---
title: "Create a Flight"
slug: "creating-a-flight"
updated: 2026-05-20T15:29:26Z
published: 2026-05-20T15:29:26Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.tritondigital.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create a Flight

You can create a new direct or Programmatic Guaranteed flight in these ways:

- Go to **Ads > Flights** then select **+ New flight**
- In a **New campaign** page, select **Create campaign and… > Create flight**.
- In a saved campaign, select the **Flights**tab then **+ New flight**.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-create.png)

1. In the **New flight** page, fill in **Flight details**. See [Flight Details](/user/docs/creating-a-flight#flight-details).
2. Enter **Delivery details**. See [Delivery Details](/user/docs/creating-a-flight#delivery-details).
3. Optional: In **Capping**, add a frequency cap. See [Capping](/user/docs/creating-a-flight#capping).
4. In **Targeting**, specify publishers, listeners, and time. See [Targeting](/user/docs/creating-a-flight#targeting).
5. Optional: Enter **Additional information**, such as External ID. See [Additional Information](/user/docs/creating-a-flight#additional-information).
6. Select **Create flight**. See [Save a flight](/user/docs/creating-a-flight#save-a-flight).
7. After you have saved the flight you can add creative. See [Creative](/user/docs/creating-a-flight#creative).

## CPM and CPS Flights

You can create campaigns with impression-based ([CPM](/user/docs/new-tap-user-guide-glossary#cpm)) or spot-based ([CPS](/user/docs/new-tap-user-guide-glossary#cps)) pricing. However, you cannot mix pricing models in the same campaign. All the flights in a campaign must have the same pricing model, either CPM or CPS, not both. For more information, see [CPS (Spot-based) Flights](/user/docs/cps-spot-based-flights).

You get more benefit and value from TAP when you use the CPM pricing model. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions in this topic are for creating flights using CPM. Some of the features described are not available for flights using the CPS pricing model.

## Flight Details

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-details(1).png)

### Campaign

Select the campaign to assign the flight to. A flight can only be assigned to one campaign.

- If you arrived at the **New flight** page directly from a campaign, that campaign is selected by default. However, you have the option of selecting a different campaign from the ones that already exist in your organization.
- Select **Create a campaign** to open the **Create campaign for flight** panel. After you select **Create campaign** you are returned to the **Create flight** page where you can continue to work on the flight.

### Flight Name

Use a name that clearly identifies the flight so it is easy to find in your list of flights.

- Each flight name must be unique in its campaign.
- Optional: Select **Copy name from campaign** to use the campaign name as the flight name. You might have to edit the flight’s name to make it unique.

### Flight Type

Choose either **Direct Sold**or **Programmatic Guaranteed**.

- When creating a **Programmatic Guaranteed**flight, some of the flight’s options change. For more information, see [Programmatic Guaranteed Flights](/user/docs/programmatic-guaranteed-flights).
- If you are an inventory owner using [Reach Extension](/user/docs/reach-extension), your only option is reselling. For more information, see [Reach Extension Flights](/user/docs/reach-extension-flights).

## Delivery Details

### Start Date, End Date, Start Time, End Time

You can specify when TAP begins and stops delivering the flight’s ads.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-delivery-details-dates.png)

Enter **Start date** and **End date**to specify when to begin and stop delivering the flight’s creative.

- Select **Start date > Start today** to quickly enter today's date. TAP will send the flight to the ad server in a few minutes.
- The **End date > Presets** menu only appears after you enter **Start date**.
- Select **End date > Presets** to quickly choose a date range such as **Start + 7 days** or **End of start date month**.
- If either the flight or its campaign are saved as a draft, the flight will not actually start delivering until it is [activated](/user/docs/status).
- If the campaign already has one or more active or paused flights, the **End of campaign** preset uses the end-date from the flight that ends farthest in the future.

Enter **Start time**or **End time** for custom times to begin and end flight delivery**.**

- Flight delivery begins at the **Start time**on the **Start date**.
- Flight delivery ends at the **End time**on the **End date**.
- By default, the flight starts at **00:00** on **Start date** and ends at **23:59** on **End date**.
- These times are in the station’s timezone.

### Priority Type and Priority Level

You can specify the order in which TAP considers flights for delivery with **Priority type** and**Priority level**.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-details-priority.png)

TAP considers flights with higher priority before flights with lower priority. For details, see [How Ad Selection Works](/user/docs/how-ad-selection-works).

