Air Reservation
Equal to a booking, which shows a passenger’s intention to fly at some point in the future. A booking occurs before a flight ticket is sold. Bookings can be held, changed, or cancelled. A passenger’s booking includes information on his/her full itinerary from the trip origin to the destination(s), stop(s) and stay(s), and the end of the trip, with dates and times of travel.
Air Connectivity
A concept and a feature in ForwardKeys database that analysing how the traveller arrives in and departs from a destination, whether he/she makes one or more steps/flights to reach the destination or leave for home.
Actual Air Reservations
A dataset that includes all air reservations that are recorded in the reservation systems feeding the ForwardKeys database at a daily basis.
Aircraft Type
A segmentation available for Capacity dataset, referring to the type of aircraft scheduled during the time period of interest, according to IATA’s official aircraft list.
Airlines
A filter and segmentation. As a filter, it includes all airlines with capacity in our application. As a segmentation, it enables users to sort their results by airlines travelled with.
Airport Dwelling Time
A segmentation available in Point of Interest group of parameters, referring to the time slots the pax are present at the airport selected as Point of Interest. Departing pax are present at their departure airport one hour before the departure hour. Arriving pax that stay or do day trips at the destination are present at the arriving airport only during the hour they are arriving. Transferring pax are present at the airport during the time slots between connecting flights.
Advanced (Expertise level)
The most comprehensive interface of query parameters. It displays all available query filters and setting, subject to your contractual specifications.
Alliance
A segmentation available for Capacity dataset, referring to the airline alliance to which the carrier belongs to. Four categories are available: Star Alliance, Sky Team, One World, and No Alliance.
Analysis (a group of parameters)
A group of parameters to be defined for the query result display details. It includes: Booking Signs, Scale (for analysis time period), (Geographical) Granularity (for Trip Origin markets), Analysis POI Arrival/Departure Points Type, and Categorisation.
Analysis POI Arrival/Departure Points Type
An advanced parameter for the geographical granularity to what extent that the Arrival or Departure Points are shown in the query result. It can range from airport terminals level to subcontinent level, subject to contractual specifications.
Area extension
A filter which is used to define a radius in km around your selected residence area. It complements the pax residence filter.
Arrival Dates
A date parameter for queries, referring to the time period during which the travellers arrive at the destination(s) as defined in the Point of Interest. It is the primary analysis period to be defined under Arrivals Module in all sections except Booking History.
Arrival Time
An advanced segmentation available in the Point of Interest group of parameters for queries in Arrivals module for Actual Air Reservations dataset and Capacity dataset, referring to the local arrival time at the Destination(s). Categories are by hours and availability is subject to your contractual specifications.
Arrivals
Number of travellers arriving at the Destination, defined as the Point of Interest in Arrivals module.
Arrivals (Module)
A module for analysing inbound pax flows into the Point of Interest (which is the Destination in this module).
Average Fares – USD
The query result display for Fares dataset, the average fares are calculated for the ticketed months in US Dollars, with exchange rates applied at the time of ticketing. Average Fares do not include taxes and fees but do include agent commissions.
Basic (Expertise level)
The simplest interface of parameter panel, set as default, with essential and most frequent used query parameters.
Behind (Traffic)
In Routes module, it refers to the relative position within the travel itinerary in respect of POI-1 and POI-2: behind points or traffic refers to the steps preceding the analysed route (defined as the flow between POI-1 and POI-2).
Benchmark
A section for displaying a summary of actual air reservations dataset for all market locations in user’s contract: origin markets and destinations during the specified time period, which can be past travel dates, past booking dates, or future travel dates. Differently from other sections, it allows to see the results for several origins and destinations (Point of Interest) at once.
Beyond (Traffic)
In Routes module, it refers to the relative position within the travel itinerary in respect of POI-1 and POI-2: beyond points or traffic refers to the steps following the analysed route (defined as the flow between POI-1 and POI-2).
Booking
Equal to an air reservation, which shows the passenger’s intention to fly at some point in the future. A booking occurs before a flight ticket is sold. Bookings can be held, changed, or cancelled. A passenger’s booking includes information on his/her full itinerary from the starting point to the destination(s), stop(s) and stay(s), and the end of the trip, with dates and times of travel.
Booking Class
An advanced parameter which is available only in Routes POI to POI module or Routes Hub Centric module, in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to the exact same booking class codes that airlines use for their air reservations. Different airlines have different booking class systems, therefore please use Booking Class information with caution.
Booking Dates
A date parameter for queries, referring to the period when the air reservations are made. It is the primary analysis period that must be defined in the Booking History section.
Booking History
A section where bookings are displayed according to the Booking Dates, regardless of the Travel Dates. In this section, query results display the total pax in all bookings.
Booking Pace
A mode available for analysis in Travel History and On the Book sections to understand how travellers’ book their trips for a certain travel period. It shows the issued bookings over time for a given travel period. The results are only displayed after selecting the travel period of interest.
Booking Signs
A segmentation available in the Analysis group of parameters for studying the four types of bookings: Initial trip bookings, Partial additions/modifications, Partial cancellations, and Full trip cancellations. Results are displayed in net volume: Initial trip bookings and Partial additions/modifications are counted in positive numbers while Partial cancellations and Full trip cancellations are counted in negative numbers.
Booking Stock
A section in Actual Air Reservations dataset. The available analysis in this section aims at comparing destinations’ popularity and competitiveness, as well as analysing event impact on bookings.
