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.
Datasets provided follow Regulation (EC) N°1358/2003, implementing Regulation N°437/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air:
Dataset A1 - Flight Stage dataset
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
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
Airport data registered for declaring airports. The values provided concern total passengers carried, total direct transit passengers, total freight and mail loaded or unloaded, total commercial aircraft movements and aircraft movements.
3.2. Classification system
Airports (reporting airports and partner airports) are coded using the 4-letter ICAO codes as listed in the ICAO Document 7910. The airport codes are composed as a concatenation of the ICAO Aeronautical fixed service area codes (first digit), ICAO country identifier codes (second digit) and national telecommunication center identifier codes (third and fourth digit); the airport code is thus a four digits alphanumeric code.
The airport codes are to be used in all datasets for the reporting airport and also (in A1 and B1) for the partner airport. Eurostat provides the updated list of airports codes to all reporting countries on a regular basis (approximately every quarter) via the EDAMIS dataset 'AIR_ICAO_Q'.
If the partner airport is unknown, the code to be used to report data is "ZZZZ".
Aircraft are coded following the 4-letter codes of the ICAO aircraft type designators, as listed in ICAO Document 8643.
Eurostat provides the updated list of aircraft codes to all reporting countries on a regular basis (approximately every quarter) via EDAMIS as the 'AIR_ICAO_Q' data set.
For unknown type of aircraft, the "ZZZZ" code has to be used.
Air Transport Operators are classified using the 3-letter air transport operator code as listed in ICAO Document 8585 as an obligatory level of detail for all data provisions to Eurostat. However, this information might be regarded as sensitive, and/or would be difficult to obtain from airport authorities. That is why Commission Regulation 1358/2003 gives the list of codes to be used alternatively for the provision of information related to the airline.
One of the codification approaches listed below (from the most to least detailed) is used:
>ICAO airline codes from the ICAO code-list Document 8585. "1+ISO alpha 2 country code” (country of licensing of the airline) for airlines licensed in a Member State.
"2+ISO alpha 2 country code” for airlines not licensed in a Member State. 1EU or 1NE.
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 only at arrivals).
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.
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. 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
Data is 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 (Datasets C1).
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 (Datasets A1, B1 and C1).
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 (Datasets A1, B1 and C1).
Airports under category "0" are not included in the statistics provided to Eurostat.
3.7. Reference area
Commercial airports located at the territory of Spain.
3.8. Coverage - Time
All data sets have been provided according to the legal act (with no derogations) starting from 2001 reference year.
Some partial information available: annual data on passengers carried and freight and mail loaded and unloaded (1993-1999) and monthly data on passengers carried and freight and mail loaded and unloaded for the reference year 2000. Monthly data on commercial passenger and freight flights are available as from reference year 2000.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The units used depend on the variables collected within each data set and are: number of passengers, tonnes, flights, aircraft movements and passenger seats available.
The weight of freight and mail is transmitted in tonnes with three decimal places (as from reference year 2016).
Reference year is the calendar year 2023.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
National level:
The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory.
The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).
European level: until 2002, 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:
The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity cannot be published.
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.
As concerns air transport statistics, the data provided to Eurostat in the datasets 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.
8.1. Release calendar
Within the frame of Regulation 1358/2003, data is transmitted as soon as possible and not later than six months after the end of the period of reference, and Eurostat shall disseminate it appropriately.
The results of the statistical operations are occasionally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed in the section of the website Transport - Eurostat.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
The results of the statistical operations are occasionally disseminated by using publications that can be accessed in the section of the website Transport - Eurostat.
The Aviation Reference Manual contains detailed methodological information as well as background information on the implementation of the legal acts and on how data are processed and disseminated by Eurostat.
Additional definitions of the terms used in the frame of the statistics on air transport are available in the Glossary for transport statistics.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
The Aviation Reference Manual includes a dedicated section describing the quality checks applied to the incoming data as well as showing the results of the quality analysis of the data received.