- **Priority type** organizes priorities into groups. Flights of the same priority type are considered for delivery in the same ad break or ad pod.
- After choosing **Priority type**, you can choose **Priority level**. **Priority level** specifies the order of the delivery among other flights of the same priority type.
- You can change **Priority type**up to one full day before the the flight’s **Start date**.
- You cannot change a flight’s **Priority type** once the flight’s [Delivery Status](/user/docs/status) is **Ready**.
- You can change **Priority level** at any time during the run of a flight.

| Priority type | Description |
| --- | --- |
| **Sponsorship** | Highest priority type. Sponsorship ads play before any other ads are eligible. If you want your sponsorship flight to continue delivering after a daily goal is reached, select **No Goal**. |
| **Standard** | Ads play only after any eligible sponsorship ads have played. For typical direct sales ads, use **Standard** with a **Priority Level** of **Normal**. |
| **Programmatic** | The effect of this priority type depends on whether or not the flight has a goal: - **No Goal:** the flight competes with programmatic flights based on price. - **Goal:** the flight only competes with programmatic flights if its pacing is **Even pacing**and only after the daily goal is reached. This priority type has only one level, **Normal**. |
| **Bulk** | Generally used for remnant types of buys, where reaching an impression goal is not as important as the contracted CPM. CPM for bulk flights is usually lower than the regular rate card. |
| **Filler** | Lowest priority type. Only plays when nothing else is available. Used to prevent "dead air". For more information, see [Filler](/user/docs/filler)*.* This priority type has only two levels, **Normal** and **Low**. |

Examples:

- A flight with type **Bulk**and **High**level is lower in overall priority than a flight with type **Standard**and **Low**level priority.
- To play two sponsorship flights in the same ad break or ad pod, set their **Priority type** to **Sponsorship**. To make sure the first flight plays first, set its **Priority Level** to **High**and set the other flight’s **Priority Level** to **Normal**. When the ad break or ad pod runs, the first flight’s creative will play first, followed by the second sponsorship ad.

### Pacing

Use **Pacing**to specify the rate at which Triton delivers impressions of the flight’s creative.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-delivery-details-type-level-pacing.png)

The **Pacing** method determines the rate at which TAP delivers a flight’s ads to meet the **Goal**within the **Start date** and **End date**. **Pacing**is not available when **Goal**is set to **No goal**.

| Pacing | Description |
| --- | --- |
| **Even pacing** | Deliver impressions equally over the duration of a campaign. - Advantage: Consistent impressions every day during the campaign. - Drawback: Risk of under-delivery if listenership is low on the final day, like a weekend. |
| **Front-loaded** | Double the daily goal on the first day, then deliver the remainder of the total goal equally on the remaining days. - Advantage: Boost at the beginning helps ensure you reach the total goal. - Drawback: Risk of finishing early. |
| **Trend-based** | Uses the past 28 day's activity to adjust daily goals to more closely match listenership patterns. - Advantage: Helps ensure you reach the total goal and distributes impressions over the duration of the flight. - Drawback: Need at least 28 days of requests backlog to calculate the trend. Less consistent estimate of delivery numbers. Can give bad results for unstable trends. |
| **As fast as possible** | Like **Front-loaded** but does not stop delivering even when daily goals are exceeded. After exceeding the daily goal, the flight will only be selected if it does not put another flight at risk. - Advantage: helps ensure you reach the total goal, including for a very large goal. - Drawback: High risk of finishing early for high-listenership stations. |

****Expand to see pacing recommendations and tips****

#### Recommendations

- In most cases, **Trend-based** is the most useful pacing option. It is especially good for stations that typically get a traffic drop on weekends. Your organization administrator can customize the pacing settings to set this as the default pacing option.
- **Trend-based** is recommended for **CPS delivery** because CPS delivery is tied to the listenership of the station. Trend-based delivers more impressions per spot in hours when there is a larger audience than it does when the audience is smaller.

#### Other Tips

- **Trend-based****pacing can be very effective, but there are a few things to watch out for:
  - Targeted stations or podcasts need to have at least**28 days of delivery history** for the trend calculation (which is based on avails forecasting) to work properly. So **do not use this option on new stations or podcasts** until they have enough history to enable good forecasting.
  - This option is **recommended** for flights of fairly short duration (e.g., one or two weeks), and when the trend is stable. For exceptions, see “For flights of very short duration,” below.
  - This option is **not recommended** during times when the trend is not stable, such as within 28 days of a major event such as the Super Bowl or World Cup.
  - Combining **trend-based** pacing with **time targeting** essentially disables the trend-based algorithm. The TAP UI will still show "Trend-based" as the selected pacing option, but the pacing within the defined time targeting window will behave as **Even** paced.
- For flights that **end on a weekend**, when listenership tends to be lower, **Trend-based** or **Front-loaded** are usually the best options.
  - Combining trend-based pacing with time targeting essentially disables the trend-based algorithm. The TAP UI will still show "Trend-based" as the selected pacing option, but the pacing within the defined time targeting window will behave as **Even** paced.
- For flights of **very short duration** (1 or 2 days):
  - If the flight *ends on a weekend day*, and your priority is reaching the total goal, **Front-loaded** is the best option.
  - If the flight *ends on a weekend day*, and want to ensure you deliver over every day, **Trend-based** is the best option.
  - If the flight *does not include a weekend day*, **Even pacing** is the best option.
- When you select [**No goal**](/user/docs/no-goal-flights), the pacing options disappear from the Flight page because pacing is irrelevant with "no goal" flights.
- Your organization administrator can disable some pacing options, in which case they will not appear on the flight page.