Booking Stock Dates
A date parameter for queries in the Booking Stock section. The Booking Stock dates refer to the time period during which air reservations are being made.
Bridge (Traffic)
A type of the Traffic Flow segmentation, which is only available in Routes module, referring to traffic that has both behind and beyond points.
Business Traveller
A category of the Pax Profile segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group of parameters. In ForwardKeys database, Business Travellers are defined according to the booking’s distribution channel, length of stay at POI, type of stay, and haul length.
Cabin
A segmentation in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, indicating the seating class booked for the traveller’s trip: Economy, Economy Premium, Business, and First classes. The highest cabin class of the entire trip is displayed. ForwardKeys receives cabin code information for more than 400 airlines from a third-party company and applies it to the air reservations in their database. Cabin information is also available in Capacity data.
Calendar Heatmap
An interactive tool available in all analysis views. Calendar heatmap displays the time scale selected and is colour-coded with the performance of each of the time units (displayed in days, weeks, months, quarters, etc.). Selecting a specific time period in the calendar heatmap adjusts the query result display accordingly. When the time scale is daily granularity, specific days of the week can be included/excluded by checking/unchecking the boxes next to their names. When the time scale is daily or weekly granularity, calendar heatmap can be switched to a more aggregated granularity (daily, switch to weekly or monthly, weekly switch to monthly) using the drop-down menu in the top-left corner.
Capacity (Seat Capacity)
A dataset and a section for analysing direct commercial flights, scheduled between two airports (or, as per ForwardKeys cities, regions, countries, subcontinents), displayed by number of total flights or number of total seats available on the aircraft. Updated on a weekly basis, Capacity includes information about legacy carriers, low cost carriers and some charter flights.
Capacity Changes (Events)
ForwardKeys processes the capacity dataset along with the air reservation query of your interest and displays important changes in scheduled flights to help you better understand the travel trends. This process is still a beta version and we advise you to analyse more details in Capacity section, if you have purchased the dataset.
Catchment area (Flight Searches)
Catchment Area module helps the analyst to understand how the attractiveness of an airport and their competitors fluctuates for the travellers living nearby, who are expected to travel primarily from the selected airport. This attractiveness can be analysed by route, destination, airline and fare. These analyses are based on Flight Picks and they focus on the first stage of the trips where the point of interest is the first departing airport.
Categorisation
A display parameter in the Analysis group of parameters that define the categorisation of the query results. By default, query results are categorised depending on the selected module. Default categorisation can be customised in “Definitions & Preferences” menu.
Carrier Type
A segmentation available for Capacity dataset, identifying airlines services status. Four categories are available: Legacy, Low Cost Carrier, Partially Charter, and Unknown.
Code Share(s)
A segmentation available for analysing Capacity dataset. It only appears when a specific airline is selected in the top bar of your window, Code Shares will be available among the Segmentations. The Code Shares segmentation displays all marketing carriers of the selected airline on selected route(s).
Comparable Set
By removing the air reservations of those airlines with perimeter changes during the travel and booking period of your interest, ForwardKeys forms a comparable set for every query. Raw data set is available to be viewed under Advanced parameter panel view.
Continuing Departures (Module)
A module to analyse travellers’ further destinations after visiting Point of Interest (POI).
- Applying the filter of “Continuing trip from POI”, POI is a stop during the traveller’s trip, and Length of stay at POI can be specified to define the stop type.
- Applying the filter of “Starting trip at POI”, POI is the traveller’s Trip Origin, thus Continuing Departures module provides the same analysis as Departures module.
Continuing Trip from POI
A filter category available at the Point of Interest group of parameters in the Continuing Departures module, for analysing further destinations when the Point of Interest is not the travellers’ Trip Origin.
Contractual Data
Contains information about the user’s contract duration and user account status, and can be reviewed under the Personal & Contractual data menu.
Corporate TA
A category of the Distribution Channels segmentation, referring to the travel agencies primarily dedicated to corporate travel.
Credentials
Identification for accessing ForwardKeys database. It consists of an email and a password. A password is generated automatically by the system upon account creation. It is possible to change it at any time, under the Personal & Contractual data menu.
Dates
Time period to be defined before launching a query. Depending on the section that the user is using, Travel Dates (Arrival Dates or Departure Dates), Booking Dates, and/or Loading Dates need to be defined.
Day Trip
A category in any Length of Stay filter, defined as a short stay between 5 hours and 24 hours; and the traveller’s trip ends at the same city as the Trip Origin; and the trip does not contain any other steps beyond Short Transfers or Dwelling Transfers.
Default Display
Customisable options that can be set up as default for displaying the information for the most frequent analysis in the Definitions & Preferences menu.
Default Filters
Customisable options that can be set up as default for the most frequent analysis in the Definitions & Preferences menu.
Definitions & Preferences
A sub-menu under the Profile menu where users can set up Default Display, Default Filters and Definitions per location.
Departure Dates
The period during which the travellers depart from their Trip Origins. It is the primary analysis period to be defined under Departures Module in all sections except Booking History.
Departure Time
An advanced segmentation available in the Point of Interest group of parameters for queries in Departures module for Actual Air Reservations dataset and Capacity dataset, referring to the local departure time at the Trip Origin(s). Categories are by hours and availability is subject to your contractual specifications.
Departures (Module)
A module that displays air reservations according to their departure dates from the Point of Interest, which equals to the travellers’ Trip Origin.
