Appendix 9 Glossary of terms
| Act | in this report, means the International Air Services Commission Act 1992, as amended. |
| Air services arrangement | is a set of treaty and/or lower level understandings or arrangements between Australia and another country which permits the carriage by air of passengers or freight or both on agreed routes. |
| Allocation | a finding by the Commission, included in a determination, that an Australian carrier is permitted to use a specified amount of capacity. |
| Australian carrier |
means a person who • conducts, or proposes to conduct, an international airline service to and from Australia; and • under the air services arrangements to which the capacity applies, may be permitted to carry passengers or freight, or both passengers and freight, under that arrangement as an airline designated, nominated or otherwise authorised by Australia. |
| Available capacity | means that an operational decision is not in force in relation to an amount of capacity available under air services arrangements, so an Australian carrier may seek an allocation of some or all of that capacity. |
| Benefit to the public | occurs if the Australian carrier to whom the capacity is allocated uses that capacity. |
| BITRE | means Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics. |
| Blocked space | a form of code sharing involving one airline purchasing a “block” of seats on another airline's services, which it is then able to sell to the travelling public. |
| Capacity | is an amount of space available on an aircraft for the carriage of passengers and/or freight. It may be expressed within air services arrangements in various ways, such as in number of seats, units of capacity, or frequency of service, usually per week, in each direction on a route. |
| Code sharing | is a form of joint service between two carriers. It involves an arrangement under which one carrier sells capacity under its own name on flights operated by another airline. |
| Commission | means the International Air Services Commission, established by section 6 of the Act. |
| Commissioner | means a member of the Commission including the Chairperson. |
| Consolidation of determinations | means the process of consolidating into one determination the capacity entitlements of an Australian carrier originally issued in separate determinations. |
| Contested application | involves two or more applicants seeking an allocation of the same limited amount of capacity. |
| Decision | affects an existing determination, either by confirming, varying, suspending or revoking it. |
| Determination | allocates capacity to an Australian carrier, usually for a period of five years, but in some cases for three years (an interim determination), or for ten years (where capacity is not limited under the air services arrangements in question). |
| Department | means the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. |
| Free-sale | a form of code sharing involving one airline selling seats on another airline's services and paying that other airline an agreed amount for the number of seats actually sold. |
| Frequency | refers to the number of flights that may be or are being operated, usually on a weekly basis. |
| Gulf carriers | refers to Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways |
| Hand-back | where a carrier decides it no longer wishes to use allocated capacity, and applies to return some or all of the capacity. |
| IASC | means the International Air Services Commission, established by section 6 of the Act. |
| IATA | means International Air Transport Association. |
| Interim determination | is a determination that is in force for three years, rather than the five (or in some cases 10) years for a standard determination. It does not carry the rebuttable presumption in favour of an incumbent carrier that usually attaches to a standard determination at the renewal stage. |
| Jetstar | means Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd. |
| Joint service | an arrangement entered into by an Australian carrier with another carrier to operate services on a joint basis. It may take different forms such as one or more of code sharing, joint pricing, or revenue and/or cost sharing or pooling. Australian carriers must receive approval from the Commission before using allocated capacity in joint services. |
| Member | means a member of the Commission. |
| Minister's policy statement | is a written instrument made by the then Minister for Transport and Regional Services in 2004 under subsection 11(1) of the Act. It sets out the way in which the Commission is to perform its functions under the Act. |
| Opposed application | a situation in which an interested party makes a submission arguing that an application from a carrier should not be granted by the Commission. |
| Pacific Air Express | means Pacific Air Express (Australia) Pty Ltd. |
| Pionair | means Pionair Australia Pty Ltd. |
| Qantas | Qantas Airways Limited |
| Reduced capacity | where the amount of capacity allocated to a carrier is reduced, including to nil. |
| Register of available capacity | sets out the amount of capacity under each of Australia's air services arrangements available for allocation, after deducting any allocations already made by the Commission. The Department maintains the Register and is publicly available on its website. |
| Renewal determination | a new determination that renews an allocation of capacity made under a determination that is approaching its expiry. It may include updated terms and conditions at the Commission's discretion. |
| Review | involves an examination of an existing determination, either at the request of a carrier which wishes to vary the determination, or on the Commission's initiative if it is concerned that a carrier has or will breach a condition of the determination. In the case of a carrier-initiated review, the Commission may either vary the determination as requested by the carrier or confirm the determination. For a Commission-initiated review, the Commission may decide to confirm, vary, suspend or revoke the determination. |
| Revocation | a decision by the Commission to revoke (cancel) a determination. |
| Route | is the combination of origin, destination, intermediate and beyond points (cities) which an Australian carrier may serve under an air services arrangement. |
| Tasman Cargo | means Tasman Cargo Airlines |
| Tigerair Australia | means Tiger International Number1 |
| Uplift-Discharge data | These data detail, by direction, the revenue traffic between the actual points of uplift and discharge within each flight. It shows the movement of traffic between two airports not necessarily directly connected but within the same flight number. |
| Use it or lose it | a principle requiring allocated capacity to be used, or else be returned for reallocation. |
| US/USA | United States of America |
| Variation | a decision amending a determination, including conditions attached to it. |
| Virgin Australia | refers to Virgin Australia International Airlines Pty Ltd and/or Virgin Australia Airlines (SE Asia) Pty Ltd. |