The Department is concerned about the numerous occurrences of "unknown" fares (99999)
appearing in the quarterly Passenger O&D Survey data as submitted by the reporting air
carriers. In an effort to reduce the reporting of "unknown" fares, this directive
clarifies the reporting of "contract bulk tickets." Accounting and Reporting Directive
#143 allows reporting carriers to insert 99999 in the dollar-amount-of-fare when they
were unable to determine the proper fare. This enabled the Department to differentiate
contract bulk-fare tickets from frequent flyer tickets.
It appears that some carriers are making no effort to determine the proper fare value
for contract bulk-fare tickets. Carriers should compute an average dollar value
fare amount for reporting contract bulk-fare tickets. This figure would be computed
by taking the contract revenues received from the contract-bulk operator for the
particular routing for the quarter and dividing it by the actual number of bulk-fare
passengers carried over that routing for the quarter.
This directive is issued under authority delegated in 14 CFR 385.27 (b).
If you have any questions in this matter please contact Mr. Bernie Stankus on (202)
366-4387.