periodicity > usually twice a month 

For urgent cases put as hot fixes in SIS prod immediately 

Managed > Weekly Release Management meetings with Service Provider 

as to prioritize next Help Desk incidents fixes to be deployed 

97

Release Management Process Summary 

Issues / Change Requests 

raised by industry / 

SIS Ops / SIS General Mtg 

Faults 

are included in 

Maintenance 

Releases 

Enhancements 

are included in 

Major 

Releases 

98

How to raise a Change request 

SIS Help Desk Web Form 

http://www.iata.org/services/finance/sis 

/Pages/sis-help-desk.aspx 

Email to SIS Operations 


Requests bringing 

value for the entire 

industry will be 

considered for CMP 

implementation 

99

CMP Prioritization Process 

100

Timelines for CMP selected vs deployment 

101

Open CMPs for Future Releases: where? 

List of CMPs available from IATA / SIS / Technical Documentation 

102

Release Management Flow 

Development 

by vendor 

Release is tested and 

certified by vendor 

Sandbox 

Staging envt 

changes 

related to 

validations 

Release is tested and 

verified by IATA 

Release deployed on 

production 

Staging 

environment 

for CMPs / 

issues 

103

Releases Communication 

Release Notes Communication 

Major Releases: via SIS Bulletin +/- 3 months prior deployment 

Maintenance Releases: directly in SIS web site at time of deployment 

Downtime 

Cover fixes when they concern an existing validation that was not working or a 

bug that was affecting a large group of carriers 

always published via SIS Bulletins (for Major releases) 

always confirmed in advance via SIS Ops Downtime e-mails 

104

Maintenance Releases Calendar 

Advise community of upcoming downtimes 

Plan is for two Maintenance Releases a month 

One just after a Closure Day and prior Offline Archive 

Maintenance Releases 

implementation window 

July 9 th July 10 th July 15 th July 17 th 

Jul P1 

Submission 

opens 

Jun P4 

Output 

generation 

Jul P1 

Submission 

deadline 

Jul P1 

Output 

generation 

One coordinated with possible IT maintenance need on a Saturday 

Calendar communicated via SIS Bulletins 

 

105

SIS Evolution 

106

SIS History : Major Steps 

Project Operations 

Oct 2011 – Rel. 1.0 SIS went live with PAX and MISC Billings 

May 2012 – Rel. 1.1. CGO and UATP Billings (*) go live 

(*) UATP not activated at start) 

Since Nov 2012 Enhancements deployed every 6 months in May and Nov 

107

History – Major Releases since IS-week 1 

Rel. 1.2 (Nov 2012) 

Enhancements covered deployed by 8 Nov 2012 

Rel. 1.3 (May 2013) 

Enhancements covered deployed by 8 May 2013 

Rel. 1.4 (Nov 2013) 

Enhancements covered deployed by 8 Nov 2013 

Next 

Rel. 1.5 (May 2014) 

108

Release 1.2 contents - P1 Nov 2012 

Enhancements deployed by 8 Nov 2012 

Key CMPs 

Validation of Flight Date in Passenger Prime Billings (PAX) 

Invoice PDF changes (MISC/UATP) 

Size of Tax/VAT percentage changed from 2 to 3 decimals for IS-XML / IS- 

WEB capture (MISC/UATP) 

Report on IS-WEB User’s Permissions 

Clearance Currency & Amount in IS- Processing Dashboard 

Audit Trail to maintain log of invoices deleted by carriers on IS-WEB 

109

Release 1.3 contents – P1 May 2013 

Enhancements deployed by 8 May 2013 

Key CMPs 

Validation of Original Billing Amounts in SIS Rejection Memos (PAX/CGO) 

Query on Billing History Using only Ticket Number Field (PAX/CGO) 

11 digit ticket / FIM numbers being captured (PAX) 

Re-rejection of a RM that has no Coupon Breakdown (PAX) 

Increase of VAT Description Field (MISC/UATP) 

Field Part Number for Engineering to be Extended to 40 Characters (MISC) 

Location Code to be made Mandatory for All Invoices (MISC) 