Departures
The number of travellers departing from their Trip Origin(s) (airport / city / region / country / sub-continent), according to the confirmed air reservations that are recorded in the reservation systems feeding ForwardKeys.
Destination
The locations (airport / city / region / country / sub-continent) where travellers stay for a certain length of time during their trips, according to confirmed air reservations that are recorded in the reservation systems feeding ForwardKeys. The Length of Stay can be defined from transfers, day trips, to truly staying one or more nights at the destination. ForwardKeys usually follows the UNWTO definition for destination: the location where travellers spend at least one night.
Direct Flight
A flight with the same flight number. It might include one or more legs/stops, but the pax does not change aircraft.
Distribution Channels
A segmentation in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, to classify the air reservation depending on the category of the travel agency where it was issued. Current classifications include: Retail, Online, Corporate, and Other travel agencies, according to the travel agencies’ registration identity with IATA.
Domestic Arrival/Departure
The Arrival/Departure whose trip origin and destination are located within the same country.
Dwelling Transfer
A category for any Length of Stay parameter, referring to a transfer in which the elapsed time is longer than a short transfer, therefore more than 2 hours if within the same terminal or 3 hours if transferring in a different terminal, and up to 6 hours and 59 minutes. This typically leaves time for the passenger to go shopping.
End of Trip
A category in any Length of Stay filter, indicating the Length of Stay at the location is unavailable because the location being analysed is the last location of the trip. The location qualified for End of Trip is not qualified for another category of Length of Stay: Return Home.
Entry point
A segmentation available in the Point of Interest group of parameters, which can be used to analyse more detailed geographical information for the selected Point of Interest (POI), where travellers enter the POI. Options can range from subcontinent to airport terminal level, subject to your contractual specifications.
Events
ForwardKeys event database is displayed under the graphs and charts, along with the query results in Travel History, Booking History and On the Book sections. The events, when combined with booking, arrival, overnight or departure trends, allows us to better understand the travel trends. There are 14 categories of events currently available in the ForwardKeys Event Database. All recorded Events can be reviewed, edited, and exported. ForwardKeys analyst team constantly updates this event database, and ForwardKeys customers can create and maintain their own events.
14 categories of events are currently available on ForwardKeys Event Database according to their nature, from both origin market and destination perspectives. Categories of events include:
- Economics
- Geopolitics
- Health
- Industry issues
- Natural disasters
- Public bank holidays
- Religion
- School holidays
- Security concerns
- Sports and culture
- Trade shows
- Travel warnings
- Visas
- Others
Events (menu)
A sub-menu under the Context of the Profile menu where the ForwardKeys event database can be viewed in a calendar or as a list. All recorded Events can be reviewed, edited, and exported here.
Evolution
A mode available in the Capacity section to analyse the build-up of Capacity for the specific travel date or period. It shows how airlines add or cancel the scheduled flights/seats until the actual travel date.
Excel
An export option in the tool bar, to export query results as excel files (.xls).
Excel1
An advanced export option in the tool bar. If there are more than 15 locations in the query being analysed, depending on the user’s contractual specifications, this file includes the details for all locations in one excel file (.xls). This export is heavier and takes more time to generate than the standard Excel export.
Exclude Domestic
A useful option in any location filter (Trip Origin, Destinations, Inbound Getaways, and Further Destinations) to exclude domestic arrivals/departures. It is very useful when the analysis interest only focuses on international travel.
Exit point
A segmentation available in the Point of Interest group of parameters, which can be used to analyse more detailed geographical information for the selected Point of Interest (POI), where travellers exit the POI. Options can range from subcontinent to airport terminal level, subject to your contractual specifications.
Expertise level
A configuration for the query parameter panel when working with the Actual Air Reservations dataset. There are three levels, “Basic”, Standard” and “Advanced”, from the simplest interface (Basic) to the interface showing all available parameters to be set up (Advanced), subject to your contractual specifications. The expertise level can be chosen in the selector on top of the query parameters. The default expertise level is “Basic” and can be modified in the Definitions & Preferences sub-menu.
Export
There are 3 export possibilities for query results available in the tool bar: Excel, Excel1 and XML. To directly export the charts and graphs, there is a menu on the top right corner of each chart window for exporting them individually; chart type is available to change before exporting. API export is also available upon request (please contact your account manager).
Fares
A dataset in ForwardKeys database fed by GDSs. Fares dataset considers only fares among locations that have direct capacity connection on the ticketed dates. All fares are in US Dollars, with exchange rates applied at the time of ticketing. Fares do not include taxes and fees but do include agent commissions.
Filters
Equal to parameters, to be defined for any query at ForwardKeys to filter out results or configure the display of results. Most segmentations in query results are available as filters/parameters to be defined. Available parameters/filters are grouped in different sets and the essential groups include: Point of Interest, Travel Dates depending on the Module, Booking Dates, Trip Attributes, Destinations (in Departures module), Point of Sale, and Analysis. Other filter groups include: Normalization Dates, Inbound Gateways, Further Destinations, and Combined Steps. Available filters are subject to the contractual specifications.
Filters on Combined Steps
Depending on your contract, this group of filters may be available for analysing the air connectivity of Point of Interest. This group of filters applies to all steps regardless they are before or after the Point of Interest and can be displayed by clicking the arrow icon located between the Filters for Inbound Gateways and the Filters for Further Destinations. Filters include: Combined steps, Step connecting with POI, Numbers of other steps, Lengths of stay at other steps, Transport to other steps, and display choices for geographical granularity. There is an additional possibility for merging air and surface arrivals, or for showing both values.
