Glossary of certain Aviation Industry related Terms

ATF
Aviation Turbine Fuel.

Available Seat Kilometers (ASKM)
The sum of the products obtained by multiplying the number of passenger – seats available for sale on each flight stage by the corresponding stage distance.

Cost per ASKM (CASK)
Represents total cost divided by the ASKMs.

Debit – Equity Ratio
Total long-term debt divided by total stockholder’s equity. Can also be measured as debt divided by debt + equity. This is a measure of the financial risk or leverage of the company. The higher this ratio, the more financial leverage the firm has.

EBIT
Earnings before interest and taxation.

EBITDA
Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization.

EBITDAR
Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortization and aircraft rentals.

Equity
Ownership interest in a company, including money invested and any accumulated profits of the company. The financial instrument is stock or shares, as opposed to bonds.

Federation of Indian Airlines
The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) is an apex industry body which has been formed by the scheduled carriers in India. The airline industry has come together to form a single representative body, which will address a collaborative growth-agenda for the industry and focus on Inter-airline cooperation across different issues. FIA, as the voice of India's airline industry, works to identify and take up issues on behalf of the industry, with various regulatory authorities, government departments and other key stake-holders. The Federation provides a platform for consensus building amongst the member carriers.
The focus for FIA and its activities is safety, passenger amenities, ground services, aviation protocols among others with an overall objective of safety & growth in the Indian aviation sector. FIA will also build a repository of data and its analyses, in order to meaningfully contribute to debates focusing on key issues in the aviation sector.

GDS
A global distribution system.

Pre Delivery Payments
Amounts paid to the manufacturer in advance of delivery of the aircraft according to an agreed schedule. These payments help finance the manufacturing of the aircraft.

Revenue Per ASKM
Net Passenger Revenue divided by ASKMs.

Route Dispersal Guidelines
Represents stipulation by the DGCA as regards capacity deployment as expressed in ASKMs by scheduled domestic airlines on certain lesser-developed regions in order to encourage air connectivity in these regions. Routes have been classified into 4 categories according to these guidelines, namely, Category I, Category II, Category IIA and Category III. Any airline operating service on one or more of the routes under Category I (routes connecting metro) is required to provide such service in Category II to the extent of a minimum of 10% of the ASKMs as deployed in Category I. Further, a minimum of 1% of the ASKMs as deployed in Category I is required to be deployed in Category IIA and a minimum of 50% of ASKMs deployed in Category I is required to be deployed in Category III. For further information, please refer http://www.dgca.nic.in/

Seat Factor
Ratio of used to available capacity: passenger-kilometres / available seat-kilometres.

Yield
Passenger Revenue earned per kilometer flown.