RAM A13 New Validations and New Charge Code (MISC) 

Validation of reference data against the member profile (ALL Billings) 

110

Release 1.4 contents – P1 Nov 2013 

Enhancements deployed by 8 Nov 2013 

Key CMPs 

Source code in PAX Receivables / Payables – RM/BM/CM Summary Report 

Preview invoice / Credit Note captured on IS-WEB prior to submission (MISC) 

Tax Invoice Number to be included in Invoice PDF (MISC) 

Daily Output generation for Bilateral invoices (MISC) 

Correspondence ref. Number to be displayed on correspond. invoice PDF (MISC) 

Addition of a column for Charge Code Type in Invoice PDF (UATP) 

Correspondence download with supporting documents (ALL Billings) 

Correspondence Screen – Option to Close/Accept (ALL Billings) 

Add submission method columns to the Processing Dashboard 

111

Release 1.5 contents – P1 May 2014 

Enhancements in scope for deployment by 8 May 2014 

Key CMPs prioritized by the SIS SG 

PDF invoice does not contain information about scaling factor (MISC) 

SIS to accept Cyrillic characters (MISC) 

User to be able to reply to a correspondence upon clicking hyperlink in 

correspondence email alert (ALL Billings) 

SIS to generate weekly reference data update in CSV report (ALL Billings) 

Updates to Master / Member Profile data in production automatically take effect in 

Sandbox environment 

112

SIS History: # of Maintenance Releases 

After Rel. 1.2 After Rel. 1.3 

9 

12 

Maint 

Hot Fixes 

- 32% 

113

SIS Maintenance Fixes Deployed 1.2/1.3 

160 

151 

140 

120 

122 

100 

80 

60 

31 

After Rel. 1.3 


40 

20 

5 


0 

Showstopper 

Major 


- 84% - 19% 

114

SIS architecture / solution improvements 

File loading optimization 

Review insertion mechanism in database 

Purging activities 

Transactions 

Oracle alignment 

New Oracle Server version (to be deployed in Jan 2014) 

115

Q & A 

116

Thank you. 

Email: 


SIS Website: 

www.iata.org/sis 

117

Optimize your Processes in SIS 

Alex SMITH & Iulia FILIUTA 

Integrated Settlement Customer Support

Agenda 

Introduction 

Optimize your Processes with Existing Functionality 

Optimize your Processes with New Functionality 

Data Quality 

Questions 

ISW2: Optimize your Processes in SIS 

119

Introduction 

The aim of this session is to answer some of the most frequently asked 

questions received by the SIS Help Desk. 

This session will NOT revolutionize your processes, but instead present 

some existing and new functionalities that may improve your 

experience with SIS. 

We will also discuss some changes that were recently implemented to 

improve overall data quality. 


120

Optimize Get the most Your out Processes of SIS with 

with Existing Existing Functionality Functionality 


121

Contact Notification Set-up 

Not all Members have their processing notifications set-up. This can lead to 

not receiving important information relating to your activity in SIS. 

Member Profile Contact Tab View All Contact Assignments 

In search criteria select Type as Processing 

The result will be a grid showing the various contact notifications set-up for 

each contact 

Check to see you have contacts set-up to receive the processing 

notifications for each billing category 


122

Contact Notification Set-up (cont.) 

5 Important Notifications 

File Receipt – notification that a file has been received by SIS 

Output Available – notification that Outputs are available for download 

Validation Error – notification that validation reports are available for download 

Open Invoice – reminder 24h before period closure if invoices are still open 

Correspondence Contact 

when a new correspondence is received 

48h before the expiry of a received or saved correspondence 

48h before the expiry of a received correspondence with authority to bill, with no BM 


123

New Billing History Search Options 

For Passenger and Cargo 

1. Search by Member Code 

Required information; billing type, billing month / year, billing code, member code 

2. Search by Memo Number 

Required information; billing type, transaction type, memo number 

3. Search by Document Number 

Required information; billing type, transaction type, issuing airline, document 

number 


124

Working with Correspondence 

We have observed that users tend to work on a correspondence directly 

on IS-Web causing screens to perform poorly or users being timed out of 

the session. 

