Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
The statistics on commercial aviation covers scheduled and non-scheduled air traffic at the five Belgian airports Brussels National Airport (EBBR), Charlerloi/Brussels South (EBCI), Antwerpen/Deurne (EBAW) , Liege (EBLG) and Oostende/Brugge (EBOS). Based on European legal bases results are transmitted to the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat) six months after the reference quarter in the form of aggregated monthly data. The survey includes all flights with passenger, freight and mail. The statistics are compiled and transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institute of Belgium on a monthly and annual basis (depending on the data set and airport category). The data collection follows the provisions of the following legal acts: Regulation (EC) N°1358/2003, implementing Regulation N°437/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statisticalreturns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air. Three data sets required by the Regulation – A1, B1 and C1 – are provided to Eurostat:
Dataset A1 - Flight Stage dataset : periodic flight stage data registered for airport-to-airport routes, and broken down by arrivals/departures, scheduled/non-scheduled, passenger service/all-freight and mail service, airline information and aircraft type. The values provided concern passengers on board, freight and mail on board, commercial air flights as well as passenger seats available.
Dataset B1 - On Flight Origin/Destination dataset : periodic on flight origin/destination data registered for airport-to-airport routes, and broken down by arrivals/departures, scheduled/non scheduled, passenger service/all-freight and mail service and airline information. The values provided concern passengers carried and freight and mail loaded or unloaded.
Dataset C1 - Airport dataset: periodic airport data registered for declaring airports, and broken down by airline information. The values provided concern total passengers carried, total direct transit passengers, total transfer (indirect transit) passengers (optional variable), total freight and mail loaded or unloaded, total commercial aircraft movements and total aircraft movements.
Data sets A1 and B1 are provided on monthly basis, while data set C1 is provided on annual basis including the optional variable - total number of transfer passengers.
3.2. Classification system
Airports are classified according to ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) airport coded as listed in ICAO document 7910.
Aircrafts are classified according to aggregated aircraft categories based on the ICAO aircraft codes as listed in ICAO document 8643.
Airlines are classified according to the ICAO airline codes as listed in the ICAO document 8585. When providing the data to Eurostat, the region where they are licensed is coded accordingly either as European Union (EU) or outside the European Union (non-EU).
3.3. Coverage - sector
Air transport - commercial air services and civil aircraft movements for the airports with traffic in excess of 15 000 passenger units annually.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The main concepts used in this domain are the following:
Community airport - adefined area on land or water in a Member State subject to the provisions of the treaty, which is intended to be used either wholly or in part for the arrival, departure and surface movement of aircraft and open for commercial air services.
Flight stage - the operation of an aircraft from take-off to its next landing. This is linked to the definition of passengers (or freight and mail) on board.
Passengers on board - all passengers on board of the aircraft upon landing at the reporting airport or at taking off from the reporting airport. All revenue and non-revenue passengers on board an aircraft during a flight stage. Includes direct transit passengers (counted at arrivals and departures).
Direct transit passengers - passengers who, after a short stop, continue their journey on the same aircraft on a flight having the same flight number as the flight on which they arrive.
Transfer of indirect transit passengers - passengers arriving and departing on a different aircraft within 24 hours, or on the same aircraft bearing different flight numbers. They are counted twice: once upon arrival and once on departure.
Freight and mail on board - all freight and mail on board of the aircraft upon landing at the reporting airport or at taking off from the reporting airport. All freight and mail on board an aircraft during a flight stage. Includes direct transit freight and mail (counted at arrivals and departures). Includes express services and diplomatic bags. Excludes passenger baggage.
On flight origin and destination - traffic on a commercial air service identified by a unique flight number subdivided by airport pairs in accordance with point of embarkation and point of disembarkation on that flight. For passengers, freight or mail where the airport of embarkation is not known, the aircraft origin should be deemed to be the point of embarkation; similarly, if the airport of disembarkation is not known, the aircraft destination should be deemed to be the point of disembarkation. This is linked to the definition of passengers carried and freight and mail loaded or unloaded.
Passengers carried - all passengers on a specific flight (with one flight number) counted once only and not repeatedly on each individual stage of that flight. All revenue and non-revenue passengers whose journey begin or terminates at the reporting airport and transfer passengers joining or leaving the flight at the reporting airport. Excludes direct transit passengers.
Freight and mail loaded or unloaded - all freight and mail loaded onto or unloaded from an aircraft. Includes express services and diplomatic bags. Excludes passenger baggage. Excludes direct transit freight and mail.