Data quality is ensured by the implementation of a common and well established methodology (Aviation Reference Manual) for data collection and compilation at country level. Data is subsequently validated in Eurostat by applying different controls (codification, format checks, consistency over time, inter-datasets checks) on every incoming data set, before and after treatment, as well as by cross-checking partner countries figures (mirror statistics). The results of data quality control are always provided to the reporting country either for information or for comments or/and corrections.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Data quality can be assessed as good and there is a set of validation rules and quality checks done. Mirror checks and checks for consistency over time are done as well.
New version of EDAMIS for validation datasets allows to correct any structural error before final data submission. Moreover, annually, Eurostat provides a data quality report with a summary of the main findings affecting data quality.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The usual users of air transport data are people from different Commission Services or other European institutions (e.g.: DG MOVE, DG REGIO, DG COMP, the European Court of Auditors), National Statistical Authorities, international or other governmental institutions (Ministries for Transport), universities or research institutions, journalists as well as the users involved in the industry as airlines, airports or air traffic management.
Users mainly request these data to properly monitor the development of air transport in the EU and other European countries, evaluate the impact of the air transport industry in the economy, quantify the importance of the transport flows of passengers and freight at intra-EU and extra-EU level and assess the competition in the air transport market.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
There is no user survey especially on air transport statistics data carried out.
12.3. Completeness
The collection of data on air transport statistics is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 437/2003. All variables in all three data sets are provided except voluntary variables (transfer passengers).
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy of the data is good. Regular mirror checks excercises and comparisons with other relevant international sources (ICAO, airports and airlines data) shows a high level of comparability.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
14.1. Timeliness
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are transmitted to Eurostat within 1 or 2 months after the reference month.
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 countries due to the common legal basis. Comparisons of the data regarding passengers and freight/mail declared by partner reporting airports (so-called mirror checks) by Eurostat allow further detection of possible inconsistencies which can be corrected if possible.
15.2. Comparability - over time
As from 2003 the statistics on air transport are comparable over time, as they are collected following fully the provisions of the legal act (Regulation 437/2003). The series breaks occur in case of:
an airport being closed temporarily (for maintenance, reconstructions, etc.)
an airport does not exceed the threshold of 15 000 passenger unit per year; in such case it may be excluded from air transport data provisions (in the reference year Y+2)
an airport starts appearing in the reporting because of reaching the reporting threshold.
Detailed information on eventual breaks in the time series is provided in the Country Specific Notes (CSNs), List of reporting airports - time series as well as in List of reporting airports files.
The data collected before 2003 (before the legal act was introduced) might not be fully coherent with the ones collected nowadays.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Comparisons with other transport statistics are only partially and to a limited extent possible with regard to freight transport and passenger transport, since data are currently not available or are not collected at the same level of detail and also different methods and underlying objectives.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Coherence between datasets is good.
Mirror and missing routes checks provided by Eurostat allow the identification of possible inconsistencies that are corrected as far as possible.
There is not estimation of direct cost and burden associated with the collection and production of a statistical product, as long as it is done integrated with other tasks related with statistical works.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Eurostat takes into account any revisions of the data already provided by the reporting countries and disseminated in Eurostat's on-line database. Revised figures are not flagged with ‘r’ revision flag. Substantial data revisions (that affect EU aggregates) are noted down in the Country Specific Notes (CSNs) file.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Every incoming data set is subsequently validated in Eurostat by applying different controls - codification, format checks, consistency over time, inter-datasets checks. Eurostat comes back to the reporting country asking for clarifications or/and revisions in case of any issues detected or doubts. Only data that passes through all controls are considered as final and are put into dissemination. Any further revisions provided by a reporting country are always taken into account and disseminated, replacing the previous figures. In case of substantial revisions a note is prepared and available in the Country Specific Notes (CSNs) usually providing the reason for the data revisions. The dedicated flag 'r' (indicating revised figures) is not applied in the dissemination of air transport data.
18.1. Source data
Dataset A1- Flight Stage dataset:
AENA airports
Dataset B1 - On Flight Origin/Destination dataset:
AENA airports
Dataset C1 - Airport dataset:
AENA airports
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Information needed for datasets A1, B1 and C1 are collected on monthly basis.