Correspondence Recommended Practice 

Generate a Correspondence Status Report for last two months 

Select a batch to start working on (by expiry or other criteria) 

Search for these correspondence from the billing history screen 

Download the PDF version of the audit trail 

Research and prepare responses offline 

Post and send responses from IS-Web 


125

Retrieving and Storing your Output 

SIS generates payable and receivable OAR files every billing period 

These OAR files are available for download on IS-Web for up to 90 days 

after being generated. After 90 days they are purged. 

For users of iiNET, these are available in iiNET for 30 days, but remain 

available on IS-Web for download for the full 90 days. 

Storage Options 

Download from IS-Web and Store Locally 

Receive via iiNET and Store Locally 

Sign-up for 10 Year Legal Archiving for invoices and listings 


126

ICH Late Submissions Process 

Invoices submitted to SIS after 17:00pm EST on closure days and 

intended for the period which has just closed will fail validation for incorrect 

billing period. 

Members therefore have 2 options from the Processing Dashboard 

1. Select the failed invoices from the processing dashboard and click the 

Mark for Late Submission button. 

This will send a request to ICH Operations to accept the invoices for the 

closed period. A late submission fee may apply 


Increment Billing Period. 

This will automatically push the invoices to the current open period 


127

ACH Late Submissions Process 

Invoices submitted to SIS after 12:00pm EST on closure days and 

intended for the period which has just closed will fail validation for incorrect 

billing period. 

Members therefore have 2 options from the Processing Dashboard 


Mark for Late Submission button. 

This will send a request to ACH Operations to accept the invoices for the 

closed period. 


Increment Billing Period. 

This will automatically push the invoices to the current open period 


128

Billing ICH Suspended Members 

 

When the ICH suspends one of its Member’s, it sends out a Circular to 

announce the suspension. 

 

We have observed that some Members start submitting invoices to suspended 

ICH Members via SIS with Settlement Method = Bi-Lateral 

 

The ICH strongly recommends that Members continue to submit invoices to 

suspended Members via SIS using Settlement Method = ICH 

 

This allows for easy management and tracking of suspended invoices and in the event 

a suspended member is reinstated, the invoices can be easily resubmitted to ICH 

 

Facilitates the review of claims by court appointed administrators as they may also 

require more details to support the ICH claims 


129

Managing your ICH Suspended Invoices 

All invoices submitted against a suspended member will be marked as 

suspended and kept in SIS for future action in the event the suspended 

members are reinstated. 

Throughout the Suspension Period 

Invoices can be marked as Bilateral if settlement was received 

Upon ICH reinstatement 

Remaining suspended invoices can be re-pushed to ICH for settlement 


130

Optimize Get the most Your out Processes of SIS with 

with New New Functionality Functionality 


131

Miscellaneous Invoice Preview 

We have recently implemented an Invoice Preview feature for Miscellaneous 

Invoices captured via IS-Web 

This allows users to verify what the pdf of the invoice will look like before 

actually submitting the invoice. 

This opens a web version of what the PDF invoice will look like with a 

watermark “Preview This is not a legal invoice” 


132

Miscellaneous Invoice Preview 


133

Audit Trail Download with All Supporting 

Documents 

Previously, users were able to download a pdf of an audit trail from the 

billing history screen. 

However, Supporting documents that were linked to the audit trail were not 

included in the download. 

Users can now choose to also download all supporting documents that 

have been linked to the particular audit trail by ticking the checkbox 

next to the Generate PDF button 


134

Accept and Close a Correspondence 

In some instances, the correspondence initiating member agrees to not 

pursue a correspondence case further. 

In the past this meant that the initiating member would have to wait for 

the correspondence time limit to expire. 

Now, the correspondence initiating member can choose to accept and 

close a correspondence that they have raised. 


135

Accept and Close a Correspondence (cont.) 

Where can you do this from? 