Passenger unit - one passenger unit is equivalent to either one passenger or 100 kilograms of freight and mail.
3.5. Statistical unit
The data are collected at individual airport level.
3.6. Statistical population
Four categories of Community airports are defined by the Regulation (EC) N°1358/2003:
Category "0": Airports with less than 15 000 passenger units per year are considered as having only "occasional commercial traffic" without obligation to report.
Category "1": Airports with between 15 000 and 150 000 passenger units per year shall transmit only aggregated airport data (Data set C).
Category "2": Airports with more than 150 000 passenger units and less than 1 500 000 passenger units per year shall transmit flight stage data, on flight origin destination data as well as aggregated airport data (Data sets A, B and C).
Category "3": Airports with at least 1 500 000 passenger units per year shall transmit flight stage data, on flight origin destination data as well as aggregated airport data (Data sets A, B and C).
Airports under category ‘0’ are not included in the statistics provided to Eurostat.
3.7. Reference area
International airports located on the territory of Belgium.
3.8. Coverage - Time
All data sets have been provided according to the legal act (with no derogations) starting from 2002 reference year. Partial information (annual aggregates on passenger transport only) are available starting from 1993 reference year.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The units used depend on the variables collected within each data set and are: number of passengers, kilogrammes (for freight and mail), aircraft movements and passenger seats available.
According to the legal act the weight of freight and mail is transmitted in tonnes with three decimal places.
2023.
Data is collected on a monthly basis for the purpose of data sets A1 and B1 and on annual basis for the purpose of data set C1.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
National level:
No legal acts or agreements at national level.
European level: until 2002, the data were provided to Eurostat on a voluntary basis; since 2002 data provision is based on an EP and Council framework legal act and on several implementing Commission Regulations:
Koninklijk Besluit (KB 2014/11554) van 9 oktober betreffende een versplicht statistisch onderzoek naar het goederenvervoer over de weg voor eigen rekening of voor rekening van derden door de Algemene Directie Statistiek - Statistics Belgium.
European level:
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
The data provided to Eurostat in the data sets A1, B1 and C1 contain no confidential information.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Only the airline information data is subject to confidentiality. Before providing the data to Eurostat, the region where they are licensed is coded accordingly either as European Union (EU) or outside the European Union (non-EU).
The data provided to Eurostat in the data sets A1, B1 and C1 contain no confidential information.
Data confidentiality problems:
The airline information is confidential.
8.1. Release calendar
Air transport statistics is published yearly according the release calender of the NSI (National Institut Statistique). Publication is on the website (statbel.fgov.be).
8.2. Release calendar access
The release calender is publicly available on the website of the NSI.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Main results of commercial aviation statistics are available on the website of Statistics Belgium (statbel.fgov.be).
Air transport statistics is published yearly according the release calender of the NSI. Publication is on the website (statbel.fgov.be).
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Air transport statistics is published yearly according the release calender of the NSI. Publication is on the website (statbel.fgov.be).
News release are published after 8 months of the end of the reference period.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Tables and historical overviews are published after 8 months of the end of the reference period on statbel.fgov.be.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
No online database is available. Tables and historical overviews are on statbel.fgov.be.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Microdata are not accessible.
Tables and historical overviews are published on statbel.fgov.be.
According to general rules, procedures and documentation of the NSI.
11.1. Quality assurance
Before data are sent to Eurostat and before official release of the results on the Statbel-website, data are validated according the NSI rules and procedures.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
No information available.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The key users of air transport statistics collected according to the Regulation 437/2003 are:
Ministery of Transport;
Universities and reserach institutions;
Users involved in the aviation industry;
Students.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not known.
12.3. Completeness
Not known.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy of the air transport statistics data is good. The processing with several plausibilty checks as well as checks done before transmitting data to Eurostat provides a satisfactory accuracy of the data.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
13.3. Non-sampling error
The accuracy of the data depends on the data delivered by the airports. In case of doubt, the airport is contacted.
14.1. Timeliness
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are transmitted to Eurostat 6 months after the reference month/year.
Difficulties to respect deadline for data transmission: None.
14.2. Punctuality
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are available before the deadline for the data provisions set up in the legal act.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
There are no problems of comparability for air transport data collection with a very high data comparability across contries due to the common legal basis. Comparisions of the data regarding passengers and freight/mail declared by partner reporting airports (so-called mirror checks) by Eurostat allow further the detection of possible inconsistencies which can be corrected if possible.