### Rate, Pricing Model, and Goal

You can set the rates, pricing model, and impression goal for your flight.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-delivery-details-rate.png)

> [!NOTE]
> You cannot change a flight’s **Net rate** or **Gross rate** once the flight’s delivery status is **Ready**.

- **Net rate:** Your rate after deducting commissions, and so on. If you're not sure of your net rate, use the same number as your gross rate.
- **Gross rate**: The full ad rate before deductions.
- **Pricing model**: Choose **CPM** (cost per thousand) for the standard pricing model. Choose **CPS**for cost per spot. For more information, see [CPS (Spot-based) Flights](/user/docs/cps-spot-based-flights).
- **Goal**: The number of impressions that you want Triton to deliver for this flight. This is the *total*goal, which is divided into daily goals according to **Pacing**. Also see [No Goal Flights](/user/docs/no-goal-flights).
- **Estimated value**: **Goal**multiplied by **Net rate.**This updates when you change the rate or goal.

### Content Type and Position

You can specify what kind of content to place your flight’s ads in. You can also specify where in the content that the ads should be placed. You can select any combination of **Content type** and **Position**. Impressions are distributed evenly across all selected methods.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-delivery-details-method.png)

You can specify what kind of content to deliver flights with **Content type**:

- **Live**
- **Podcast**
- **Other (On-demand)**

You can choose where the flight will be delivered in the content with **Position**:

- **Pre-roll**
- **Mid-roll**
- **Post-roll**

You cannot select **Post-roll**if the only selected content type is **Live**.

### Delivery Verification

Select **Open Measurement** to include the `<AdVerifications>` element in Triton’s VAST response.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/flight-delivery-details-verification.png)

This applies only to **Other (On-Demand)** content. This option is only available if you have Open Measurement Interface Definition (OMID) enabled for the organization. For details, contact your Triton Digital Customer Success Manager.

## Capping

Use **Capping**to limit how frequently a flight’s ads are delivered in different situations. For example, you can set frequency caps such as 1 impression per ad break or 2 impressions per download. For details, see [Frequency Caps](/user/docs/flights-frequency-caps).

## Targeting

Add one or more targeting rules for content, listener, or time. For details, see [Targeting](/user/docs/targeting).

If the flight is not set to deliver to all content by default, you must target specific stations or podcasts. For details, see [Content Targeting and Content Access](/user/docs/content-targeting-and-content-access).

## Creative

You must save a flight before you can add creative. If the **Add creative** field is disabled, select **Create flight** at the bottom of the panel, then return to this section of the flight to add the creative. For more information, see [Creative](/user/docs/creative).

## Additional Information

**Additional Information** is for your own use. You and others who can access this flight can refer to this information later.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-additional-info.png)

- **External ID**: An [external ID](/user/docs/new-tap-user-guide-glossary#external-id) is an identifier from another system. Example: Enter the ID from your order management system.
- **Notes**: Enter reminders or memos.

## Save a Flight

Once you have entered the relevant flight information, make a selection at the bottom of the page to save the flight.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/Flight-create-multiple-bulk.png)

- **Create flight:** The flight is created and you remain on the flight page, where the **Flight overview** panel is now visible.
- You can also select **Create multiple flights** to bulk-create up to ten flights. Bulk creating flights works exactly the same way as [bulk creating campaigns](/user/docs/creating-campaigns#bulk-creating-campaigns).
- **Create flight and...**
  - **Create another flight:** The flight is created and a new, blank, **Create flight** page appears.
  - **Add creative by copying from another flight**: The flight is created and [a panel appears where you can choose another flight](/user/docs/creative#creative-during-notes) *from the same advertiser*, and use its creative.
  - **Add creative with custom VAST URL**: The flight is created and the [Custom VAST URL](/user/docs/manually-entering-a-vast-url) panel appears.
- **Create as draft:** Select this to create the flight as a [draft](/user/docs/status).

Draft flights do not reserve inventory. Only active and paused flights reserve inventory. Also, if the flight’s campaign is saved as a draft, the flight will not actually start delivering until it is activated.

If you see an error message similar to the one below when trying to save a flight, it usually means a change was made to the flight from someone else who also has access to it. Check to make sure your changes don't conflict with the changes made by the other person. To resolve, simply reload the page and try again.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/7124b381-0a94-401a-abbd-9df9c4ea5dff/Images/Documentation/image-1684238848190.png)