From the Billing History and Correspondence screen 

Search for the Correspondence you which to Accept and Close 

Click the Show / Create Correspondence icon 

You will see a new action button to Close Correspondence 

When this is clicked you will be asked to insert an Acceptance 

Comment and confirm the closing of the correspondence. 

This will keep an audit history within the correspondence. 


136

Accept and Close a Correspondence (cont.) 

IMPORTANT NOTE to Super Users 

Remember to set-up the permission for this new feature for your 

correspondence users in each billing category 


137

Miscellaneous Daily Outputs for payable 

bi-lateral invoices 

SIS now allows members to receive payable Bilateral Miscellaneous invoices 

on a daily basis. 

Members who wish to enable this feature can do so from the Misc Tab in the 

Member Profile 

Members will therefore receive Daily payable IS-XML files and OARs for all bilateral 

invoices 


138

Miscellaneous Daily Outputs for payable 

bi-lateral invoices (cont.) 

A new Misc payable screen has been created to view these daily bi-lateral 

invoices until their status is changes to presented. 

Miscellaneous Payables View Daily Bilateral Invoices 

The Daily Bilateral invoices will NOT be included in the regular weekly IS-XML 

outputs and OAR files 


139

Changes that aim to improve 

Data Quality 


140

Validation of Member Reference data 

If provided, reference data has to be provided for both billing and billed 

member and has to include all mandatory fields as per the record structure 

If no reference data and no location ID are provided, then system will use 

information associated to the Main location ID 

If both reference data and location ID are provided, then the information 

between the two must match with what is stored in the system 

Currently, system returns a validation warning to allow members to adjust 

their reference data. In Q1 of 2014, this will become a validation error and 

cause the invoice to fail. 


141

Stop Rejections That Do Not Link 

Only available to members that have submitted all billings via SIS for the 

last 6 months 

Members who want this enabled must notify SIS Operations 

This validation will not accept incoming rejections that cannot be linked to 

an existing transaction stored in the system. 

Validation NOT enabled: billing member receives a validation warning 

when linking is not successful (invoice is accepted as non migrated). 

Validation Enabled: billing member receives a validation error when 

linking is not successful (invoice is not accepted). 


142

Validation of Billed amount in Rejections 

Applicable for stage 2 and 3 rejections 

System will validate that the billed value provided in a RM matches the 

accepted value of the previous transaction. 

All fields must be populated, not only the rejected amounts 

 

Any discrepancies on these amounts currently result in a validation warning 

Full validation will be enforced as of Q1 2014 and any mismatch outside the 

applicable tolerance will result in validation error (invoice will not be 

accepted). 


143

Validation of Document Number Length 

Lengths of ticket/document number restricted to 10 digits instead of 11 

Ticket/document can have less than 10 digits 

System does not validate the ticket number against the source code used 

Transactions that contain 11 digit documents can be further rejected only 

via IS WEB (all inbound files containing 11 digit documents will fail 

validation). 


144

Questions ? 


145


Alex SMITH 

smitha@iata.org 

Iulia FILIUTA 

filiutai@iata.org 


146

Thank you to our coffee 

break Sponsor

Airline Internal Alignment for 

Supplier Adoption 

Bernard Paul / Bruno Roussel 

Head, FinEx Program / Manager, e-Invoicing 

Standards

Overview 

SIS Next Step 

• IATA Financial 

• Community Expansion 

• FinCom Support 

Airline Benefits 

• Reduced Costs 

• Improved financial process 

Mobilization 

Strategy 

• Awareness 

• IT Providers 

• Active Airlines Mobilization 

Active Airlines 

Mobilization 

Stakeholder 

Alignment 

• Overall Strategy 

• Airlines Role 

• IATA Regional/Country Role 

• Engaging Stakeholders 

• Convincing Stakeholders 

• Following up with Stakeholders 

ISW2: Airline Internal Alignment 

149

IATA Financial 

Mobilization 

Community 

Expansion 

 

Community expansion is a next step for SIS 

 

Strong support and Endorsement from Financial Committee 

ISW2: Airline Internal Alignment 

150

What is IATA Financial e-invoicing? 

