In the travel industry, companies need to be able to keep track of their various clients and customers. That’s where the Passenger Name Record, or PNR comes in – it’s a record of every single passenger that goes through the services. And this isn’t a vague, uninformed, record either. The PNR contains the itinerary of every single passenger, or group of passengers travelling together, in the database of the Computer Reservation system, or CRS. This allows travel industry companies to basically know everything about their customers, which in turn allows them to serve the customers better.
The PNR system was originally created by airlines which needed to share information regarding passengers that transferred flights, but PNR now is widely used across the entire travel industry. This covers railways, car rentals, and of course airlines, but also includes things like tours and hotels. The system, however, is more standardized in the originating industry of airlines – there are actually standards defined by the IATA and ATA about interline messaging pertaining to the PNR status.