Filters on Inbound Gateways
Depending on your contract, this group of filters may be available for analysing the air connectivity of Point of Interest. Filters include Inbound gateways, Last gateways before POI, Number of inbound gateways, Lengths of stay at the inbound gateways, Transport to the inbound gateways, and display choices for geographical granularity. There is an additional possibility for merging air and surface arrivals, or for showing both values.
Filters on Further Destinations
Depending on your contract, this group of filters may be available for analysing the air connectivity of Point of Interest. Filters include: Further Destinations, First subsequent destination, Number of further destinations, Lengths of Stay at further destinations, Transport to further destinations, and display choices for geographical granularity. There is an additional possibility for merging air and surface arrivals or for showing both values.
Findings
A window displayed on the right side of the summary table of query results in Travel History, On the Book, and Booking history sections, highlighting significant results variations within the analysed period.
Flight Destination
The last location of a scheduled direct flight. Note that direct flights may have one or more stopovers in between flight origin and flight destination.
Flight Details
An advanced export option in the tool bar in the Capacity section. Flight details are exported in one excel file (.xls), including: flight numbers, Flight Origin, Flight Destination, flight schedule, Flight Duration, weekly frequency, code shares, etc.
Flight Duration
Time spent (calculated in minutes) from Flight Origin to the final destination, which can be either Leg Destination or Flight Destination, excluding stopover time.
Flight Origin
The first departure location of a scheduled direct flight. Note that direct flights may have one or more stopovers in between flight origin and flight destination.
Flight picks
Flight Picks contains the details of the offer actually chosen by the traveller. These details include airline information and fares. Each search should lead to a “Flight Picks” in the best scenario but in reality, the number of searches far exceeds the number of Flight Picks due to several reasons such as a lack of non-stop routes, expensive fares and/or inappropriate departure/arrival times.
Flight picks (pax)
Number of passengers that have elected a trip after a search.
Forecast
A projection that projects future travel trends based on Actual Air Reservations. The Forecast section displays the dataset according to the future travel dates, up to 12 months. ForwardKeys algorithm considers the historical booking data and the travel seasonality, as well as the current On the Book situation of all actual air reservations recorded in ForwardKeys database.
Flight Search Pre-Reservations
A dataset in ForwardKeys fed by flight metasearch websites. This dataset allows users to analyse the flight searching behaviour as well as related departure and arrival location information within a defined area around your Point of Interest during a specified period.
Full (Analysis)
An option to view all segmentations in query results on Benchmark, Travel History, On the Book, and Booking History sections. It is located next to the Analysis button. When it is enabled, the queries retrieve more comprehensive segmentation details according to the user’s contractual specifications. When it is disabled, queries load faster but include limited segmentation details.
Further Destinations
A segmentation available for analysing air connectivity, referring to the locations that the traveller visits after the Point of Interest (POI).
Full Trip Cancellations
A category of the Booking Signs segmentation available in the Analysis group of parameters. Cancellations that are made for longer than a defined period without having new trips being booked fall in this category. Full trip cancellations are counted in negative numbers.
Granularity
An essential parameter to define the geographical granularity to what extend that the location information is shown. Options can range from airport terminals level to subcontinent level, subject to the contractual specifications. Granularity parameter is available for Trip Origin, Destination, Point of Sale, Inbound Gateways, Further Destinations, Combined Steps, etc.
Graph Colour Scheme
An option located in the tool bar that allows to choose between 15 available colour palettes for the graph display. Graph colour scheme can be changed after running a query, or pre-set under the Definitions & Preferences menu.
Graph Type
There are various types of graphs available for the time charts and results window, including stacked area, 100% stacked area, graph lines, 100% stacked lines and logarithmic scale, pie chart, parallel bars, etc.
Group (travellers)
A category of the Pax Profile segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to the travellers that travel within the same booking of 6 or more persons by default, excluding those who are categorised as business travellers.
Haul length
An advanced parameter in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to the travel distance between Trip Origin and Destination. There are two categories: short haul and long haul, which are separated by above or below 4000 kilometres between Trip Origin and Destination.
Highlights
A chart that is available in the Pickup mode, in which the good performing and underperforming categories are displayed on a matrix according to their shares and variations.
Impact of Events
An impact parameter of events in the ForwardKeys Event database. The scale ranges from “very positive” to “very negative”.
Inbound Gateways
A segmentation available for analysing air connectivity, referring to the locations that the traveller visits before the Point of Interest (POI).
Initial trip bookings
A category of the Booking Signs segmentation in the Analysis group of parameters. New trips that are booked for the first time are counted in positive numbers as initial trip bookings.
Intermediate Hubs
A segmentation available in the Routes Module, referring the locations where pax stay or transfer between POI-1 and POI-2, or during a route, that is analysed.
International Arrivals
Arrivals whose trip origin and destination are located in different countries/territories.
Investment window
A chart that is available in the Pickup mode, reflecting how close the current issued bookings are in comparison to previous year’s final arrivals by using ForwardKeys Maturity index. It also states if globally issued bookings are above or below previous year’s booking situation.