Description of the service 

What you receive from SIS: IS-XML from 

supplier 

These are bilateral invoice transactions. 

Additional option for Airlines: 

You may elect to pay some of your suppliers 

with Clearing House 

Multi currency settlement via CH (check with 

Cedric) 

Delay ICH settlement on approval 

151

Benefits for your Airline 

 

 

 

 

 

Improve the way financial processes are handled 

in airlines 

Reduced costs 

 

 

 

Reduced labor work ( e.g.: Increased Accounts 

Payable productivity, faster processing, improved 

process audit) 

Reduced operating costs 

On time payments, improved control over cash flow 

Increased accuracy 

Increases financial efficiency 

Better information quality 

 

Allow greater focus on areas where value can be 

added 

Improved dispute handling 

Improved relationships with suppliers 

152

Mobilization Strategy 

Based on 3 pillars 

 

IATA’s role is to provide support to airlines for 

successful active mobilization 

Presenting at meetings to: 

 

 

 

Raise IS-XML awareness among both 

supplier base and IT Providers 

Engage supplier segments and enhance 

understanding of mobilization benefits 

through industry meetings 

Create desire to join service 

Facilitating migration & active support to IT 

Providers 

Coordinate with IT providers to contact suppliers 

after first round of communication from airlines 

Possible IT Provider certification 

153

Active Airline 

Mobilization 

Pro-active Participation Airline 

 

 

 

Airlines have commercial 

relationship with supplier, able 

to reinforce benefits message 

to supplier 

First communication to 

suppliers go out from airline 

Airline should dedicate 

resources to mobilization, and 

should get procurement 

department involved 

154

Active Airlines Mobilization 

Overall Strategy 

Core suppliers are highly shared amongst airlines, 

any such supplier decides to join through airline 

efforts will benefit the rest of the community 

Efforts to attract and convince suppliers come from 

various angles 

Customers: Airlines 

IT System provider: enabling actors 

Peer competitors: competitive edge 

Regulations: Industry standards 

155

Active Airlines 

Mobilization 

At Regional and Country Level 

 

 

 

Region/Country will have 

Board manage target on 

mobilization. 

Core supplier adoption runs 

through IATA FDS Campaign 

 

 

IATA region and country will 

target to migrate core 

suppliers on IATA Financial 

IATA country will follow up 

after initial airline’s 

communication 

Regional Workshops will be 

organized to support adoption 

156

Access to 350+ 

airlines with single 

IS-XML standard 

Settlement via 

ICH is an option 

Reduced cost by 

becoming 

paperless 

Simplified 

migration through 

industrial process 

Supplier 

Benefits 

No missing data and 

fewer or no 

rejections by the 

recipient 

Reduce invoice 

mishandling 

Faster Settlement 

and better cash flow 

157

Stakeholder Alignment 

 

 

Airlines must enhance e-invoicing visibility within their 

organization, communicate the change of scope, leverage 

available expertise and educate airline employees who are in 

contact with suppliers 

In order to spearhead an optimal outreach effort towards 

adoption, several stages must first be cleared within the airline: 

Key 

Aspects 

Identifying 

Stakeholders 

Engaging 

Stakeholders 

Convincing 

Stakeholders 

Change 

Management 

158


Every single person in the company who has contacts with 

suppliers should know SIS 

 

Crucial that a supplier’s point of contact within airline is aware of SIS 

when supplier seeks additional information 

Senior Management buy in must be obtained as early as possible 

since cross global department projects need support 

The departments within an airline that must be involved 

proactively as early as possible are the following: 

 

 

 

 

 

Procurement: They sign and negotiate the contracts 

Finance: They want optimize the company cash flow 

AR/AP: They want to streamline their processes 

Business operation: They spend time validating invoices 

IT: They will need to adapt the IT financial systems to process 

electronic invoices 

159

Elevator Pitch 

•Supported by Senior 

management 

•Industry Initiative 

•Cost Reduction 

•Financial control 

•Visibility on SLAs 

•Optimized Cash Flow 

management 


The relevant stakeholders must be engaged with the electronic 

invoicing project 

The following set of tools will prove instrumental in securing the 

cooperation of all the stakeholders: 

Have an elevator pitch ready for impromptu meetings with 

colleagues and senior management. 