15.2. Comparability - over time
As from 2002 the statistics on air transport are comparable over time, as they are collected following fully the provisions of the legal act - the Regulation 437/2003. Time series checks are regularly made to detect inconsistencies in the data.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
There are no cross-domain coherence checks so far.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Data published by Eurostat and by the NSI are coherent since they use the same data as input.
The response burden is put on the airports.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Before data are sent to Eurostat and before official release of the results on the Statbel-website, data are validated according the NSI rules and procedures.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Only final data are disseminated.
18.1. Source data
Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board)
Airports (Brussels, Ostend, Antwerp) and MET (Ministère de l´Équipement et des Transports) (Charleroi and Liège):
Aircraft Information in A1: ICAO codes for aircraft types are collected from flight plans and/or from airlines or their handling agents.
Seats information information in A1: Seat information depends on the reporting airport. (technical data for Charleroi and Liège, commercial data for Brussels, number of passengers for Antwerp).
Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded)
Airports (Brussels, Ostend, Antwerp) and MET (Ministère de l´Équipement et des Transports) (Charleroi and Liège).
Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data: not applicable.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the CNA: the airports supply the direct transit passenger information. Data are collected directly from airlines or their handling agents.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA: the airports supply the commercial and total aircraft movement information. Data are collected directly from flight plans and/or from airlines or their handling agents.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Information needed for the data sets A1 and B1 are collected monthly form the airports. Yearly for data set C1.
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected on a monthly basis from the airports for datasets A1 and B1. Yearly for dataset C1.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation procedure :
Check data format;
Check airport, aircraft, airline code;
Check accordance between passenger/freight service and number of passengers/freight tonnage;
Check accordance between passenger seats and number of passengers;
When errors are detected, the data are corrected (correct codes, average aircraft capacities).
Description of consistency checks :
Check of the ‘top 30’ most important origins/destinations of the reporting airport.
18.5. Data compilation
After various plausibility checks, the data received from the airports are compiled into monthly data following the structure of the data sets which are preset by regulation (EC) 1358/2003.
Data codification practices: No transcodification needed.
Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery: No problems noticed.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
None.
The statistics on commercial aviation covers scheduled and non-scheduled air traffic at the five Belgian airports Brussels National Airport (EBBR), Charlerloi/Brussels South (EBCI), Antwerpen/Deurne (EBAW) , Liege (EBLG) and Oostende/Brugge (EBOS). Based on European legal bases results are transmitted to the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat) six months after the reference quarter in the form of aggregated monthly data. The survey includes all flights with passenger, freight and mail. The statistics are compiled and transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institute of Belgium on a monthly and annual basis (depending on the data set and airport category). The data collection follows the provisions of the following legal acts: Regulation (EC) N°1358/2003, implementing Regulation N°437/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statisticalreturns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air. Three data sets required by the Regulation – A1, B1 and C1 – are provided to Eurostat:
Dataset A1 - Flight Stage dataset : periodic flight stage data registered for airport-to-airport routes, and broken down by arrivals/departures, scheduled/non-scheduled, passenger service/all-freight and mail service, airline information and aircraft type. The values provided concern passengers on board, freight and mail on board, commercial air flights as well as passenger seats available.
Dataset B1 - On Flight Origin/Destination dataset : periodic on flight origin/destination data registered for airport-to-airport routes, and broken down by arrivals/departures, scheduled/non scheduled, passenger service/all-freight and mail service and airline information. The values provided concern passengers carried and freight and mail loaded or unloaded.
Dataset C1 - Airport dataset: periodic airport data registered for declaring airports, and broken down by airline information. The values provided concern total passengers carried, total direct transit passengers, total transfer (indirect transit) passengers (optional variable), total freight and mail loaded or unloaded, total commercial aircraft movements and total aircraft movements.
Data sets A1 and B1 are provided on monthly basis, while data set C1 is provided on annual basis including the optional variable - total number of transfer passengers.
26 November 2024
The main concepts used in this domain are the following:
Community airport - adefined area on land or water in a Member State subject to the provisions of the treaty, which is intended to be used either wholly or in part for the arrival, departure and surface movement of aircraft and open for commercial air services.
Flight stage - the operation of an aircraft from take-off to its next landing. This is linked to the definition of passengers (or freight and mail) on board.
Passengers on board - all passengers on board of the aircraft upon landing at the reporting airport or at taking off from the reporting airport. All revenue and non-revenue passengers on board an aircraft during a flight stage. Includes direct transit passengers (counted at arrivals and departures).
Direct transit passengers - passengers who, after a short stop, continue their journey on the same aircraft on a flight having the same flight number as the flight on which they arrive.