Lead Time
A segmentation in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, meaning the time lapse between the Booking Date and the Travel Date. Booking Date for the calculation of Lead Time is the last successive transaction date in Travel History and On the Book sections. Booking Dates of all transactions are considered in Booking History section and Pickup mode. Under Arrivals Module, Travel Date is the date arriving at the Point of Interest (POI, which is the Destination) being analysed. Under the Departure Module, Travel Date is the date departing from the Point of Interest (POI, which is the Trip Origin) being analysed.
Legend
Detail of the ranges used for the colour coding, that represents the variation vs. previous year in the calendar view.
Leg Destination
The first destination of a flight with no stopovers from your selected Point of Interest or the first stopover location after your selected Point of Interest.
Leg Origin
The first departure location of a flight with no stopovers to your selected Point of Interest, or the last location where they do a stopover prior to your selected Point of Interest.
Length of Stay
A segmentation that can be available for different locations, including Point of Interest, Further Destinations, Inbound Gateways, and Combined Destinations, respectively, referring to the number of nights stayed at the specified location, according to the arrival and departure date of the air reservation.
Loading Dates
A date parameter in the Capacity section, referring to the period in which ForwardKeys updates the capacity database with the latest available schedule information of the airlines.
Long Haul (Trips)
A category of Haul Length parameter, referring to trips whose distance between Trip Origin and Destination analysed is over 4000 kilometres. It is used in ForwardKeys algorithm to define business travellers.
Long Transfer
A category for any Length of Stay parameter, referring to a transfer in which the elapsed time is from 6 hours and 59 minutes up to 23 hours and 59 minutes, regardless of dates.
Maturity
An index created by ForwardKeys to indicate how representative the On the Book situation at the analysed time is when comparing to the total final trips during the same period previous year. This index is the result of dividing the bookings issued up to a certain moment for a given travel period (arrivals / departures on the book) by the final travels (arrivals or departures) on the same period for the previous year. It is shown for the graphs in the default travel analysis mode and Pickup mode under the On the Book section.
Metasearch engine
A type of search engine that collects the results from other search engine databases.
Mode
There are 6 modes of analysis available in the ForwardKeys database: default travel analysis, Booking Pace, Pickup (available in Travel History and On the Book sections), Travel Distribution (available in Booking History), and Evolution and Full list (available in Capacity).
Module
There are 7 modules are available in the ForwardKeys database to display Actual Air Reservations dataset: Arrivals, Departures, Continuing Departures, Routes POI to POI, Routes Hub Centric, Stages of Trip, and Overnights. These modules are enabled depending on your contractual specifications. There are 3 modules available to display Capacity dataset: Arrivals, Departures, and Routes. There are 2 modules available in Fares dataset: Arrivals and Departures.
Nonstop (Non-stop) Flight
Flights with no intermediary landing between two airports.
Non-stop Route
Travellers travel between POI-1 and POI-2 on nonstop flights. ForwardKeys has applied Capacity dataset to Actual Air Reservations dataset, thus air reservations that travel on direct flights which have stopovers are identified with stopovers.
No stay
A category of Weekend/Workweek segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to those travellers who do not stay overnight at the location.
Occupancy-rate Calibrating Factor
An input to be set up in Definitions & Preferences menu for calculating the Room Occupancy for queries under Overnights module. It helps provide realistic occupancy values by using an algorithm to take occupancy ratios into consideration.
On the Book
A section that displays air reservations according to the Travel Dates in the future. When calculating year-on-year variations, it compares the same travel period with the bookings that are issued during the same booking period during the previous year.
One way
Refers to the situation that passengers do not return to his/her Trip Origin.
Online TA
A category of the Distribution Channel segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to the travel agencies that operate almost exclusively online.
On-the-book look-ahead
An option on the Definitions & Preferences menu to set up a default setting for the On the Book section: referring to how many weeks to be displayed by default starting from the database latest update date. Available choices go from 3 to 12 months.
Overnights Dates
A date parameter for queries, referring to the time period during which the travellers stay at least one night at the location. It is the primary analysis period to be defined under Overnights Module in all sections except Booking History.
Overnights (Module)
A module that displays air reservations according to their Overnights Dates at the Point of Interest (which is Destination) analysed.
Overnights
Total nights spent by the travellers at the destination(s) during a specific time period that is based on the Overnights Dates, regardless of their Travel Dates or Booking Dates.
Partial additions/modifications
A category of the Booking Signs segmentation available in the Analysis group of parameters, referring to the bookings/modifications that are made within a defined period after the cancellations are placed. Partial additions/modifications are counted in positive numbers.
Partial Cancellations
A category of the Booking Signs segmentation available in the Analysis group of parameters, referring to the cancellations that are made within a defined period and new trips being booked. Partial Cancellations are counted in negative numbers.
Pax per Booking
A segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to the number of passengers under the same air reservation.
Pax Profile
A segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, that categorises travellers as Business, Groups, VFR+Expats, and Leisure, according to pre-defined rules. The rules to characterize the different traveller segments are based on their Length of Stay at the Destination, Trip Duration, Lead Time, Distribution Channels, Pax per Booking, travel distance, etc. category definitions can be viewed and edited in the Definition and Preferences menu.
Pax residence area
A filter and a segmentation available in Travel Willingness and Catchment area modules. This is based on IP address geolocation data. It is an estimation of the real-world geographic location of the device (pc, tablet, smartphone…) used by the future traveller when it is connected to a local network. If the device is connected to a mobile network instead, the assigned IP address is that of a generic mobile operator network address and the location is inaccurate; ForwardKeys displays “Mobile Operator Network” for these cases. Searches and Flight Picks without a known location are omitted when selecting a location in the Pax residence area filter. The results can be displayed by subcontinent, country, city (with airport) or town level.