Elevator pitch should highlight the most critical benefits of e- 

invoicing to the organization and that the service will be used by the 

whole air transport industry 

Emails and Newsletters. Involve Corporate Communications 

department 

Awareness sessions 

160


Ensure that each stakeholder has understanding of the benefits 

161


Ensure that each stakeholder has understanding 

of the benefits 

Procurement 

• Better relationship with suppliers 

• Supports compliance with 

procurement policies 

• Enables possibility to measure 

supplier SLAs against contractual 

obligations 

• Cost analysis and data mining 

Finance 

• Financial Control 

• Auto posting, reconciliation & tax 

posting 

• No paper invoices, no manual data 

entry 

• Full traceability and audibility 

• Centralized reception of invoices 

162


Best Practices for Change Management 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leverage existing expertise from the SIS migration 

Build executive support using a well tailored elevator pitch 

Involve IT department from the start 

Have dedicated people within the organization for the project 

Create relevance with a narrative adapted to the various 

stakeholders 

Implement stakeholders surveys to seize the feedback of the 

stakeholders as for their needs and views on the progress of 

the e-invoicing project 

Create and share reports analyzing e-invoices/paper usage 

of suppliers invoices for each department 

163

Bernard Paul 

paulb@iata.org 


Bruno Roussel 

rousselb@iata.org 

ISW2: Airline Internal Alignment for 

Supplier Adoption 

164

Future of Revenue Accounting 

(FoRA) 

Nick Coote/Terry Delaney

Financial Think Tank 

Made up of a group of CFOs, many from the Financial 

Committee, supported by external experts 

Recognises the poor financial performance of the industry 

Everyone in the value chain makes money except us, the 

airlines 

Focuses on steps that can be taken by IATA to help the 

industry improve its financial health 

One area was Back-office Standardisation 

Covers many financial processes, including revenue 

accounting and e-invoicing 

At the strategy paper review in September, the Financial 

Committee gave the strongest support to simplifying 

revenue accounting processes 

ISW2: Breakout session, 5 December 2013 


166

The past of Revenue Accounting 

Why is airline revenue accounting special? 

Huge number of pieces of paper involved 

Special rules associated with handling them 

Impact: separate revenue accounting and finance departments 

developed 

Computerisation replicated manual processes 

Developed independently in Finance and Revenue accounting 

More divergence and duplication of infrastructure and cost 

Increasing system complexity adds to industry costs 

Need to maintain own systems or buy services from other providers 

Ticket data processing for revenue adds no value to the airline 

Value comes from information derived from the data processing 


Future of Revenue Accounting

Revenue Accounting Today 

Much more automated, but still based on the same processes 

and practices from the 1980s and before 

ET became universal in 2008, but while it took out the paper it 

did not fundamentally change processing. 

In some cases it created new problems 

SIS was implemented in 2011 to simplify the billing and 

settlement process. This was a natural progression 

complementing e-ticketing 

In-built controls improved processes 

ERP systems are far more capable of handling more complex, 

high volume accounting 

NDC will enable a break from the past 



Can we work without RA systems? 

Preliminary answer seems to be “Yes” 

Operating revenue accounting systems on top of finance systems adds 

at least USD500m pa to industry costs 

Advantages of existing ERP systems with industry-owned services: 

Minimises costs 

Simplifies processes 

Increases standardization and use of existing standards 

Reduces future investment needs for the industry 

Supports NDC by enabling simple, industry-wide implementation 

Most feedback to date endorses the approach and the opportunity 

for reductions in cost and complexity 

FinCom comment: “This could be a game-changer” 



