ATPCO — Airline Tariff Publishing Company

ATPCO — Airline Tariff Publishing Company

ATPCO is the neutral data utility that sits at the centre of airline fare distribution. Airlines file their published fares, fare rules, routing restrictions and taxes with ATPCO; GDS platforms and pricing engines retrieve this data to price itineraries for passengers.

What ATPCO Distributes

ATPCO's core data products include: published fares (base fare amounts by origin-destination and booking class), fare rules (minimum stay, advance purchase, change/cancellation penalties), routing information (which connecting cities are permitted), combinability rules (how fares from different carriers can be combined on interline journeys), taxes and surcharges.

ATPCO and Pricing Engines

When a GDS or airline website prices an itinerary, the pricing engine retrieves applicable fares and rules from ATPCO (or a local cache), applies routing and combinability logic, adds taxes and surcharges, and presents the total fare to the customer.

Continuous Pricing and NDC

Traditional ATPCO fares are discrete price points filed in advance. NDC and continuous pricing initiatives allow airlines to generate dynamic, offer-based prices without filing with ATPCO. This represents a significant architectural shift in airline pricing.

Industry Ownership

ATPCO is owned by a consortium of airlines. Its neutral status as an industry utility gives it the trust required to serve as the authoritative source of fare data across competing carriers.