A no-show is a condition when an expected person does not arrive or appear somewhere they were expected to be. In aviation, no-show is when a ticketed passenger doesn't show up for their flight.
[ (link can be found on the right bar under "Related Links" o]
IATA Passenger Standards Conference (PSC)
Such passenger are also sometimes called a no-show.
Airlines attempt to reduce losses caused by no-shows by employing tactics such as
overbooking
Overselling or overbooking is sale of a volatile good or service in excess of actual supply. Overselling is a common practice in the travel and hospitality sectors, in which it is expected that some people will cancel. The practice occurs as an in ...
,
reconfirmation In tourism, reconfirmation is a contractual requirement that the traveller must explicitly re-notify to the seller that they still intend to use their reservation. (link can be found on the right bar under "Related Links" oIATA Passenger Standards C ...
, and no-show penalty charges.
The U.S. government warns consumers to not be a no-show.
Some
airlines
An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in whic ...
include a no-show clause in their
Contract of carriage
A contract of carriage is a contract between a carrier of goods or passengers and the consignor, consignee or passenger. Contracts of carriage typically define the rights, duties and liabilities of parties to the contract, addressing topics such ...
. It basically means that a user not showing up for the outbound flight will be considered a no-show, and all the
connecting flights associated with this one, even a return flight, will be cancelled and no refund will apply.
This is an example of no-show clause in the
terms of use of
Swiss International Air Lines
Swiss International Air Lines AG, colloquially known as SWISS, is the flag carrier of Switzerland, operating scheduled services in Europe and to North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Zurich Airport serves as its sole hub and Geneva ...
(SWISS):
While it is not clear if carriers should refund users regarding navigation
taxes
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or ...
(related to the airline operation and to the governments, which do not appear on a
ticket
Ticket or tickets may refer to:
Slips of paper
* Lottery ticket
* Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start)
* Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a tol ...
), other expenses, like security,
air passenger duty
Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise Duty (tax), duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom or Isle of Man airport on an aircraft that has an authorised take-off weight of more than 5.7 tonnes or more than ...
, and noise/environmental can all be refunded, as these all relate to the passenger's use of any particular airport to depart/arrive on any particular flight.
This clause has raised much concern among users, and court rulings have converged to the conclusion that "carriers cannot force passengers to fly".
Often no-shows are treated the same way regardless of reason. This means that a passenger who is delayed by a problem during the travel to airport will get the return flight cancelled even if wanting to rebook the outbound flight at the airport. A new ticket bought shortly before departure often needs to be business class due to airline policy.
References
{{Commercial aviation
Airline tickets