The foundations are in place 

The industry framework already exists 

SIS: Automatic flown coupon data processing (Auto- 

Billing), revenue recognition postings, incoming invoice 

and coupon data receipt 

AIA First & Final infrastructure: Prorated sales data 

storage 

Existing industry infrastructure that can support 

industry data processing needs centrally 

Accounting systems are capable 

Powerful modern ERP systems can handle additional 

outputs centrally 

Revenue accounting departments can be merged into 

Finance 

NDC contract-based sales will need ERP systems to 

support revenue recognition and billing 

Central architecture provides industry simplification 



Revenue Accounting Tomorrow 

We have now the necessary three building blocks 

AIA infrastructure for coupon valuation - infrastructure has been 

expanded to allow for other types of passenger billing (non-Final) 

Central ticket data processing service 

State of the art powerful Financial ERP systems 

Connectivity provided by SIS 

Facilitates wider adoption of NDC 



172

Central data processing 

Revenue Accounting of Tomorrow 

Sales data input 

HOT, CAT, ISR, own ET sales 

Single point upgrades 

Incorporating: Sales Data improvement 

Central cleansing of sales data 

Enriching the data from other data sources (e.g. schedules) 

Leading to: Coupon/Segment Value Determination 

Focus on quality of proration engines in the industry 

Filing coupon/segment values at time of fare filing 

Stored in a: Central ticket database 

For: Coupon matching 

And: Automated interline billing and settlement 

With a feed to corporate data warehouses 



173

Local ERP update 

Revenue Accounting of Tomorrow 

General Ledger management 

Local policy application 

Interface with central ticket database 

Drill down to audit and reconcile G/L entries 

Customer account invoicing 

Credit card billing 

Miscellaneous/Non-transport billings 

Management information 

Tax/audit reports etc 



174

Benefits 

Industry-owned service: 

Low cost of implementation – infrastructure already exists 

Low cost of operation – one central operation will cost a fraction of hundreds 

of local operations 

Service standards and quality managed by the industry 

Our ability to provide a complete industry solution as the next phase of AIA 

Services 

Cost reduction 

Automation 

Standardisation 

Opportunities arising from a single database 

No conflicts between the different copies currently held by airlines 

Single point of change to maintain compliance with NDC 



175

Next Steps 

Completed full Auto-Billing test successfully 

Task Force established to research solutions to 

problem areas. Task Force composed of: 

Pilot airlines, ERP system providers, ACH, AIA and 

other supporting airlines 

Volunteers required! 

Speak to any of Nick, Terry, Adina, Bernard, Kirk or 

Gisele 

Task Force reports directly to Financial Committee 

Update early in 2014 

Document Business Solution Design (BSD) 

Planned for April 2014 



176


Nicholas Coote 

cooten@iata.org 

Terry Delaney 

delaneyt@iata.org 


177

Air Cargo Update 

Glyn Hughes 

Director, Cargo Industry Management

Agenda 

Economic environment and Industry Challenges 

e-freight update 

IATA Cargo projects and priorities 

Impact on Revenue Accounting

Air Cargo: a conduit for 

world trade 

$6.4 trillion 

of goods transported by air

Aviation, critical for world trade 

35% 

$6.4 

trillion of 

goods 

0.5% 

Less than 

1% of 

volumes 

Source: the Colography Group, Oxford 

Economics 

Source: the Colography Group, Oxford 

Economics 

181

The importance of air cargo …

Passenger vs Cargo trend 

450 

Seasonally Adjusted 

RPK 

17 

430 

16 

Monthly RPK (Billions) 

410 

390 

370 

350 

FTK 

15 

14 

13 

Monthly FTK (Billions) 

330 

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 

11

185

Modal Shift 

AstraZeneca is shifting transport of pharma products from 

air to sea, with the objective by end of last year to have 

moved 40% to sea transport and by end of 2013 70%. 

Ericcson: better production planning will support 

strategic shift away from Air Cargo 

Sony Corp.: CSR (Modal shift) nearly 30% of total 

VAIO® notebook computers are now by sea transport

International movements of goods 

Volumes transported by mode 

Sea 

79% 

Air 

0.5% 

Other 

modes 

0% 

Rail 

11.5% 

Road 

9% 

Source: “Le fret mondial et le changement climatique” CAS 2010 

187

Acceleration of new consumer paradigm 

Cyber Monday Online SalesSource: comScore, Inc. 

