World - 4 weeks ago

IATA and ATPCO partner to simplify management of taxes, fees and charges on airfares and airline ancillaries.

0 8 min read

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) have announced a partnership to consolidate their passenger ticket taxes, fees, and charges (TFC) solutions, that will reduce costs while simplifying access to trusted data that airlines use to determine the collection of TFCs.

Today, IATA provides TFC data to airlines, while ATPCO provides the automation solutions to integrate that data into their pricing and settlement processes, each requiring separate subscription services and data processes. Under the new partnership, these will be offered as a single service.

TFCs include charges and other taxes, such as VAT as well as security, passenger, and airport service charges which are collected by airlines from passengers on behalf of governments and authorities globally.

According to data provided by IATA, TFCs make up about 20% of the cost of travel, with USD 147 billion in such charges collected every year by airlines, who in turn remit these to the appropriate authorities in full.

Easing the burden on airlines –

IATA and ATPCO will implement new solutions in three phases:

Starting in December 2025, all ATPCO Community Participation member airlines will be provided with a link to directly access to IATA Ticket Tax Box Service (TTBS) for their home country. TTBS is an interactive directory that provides the latest globally published TFCs.

In the first quarter of 2026, IATA and ATPCO will consolidate their TFC solutions into a single product offering. All current products will be available directly from IATA with ATPCO providing development and technical support for the product portfolio. This will establish a unified process for reporting and managing TFC information while ensuring consistent TFC data is available to airlines.

In the longer term, IATA and ATPCO will develop more advanced TFC solutions that will streamline the management and accounting of TFCs on airfares and associated ancillary services. These solutions will be essential support for airlines and their partners as the industry transitions to Offers and Orders.

Collecting TFCs impose a significant administrative and cost burden on the airline industry. Through this partnership, we aim to improve access to standardized TFC information, reduce avoidable industry costs, and improve transparency and administrative efficiency. It also allows us to begin pivoting our financial services portfolio to support the industry’s move to Offers and Orders,” said Frederic Leger, Senior Vice President of IATA Products & Services.

“This partnership was created with airlines in mind, and we are proud to have collaborated with IATA to create a solution that helps airlines better manage taxes, fees, and charges within their retailing strategies. By providing precise data and services that can be integrated and automated in airline pricing and accounting processes, airlines can ensure accurate collection of taxes, save time and money”, said Tom Gregorson, Chief Strategy Officer at ATPCO.

IATA Ticket Tax Box Service (TTBS) –

Ticket Tax Box Service (TTBS) is an interactive Industry Directory that enables all airlines, Global Distribution Systems (GDS), Online Travel Agents (OTAs), IT solution providers, Passenger Service System (PSS), airports, airfare search engines, auditing and consultancy companies, among many more, to access to the latest passenger ticket taxes, fees, and charges (TFCs) published worldwide, supported by official documents provided by local authorities. Over 180 airlines and 30 service providers use TTBS daily.

With innumerable passenger tickets, TFCs and with more than 100 modifications of these taxes being issued each month, staying up-to-date can be challenging, time-consuming, and costly. To make sense of all these changes, IATA consolidates data from official sources of government tax authorities as well as over 6,900 airports in more than 249 countries and compiles them into TTBS, a centralised industry trusted database. Updates are done daily to ensure that TTBS subscribers always use the most accurate rates and complete TFCs for all their calculations.

Through this database, subscribers are able to:

Identify taxes, fees, and charges;
Price, ticket, and process complex itineraries;
Bill, audit, and settle taxes, fees, and charges with speed and efficiency.

Benefits of switching to TTBS –

Ensure accuracy in collecting and remitting taxes, fees, and charges for each ticket;

Benchmark detailed tax data comparison across countries to optimize costs;

Reduce losses due to uncollected taxes from sales agents and airlines;

Decrease auditing fines, minimizes settlement disputes;

Eliminate time-consuming and costly billing rejections;

Receive expected incoming sales and respective due dates before each BSP/CASS settlement;

Access to IATA Subject Matter Experts, training, and help resources;

Export data in XML-format for integration in proprietary systems for streamlined processes;

Deliver better cash flow;

Improve efficiency thanks to user-friendly lookups with data sorted, filtered, and grouped by airport, country, currency, tax code, and flight segment;