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Aviation glossary

RPK

Revenue Passenger Kilometres · Also: revenue passenger kilometres, RPM, passenger kilometres, passenger traffic

Airlines and business

Measure of airline traffic: the number of fare-paying passengers carried multiplied by the distance, in kilometres, that each of them flies.

What it is

If 150 revenue passengers fly 1,000 kilometres, they generate 150,000 revenue passenger kilometres. Unlike a simple head count, RPK takes distance into account, so a traveller on an intercontinental flight weighs far more than one on a short hop, giving a truer picture of how much transport an airline actually sells.

Only revenue passengers count, which excludes, for example, staff travelling on free tickets and crew positioning as passengers for duty. Dividing RPK by ASK for the same period gives the load factor. In the United States the mile-based measure, revenue passenger miles (RPM), is used, and IATA reports global traffic trends in RPK every month.

Related terms

ASKMeasure of an airline's capacity: the number of seats available for sale multiplied by the kilometres flown by each, totalled over a period. Load factorShare of the capacity offered that is actually sold; for passengers, revenue passenger kilometres divided by available seat kilometres over a flight or period. IATATrade association representing a large share of the world's airlines, which sets common commercial and operational standards for air transport. AirlineCompany that carries passengers, cargo or mail by air for payment, holding an air operator certificate issued by its national aviation authority.
Whole glossary

Cite

To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.

This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). RPK. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/rpk

MLA

“RPK.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/rpk. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “RPK.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/rpk.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) RPK. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/rpk (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_rpk,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{RPK}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/rpk},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/rpk}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-17},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/rpk |title=RPK |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}

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