18.3. Data collection
Data is transmitted to Eurostat using the EDAMIS engine tool following the transmission format foreseen in the Regulation 1358/2003.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation takes place at several levels of the data processing. The first step is the automatic validation during the integration, and the second step is the quality checks when data has been integrated.
Automatic validation
The checks especially ensure that:
the record format is correct.
there are no duplicate records within the dataset.
each record contains valid and correct codes (specific focus is put on airports, airlines and aircraft type codes, for which the ICAO codes have to be used).
Quality checks
Three types of quality checks are made on the datasets received for national and international transport.
Consistency over time - this check is made in order to detect unlikely increase or decrease of transport at one of the reporting airports. This check is applied separately for international and national transport.
Mirror checking - these quality checks are performed in order to compare the consistency between two partner declarations. They are run both for national and international declarations at city level. This means that the reported data have been first aggregated at city levels and then compared. This allows detecting and solving potential problems of wrong airport code attribution.
Missing routes - this check allows detecting the routes between two declaring airports where only one of them has declared the information. It is run for international and national transport separately.
18.5. Data compilation
DGAC obtains data from AENA airports monthly and when it is time to send the data to Eurostat, files are generated, using a management app for processing the data.
Then, after a preliminary process of validation, files are uploaded to EDAMIS for its review from the team of Eurostat.
Later, DGAC recieves information from Eurostat with the Quality report and analysis of the data. DGAC does a new revision of the data and explains with the differences and, if necessary, upload new files.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
Not applicable.
Datasets provided follow Regulation (EC) N°1358/2003, implementing Regulation N°437/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air:
Dataset A1 - Flight Stage dataset
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
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
Airport data registered for declaring airports. The values provided concern total passengers carried, total direct transit passengers, total freight and mail loaded or unloaded, total commercial aircraft movements and aircraft movements.
12 June 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 only at arrivals).
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.
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. 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.
Data is 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 (Datasets C1).
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 (Datasets A1, B1 and C1).
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 (Datasets A1, B1 and C1).
Airports under category "0" are not included in the statistics provided to Eurostat.
Commercial airports located at the territory of Spain.
Reference year is the calendar year 2023.
Overall accuracy of the data is good. Regular mirror checks excercises and comparisons with other relevant international sources (ICAO, airports and airlines data) shows a high level of comparability.
The units used depend on the variables collected within each data set and are: number of passengers, tonnes, flights, aircraft movements and passenger seats available.
The weight of freight and mail is transmitted in tonnes with three decimal places (as from reference year 2016).
DGAC obtains data from AENA airports monthly and when it is time to send the data to Eurostat, files are generated, using a management app for processing the data.
Then, after a preliminary process of validation, files are uploaded to EDAMIS for its review from the team of Eurostat.
Later, DGAC recieves information from Eurostat with the Quality report and analysis of the data. DGAC does a new revision of the data and explains with the differences and, if necessary, upload new files.
Dataset A1- Flight Stage dataset:
AENA airports
Dataset B1 - On Flight Origin/Destination dataset:
AENA airports
Dataset C1 - Airport dataset:
AENA airports
Not applicable.
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are transmitted to Eurostat within 1 or 2 months after the reference month.
There are no problems of comparability for air transport data collection with a very high data comparability across countries due to the common legal basis. Comparisons of the data regarding passengers and freight/mail declared by partner reporting airports (so-called mirror checks) by Eurostat allow further detection of possible inconsistencies which can be corrected if possible.
As from 2003 the statistics on air transport are comparable over time, as they are collected following fully the provisions of the legal act (Regulation 437/2003). The series breaks occur in case of:
an airport being closed temporarily (for maintenance, reconstructions, etc.)
an airport does not exceed the threshold of 15 000 passenger unit per year; in such case it may be excluded from air transport data provisions (in the reference year Y+2)
an airport starts appearing in the reporting because of reaching the reporting threshold.
Detailed information on eventual breaks in the time series is provided in the Country Specific Notes (CSNs), List of reporting airports - time series as well as in List of reporting airports files.
The data collected before 2003 (before the legal act was introduced) might not be fully coherent with the ones collected nowadays.