Day 

Year 

Sales 

(millions 

of US$) 

% Change 

November 27 2006 $610 N/A 

November 26 2007 $730 20% 

December 1 2008 $846 16% 

November 30 2009 $887 5% 

November 29 2010 $1,028 16% 

November 28 2011 $1,251 22% 

188

The air supply chain 

Your diagram that shows the different players involved - shipper, 

forwarder, handling agent, carrier 

Complex 

interfaces… 

189

IATA Cargo Vision 

Safe, secure, efficient, profitable and paper-free air cargo supply chain 

Delivering enhanced value for the air 

cargo supply chain 

Safety 

Security 

e-Cargo 

Special Cargo 

Sustainability 

•Dangerous Goods 

•Lithium batteries 

•Infrastructure 

•Data based risk 

assessment 

•Solutions 

•e-freight 

•e-AWB 

•Cargo 2000 

•Live Animals 

•Perishables 

•Pharmaceuticals 

•Value of Air Cargo 

•People 

•Environment 

•Distribution 

Area 1 - Regional Managers Meeting 

Industry Collaboration 

Standards & Quality 

Projects, Services & Solutions

e-freight: simplifying and 

modernizing

e-freight: a vision for paperless operations 

Shippers 

Origin 

Freight Forwarders 

Export 

Customs 

Origin 

GHA 

Carrier 

Destination 

GHA 

Import 

Customs 

Destination 

Freight Forwarders 

Absolute necessity for a safe, 

secure, reliable, efficient, 

modern air cargo industry 

Consignees 

192

e-freight ‘Three Pillar’ roadmap 

1 – Global e-freight 

Network 

2 – Digitization Core 

Transport Docs 

3 – Digitization 

Commercial docs 

Handler 

Airline 

Shipper 

Forwarder 

Customs 

and 

Regulators 

Forwarder 

Airline 

2016 

Goal 

80% world trade lanes 

allow paperless air 

cargo transport 

• 100% e-AWB, 

• e-House Manifest & 

e-Flight Manifest 

capability on e- 

freight trade lanes 

Use of e-pouch for 

large set of cargo 

shipments 

193

e - AWB 

194

Examples of challenges already addressed 

Multilateral agreement 

MC99 Lobbying activities 

Legal 

Single Process 

”Warsaw Concept” 

Regulatory 

e-AWB 

Processes 

Training & Guidelines 

Campaigns & Workshops 

Organizational 

Technical 

Cargo-XML Standards

196

197

Revised e-AWB targets 

2013* 2014 2015 2016 

REVISED 

TARGETS FOR 

BOARD 

ENDORSEMENT 

Dec. 2013 

11.9% * 20% 45% 80%

Industry projects and priorities

Lithium battery issues 

Increased awareness required…TOO MANY MISDECLARED 

Regulatory guidance (ICAO) in place, not universally 

implemented 

Developing enhanced shipping guidelines 

Objective to keep LI as Air Cargo

Air cargo security 

• Advocacy 

• Cooperation 

• Education 

• Promotion 

• ACC3 

• AEI & security 

risk assessment 

• US & EU ACAS 

• e‐CSD 

• Secure Freight 

• IATA Center of 

Excellence (ACC3) 

201

202

203

Air cargo, a premium service 

Speed 

Flexible 

Reliable 

Safe 

Secure 

Transparent 

204

Vital for todays society and economy 

205

Impacts on Revenue Accounting

208

Paper documents will disappear….AWB, CCA, Mail Docs 

e-AWB may impact Batch billing through CASS 

Industry rates through CTC impacted by whittling back 

Reduced CTC composite Resolutions…016aa rescinded 

Industry value proposition – potential for unbundling

He’s Number 

1

Name of Project 211 

5 December 2013

For more information 

Visit our website 

www.iata.org/cargo 

Thank you 

Subscribe to Cargo Tracker 

www.iata.org/optin 

Follow us on Twitter 

http://twitter.com/iata 

212

SIS & RA Break-out Sessions - IATA

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