Perimeter Changes
Operational changes between airlines and GDS(s), or within the GDS itself, that may affect air reservation trends. Perimeter Changes may disturb the statistical analysis, as observed abnormal variations are mainly due to the business operation changes instead of traveller behaviour changes. Comparable Set is applied by default to exclude the air reservations that have perimeter changes.
Personal & Contractual Data
A sub-menu under the Profile menu where the user can view: Credentials, Personal Details, Contractual Data and Product Definition.
Personal Details
Contact details for each user that can be reviewed under the Personal & Contractual Data menu.
Pickup
An analysis mode available in Travel History and On the Book sections to understand how travellers’ book their trips for a certain travel period. It is only displayed after selecting the travel period of interest and displays how bookings build up (pickup) for the selected travel period of interest. More details are available to compare booking accumulation performances of different markets upon the booking dates selected.
POI-1/Origin (catchment area module)
Filter and segmentation. It refers to the first departing location of the trip. The user must choose at least one location to run an analysis. Multiple selection is allowed and you can select airports, cities, countries and/or subcontinents. In other words, you can select your airport of interest and/or competitor airports here.
Point of Interest (POI)
The location where the query is focused on. It is also the name of a group of parameters to be set up to launch the query.
- In Arrivals or Overnights module, Point of Interest is the Destination.
- In Departures module, Point of Interest is the Trip Origin (equal to Source Market).
- In Continuing Departures module, Point of Interest can be either the Trip Origin or a stop during travellers’ trips from where the travellers have at least one other further destination to travel to.
- In the Routes module, there are two POIs to be set up: POI-1 and POI-2. POI-1 is mandatory while POI-2 is optional.
Point of Interest handled as a block
A configuration option defining the counting method for trips within the Point of Interest.
When Point Of Interest (POI) as Block is enabled (ON), the system considers all sublocations included in the POI as a singular location. It sets the corresponding Entry Point and Exit Point, and disregards all intermediate steps taken within the sublocations of the POI until the passenger departs from there. In consequence, the passengers are counted only once for the given POI, and the profiling refers to the total stay at the POI.
When Point of Interest (POI) as Block is disabled (OFF), the system handles each POI sub-location independently. For instance, this means that arrivals in one country (location) will display the sum of analysing each individual city (sub-locations) independently, each with their separate profiling, length of stay, etc.
For Tourism Boards, Tourism Bureau, Destination Marketing Organizations customers, this option is by default ON.
Point of Sale (POS)
It is a segmentation, as well as a group of parameters to be defined for queries, availability subject to your contractual specifications. Point of Sale of Actual Air Reservations dataset is the location of the legal address of the travel agency through whom the booking was made, which may be different from the Trip Origin.
Product Definition
Detail of the markets, Point of Interest, and granularity of data allowed, depending on contractual definition.
Profile menu
Menu where all back-office information is displayed. Sub-menus include: Personal & Contractual Data, Definitions & Preferences, Context (View/Define events), Reporting and Peers.
Projected Air Reservations
A dataset estimating total passenger traffic for a location. Passenger volumes are calculated by ForwardKeys algorithm according to various data sources, including Actual Air Reservations and official statistics.
Recently Qualified Events
Events that were added to the ForwardKeys Event Database within the last 30 days.
Retail TA
A category of the Distribution Channels segmentation, referring to the travel agencies that operate in traditional ways, selling in shops or over phones, etc.
Return Home
A special category in any Length of Stay (LOS) parameter, indicating the arrival locations that are the last location on the trip and that are:
1) Either, exactly the same as the Trip Origin city;
Or,
2a) if Point of Sale (POS) is known as city:
- last trip location is less than 250km from POS,
- and POS is closer to last location than to Trip Origin;
2b) if POS is known as country:
- last location is not in the same country as Trip Origin;
- and country of Trip Origin is the country of POS.
3) Or,
- the trip includes any location outside the country of Trip Origin, and
- either last location of trip is in the same country of Trip Origin;
- or last location of trip is less than 500km from the city of Trip Origin, even though not in the same country.
Rooms at Location
A setting in Definitions and Preferences for hotelier users in Overnights module, referring to the total number of rooms available at the destination selected. The user must input the value so that get information on occupancy values.
Rooms for Paxes in the Same Booking
A setting in Definitions and Preferences for hotelier users in Overnights module, referring to the average number of rooms that a pax-per-booking category that is likely to occupy at the destination. ForwardKeys has defined to default values for this setting but the user can edit the values.
Room Occupancy
A calculation that is available in the Overnights Module, where variation of percent occupied rooms at destination vs. previous year is shown on a timeline. To activate the calculation, relevant settings must be set up in Definitions per Location in the Definitions and Preferences menu. User inputs available rooms at location, rooms for paxes in the same booking, probability of booking a hotel room per pax profile (Business, Groups, and Leisure, VFR & Expats), and an occupancy-rate calibrating factor.
Routes POI-POI (Module)
A module which counts the passengers between POI-1 and POI-2 among all air reservations during the specified time period.
Routes Hub Centric (Module)
A module which allows to analyse the competition between hub airports and the direct flights over a certain defined route among all air reservations during the specified time period.