Transfer of indirect transit passengers - passengers arriving and departing on a different aircraft within 24 hours, or on the same aircraft bearing different flight numbers. They are counted twice: once upon arrival and once on departure.
Freight and mail on board - all freight and mail on board of the aircraft upon landing at the reporting airport or at taking off from the reporting airport. All freight and mail on board an aircraft during a flight stage. Includes direct transit freight and mail (counted at arrivals and departures). Includes express services and diplomatic bags. Excludes passenger baggage.
On flight origin and destination - traffic on a commercial air service identified by a unique flight number subdivided by airport pairs in accordance with point of embarkation and point of disembarkation on that flight. For passengers, freight or mail where the airport of embarkation is not known, the aircraft origin should be deemed to be the point of embarkation; similarly, if the airport of disembarkation is not known, the aircraft destination should be deemed to be the point of disembarkation. This is linked to the definition of passengers carried and freight and mail loaded or unloaded.
Passengers carried - all passengers on a specific flight (with one flight number) counted once only and not repeatedly on each individual stage of that flight. All revenue and non-revenue passengers whose journey begin or terminates at the reporting airport and transfer passengers joining or leaving the flight at the reporting airport. Excludes direct transit passengers.
Freight and mail loaded or unloaded - all freight and mail loaded onto or unloaded from an aircraft. Includes express services and diplomatic bags. Excludes passenger baggage. Excludes direct transit freight and mail.
Passenger unit - one passenger unit is equivalent to either one passenger or 100 kilograms of freight and mail.
The data are collected at individual airport level.
Four categories of Community airports are defined by the Regulation (EC) N°1358/2003:
Category "0": Airports with less than 15 000 passenger units per year are considered as having only "occasional commercial traffic" without obligation to report.
Category "1": Airports with between 15 000 and 150 000 passenger units per year shall transmit only aggregated airport data (Data set C).
Category "2": Airports with more than 150 000 passenger units and less than 1 500 000 passenger units per year shall transmit flight stage data, on flight origin destination data as well as aggregated airport data (Data sets A, B and C).
Category "3": Airports with at least 1 500 000 passenger units per year shall transmit flight stage data, on flight origin destination data as well as aggregated airport data (Data sets A, B and C).
Airports under category ‘0’ are not included in the statistics provided to Eurostat.
International airports located on the territory of Belgium.
2023.
Data is collected on a monthly basis for the purpose of data sets A1 and B1 and on annual basis for the purpose of data set C1.
Overall accuracy of the air transport statistics data is good. The processing with several plausibilty checks as well as checks done before transmitting data to Eurostat provides a satisfactory accuracy of the data.
The units used depend on the variables collected within each data set and are: number of passengers, kilogrammes (for freight and mail), aircraft movements and passenger seats available.
According to the legal act the weight of freight and mail is transmitted in tonnes with three decimal places.
After various plausibility checks, the data received from the airports are compiled into monthly data following the structure of the data sets which are preset by regulation (EC) 1358/2003.
Data codification practices: No transcodification needed.
Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery: No problems noticed.
Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board)
Airports (Brussels, Ostend, Antwerp) and MET (Ministère de l´Équipement et des Transports) (Charleroi and Liège):
Aircraft Information in A1: ICAO codes for aircraft types are collected from flight plans and/or from airlines or their handling agents.
Seats information information in A1: Seat information depends on the reporting airport. (technical data for Charleroi and Liège, commercial data for Brussels, number of passengers for Antwerp).
Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded)
Airports (Brussels, Ostend, Antwerp) and MET (Ministère de l´Équipement et des Transports) (Charleroi and Liège).
Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data: not applicable.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the CNA: the airports supply the direct transit passenger information. Data are collected directly from airlines or their handling agents.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA: the airports supply the commercial and total aircraft movement information. Data are collected directly from flight plans and/or from airlines or their handling agents.
Air transport statistics is published yearly according the release calender of the NSI. Publication is on the website (statbel.fgov.be).
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are transmitted to Eurostat 6 months after the reference month/year.
Difficulties to respect deadline for data transmission: None.
There are no problems of comparability for air transport data collection with a very high data comparability across contries due to the common legal basis. Comparisions of the data regarding passengers and freight/mail declared by partner reporting airports (so-called mirror checks) by Eurostat allow further the detection of possible inconsistencies which can be corrected if possible.
As from 2002 the statistics on air transport are comparable over time, as they are collected following fully the provisions of the legal act - the Regulation 437/2003. Time series checks are regularly made to detect inconsistencies in the data.