Routes (Filters)
A group of parameters available only in Routes module. The parameters included are POI-1, POI-2, Traffic direction type (Directional from POI-2 to POI-1; Directional from POI-1 to POI-2; Non-directional), Traffic Flow, Numbers of intermediate hubs (between POI-1 and POI-2), Intermediate hubs (location), Behind Points (location), and Beyond Points (location).
Scale
A parameter to define the time scale to what extend that the information is shown. Options can range from daily to yearly level of details, subject to contractual specifications.
Saved Queries
An option in the tool bar to save specific queries so that they can be retrieved at any time in the future by selecting them from the corresponding section.
Section
Sections are different analyses types applied for each dataset. They can be accessed from the top bar and are available according to your contractual specifications. There are 6 sections available for Actual Air Reservations dataset: Travel History, On the Book, Forecast, Booking History, Booking Stock, and Benchmark. There are 1 section each for Seat Capacity dataset and Fares dataset: Capacity and Fares.
Segment destination
A filter and a segmentation in the Catchment area module. It is the first flight destination after departing from the origin airport. It does not take into consideration the following steps the traveller might make. This is for route analysis.
Segmentation
Available passenger booking and itinerary details in ForwardKeys that can be analysed. Essential ones for Actual Air Reservation dataset include: Trip Origins in the Arrivals or Overnights module (or Destinations in the Departures module), Length of Stay, Trip Duration, Pax per booking, Lead Times, Cabin, Pax Profiles, and Distribution Channels.
Service
A filter and a segmentation. Each O&D pair has been classified as operated or non operated by crossing them with capacity. ForwardKeys classifies an O&D pair as non operated (unserved) when there are no non-stop services connecting the two cities. An O&D is considered as operated when it has scheduled seats – based on capacity – during the calendar year when the search is made. ForwardKeys takes the search date and checks if there were flights scheduled that year.
Short Haul (Trips)
A category of Haul Length parameter, referring to trips whose distance between Trip Origin and the Destination analysed is 4000 kilometres or shorter. It is used in the ForwardKeys algorithm to define business travellers.
Short Transfer
A category for any Length of Stay parameters, referring to a transfer in which the elapsed time between arrival and departure is up to 1 hour and 59 minutes if the transfer occurs at the same terminal, or up to 2 hours and 59 minutes if involving two terminals.
Show pax residence as
Defines how the pax residence area results will be displayed. Granularity options include towns, which are defined as cities without an airport.
Snapshot Date
A date parameter to be set up before launching a query in Forecast section when analysing Projected Air Reservation dataset. It considers the booking situation upon the selected date as a reference for projecting future results.
Source Market
Equal to the Trip Origin, a primary parameter available in the Trip Attributes group of the query parameters. It can be a subcontinent, a country, a city, an airport, or an airport terminal, subject to your contractual specifications in general and the geographical granularity that is defined for the specific queries.
Stage of Trip Dates
A date parameter for a query. It is the primary analysis period to be defined under Stage of Trip Module in all sections except Booking History.
Stages of Trip (Module)
A module in Actual Air Reservations dataset that displays information related to the passengers’ situation in respect of their travel itinerary while in the Point of Interest (which is the Destination in this module). The available categories include:
- Starting trip: It counts the passengers that are starting their trip at the POI during the selected dates.
- Transferring towards destination: It counts the passengers that are transferring at the POI during the selected dates, before flying forward to their unique real destination.
- Arriving at destination: It counts the passengers that are arriving/disembarking at the POI for a real stay.
- At destination, 1-2 days after arriving: For each selected date, it counts the passengers that have already arrived and are spending their first or second day at the Point of Interest. Day 0 is the day of arrival.
- At destination, staying: It counts travellers that are present in the corresponding city, on their third day or beyond, but not in the last 2 days before leaving the POI.
- At destination, 1-2 days before leaving: For each selected date, it counts the passengers that have already arrived and are spending their last or penultimate day before their departure day.
- Departing from destination to next destination: For each selected date, it counts the passengers that are finishing their stay at destination and are embarking to fly away to another real destination.
- Transferring towards next destination: It counts the travellers that are on transfer at the Point of Interest, that have already spent some nights at some previous destination, and are now going on to another real destination.
- Departing from destination to home: It counts passengers that have stayed at the POI and are now flying back home, meaning all further destinations are either transfer hubs or home.
- Transferring towards home: It counts the travellers that are on transfer at the POI on their way back home.
- Arriving home: It counts the passengers that are local to the POI and arriving back home.
Standard (Expertise level)
The intermediate interface of query parameter panel when working with Actual Air Reservations dataset. It includes more parameters to be set up for in-depth analysis that are often used by ForwardKeys users.
Starting Trip at POI
An option available in the Point of Interest group of parameters in the Continuing Departures module in order to analyse the Point of Interest as the Trip Origin. The query results under this Filter are the same as analysing the same Point of Interest in the Departures module.
Stop-over
A special category in any Length of Stay (LOS) parameter for Actual Air Reservations dataset. It refers to the technical or commercial stopover(s) that travellers make during a direct flight. ForwardKeys utilizes the Capacity dataset to identify these stopovers in bookings in Actual Air Reservations dataset. Depending on the conditions of the route, the airline, or the airport, passengers may have or not the possibility to go shopping during the stop-over.
Stopovers
A segmentation and a parameter available in Capacity dataset, referring to the stopovers in certain direct flights.
Subcontinent
A region with countries grouped together. ForwardKeys database follows the UNWTO definition and has 15 Subcontinents, including: North America (NAME), Caribbean (CRBN), Central America (CAME), South America (SAME), Northern Europe (NEUR), Western Europe (WEUR), Southern Europe (SEUR), Central/Eastern Europe (EEUR), North Africa (NAFR), South Africa (SAFR), Middle East (MIDE), South Asia (SASI), South East Asia (SEAS), North East Asia (NEAS) and Oceania (OCEA).
Surface Arrival
A category of any transport-method-related parameter, referring to the arrival of a trip leg that appears in the ForwardKeys system without a booked flight.
Support
A sub-menu under the Profile menu where all the help materials are available, including Get Started, Advanced Experiences, Glossary, etc., along with an internal access to the ForwardKeys support team.
Ticketing Dates
A data parameter for querying Fares dataset, referring to the time period during which the bookings are ticketed. It is only available with monthly granularity, as Fares data is averaged out on a monthly basis.
Time series (option)
A result display option available in Travel History and Booking History sections. Under Advanced parameter panel view, the options of Y-o-Y (Year over Year) and Time Series will appear above all the query parameters. When Time Series selected, the Travel Dates is replaced by a Time Series selector, with options for the time scale (year, quarter, month, week), the year from which the time series starts, and pre-defined lunar events.
Tool Bar
Located at the bottom of the query parameters and available for all sections. It includes utility options for customising the colour palette, capture the analysis (send results in pdf via email), schedule a recurrent report, export results in different file formats, and save the query.
Traffic Dates
A date parameter for queries. It is the primary analysis period to be defined under Routes Module in all sections except Booking History.
Traffic Flow
A segmentation available only in Routes POI to POI module and Routes Hub Centric module, in the Point of Interest group of parameters. It is the indication of four general traffic types: Local traffic, Traffic with behind points, Traffic with beyond points, and Bridge Traffic, which has both behind and beyond points.
Transfer
Passengers arriving and departing on a different aircraft, or on the same aircraft with different flight numbers within a timeframe of up to 24 hours.
Travel Willingness (module)
Travel Willingness module allows analyses on the most searched O&D pairs, identify which of them remain unserved and evaluate the potential of opening new services thanks to frequency and fares analyses. Here, you can discover the link between search dates and travel dates and focus on a specific area of residence to drive your marketing actions to the right audience.
Traveller
A person who makes an air reservation to travel for a certain time period with specific Travel Dates.
Travel Dates
A general date parameter for the queries. It matches its more specific names under different modules: Arrivals Dates, Departures Dates, Overnights Dates, Nights Out Dates, Traffic Dates, and Stage of Trip Dates.
Travel History
A section where passengers’ visits are displayed according to the Travel Dates of the Bookings.
Trip Duration
A segmentation in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to the total nights of the entire booked trip according to the air reservation information. This segmentation is very useful in the combined trip analysis.
Trip Origin
Equal to Source Market, a primary parameter available in the Trip Attributes group of the query parameters, referring to the starting location of the traveller’s air reservation itinerary. It can be a subcontinent, a country, a city, an airport, or an airport terminal, subject to your contractual specifications in general and the geographical granularity that is defined for the specific queries.
True destination
A filter and a segmentation in the Catchment area module. It is the first destination where the traveller stays more than 24 hours (more than 1 day, end of trip and return home). If the traveller stays more than 24 hours in the segment destination, this and the true destination will be the same. This is used for O&D analysis in the Catchment Area module.
Type of Stay
A segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to the classification of the arrivals depending on whether the stay includes only Weekend Night, Workweek, or Combined stay or No Stay at the Destination.
VAR% Y0 vs Y-1
Variation versus the previous period, expressed in percentage format.
Y0
The current travel or booking period that is being analysed. It corresponds to the time period defined in the first row in any date selector.
Y-1
The time period to be defined to compare with Y0. It corresponds to the time period defined in the second row of any date selector. This is typically the period one year before the period being analysed.
Y-o-Y (Year-over-Year, Year-on-Year)
When comparing the results of the selected period with the same period during previous year, the variation calculated is a year-on-year variation.
This is also an option of result display in ForwardKeys database in Travel History and Booking History sections for Actual Air Reservations dataset. It is the default option. Switch to Advanced parameter panel view can will show the Y-o-Y (Year over Year) label appear above all the query parameters and allows to choose the Time Series option.
Weekend Night
A category of the Type of Stay segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group for query parameters. Friday and Saturday are considered as Weekend Night by default in the ForwardKeys database, but it can be customised for each location under the Definitions & Preferences menu.
Weekly Frequency
A segmentation available in the Capacity dataset, referring to the number of times per week the flight is scheduled to operate under the same flight number.
Workweek
A category of the Type of Stay segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group for query parameters. Monday to Friday are considered as Workweek days by default in the ForwardKeys database, but it can be customised for each location under the Definitions & Preferences menu.
VFR + Expats
A category of the Pax Profile segmentation available in the Trip Attributes group of parameters, referring to the travellers that stay at the destination for 22 nights or more by default, excluding those who are categorised as Business or Group travellers. Because of their long Length of Stay. ForwardKeys considers that these travellers are more likely to visit friends and relatives, or work abroad during the trips that are being analysed. The Length of Stay of VFR+ Expats category can be customised for each location under the Definitions & Preferences menu.
