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.
Sous-Direction des études, des statistiques et de la prospective
Bureau de l’observation du marché (DGAC/DTA/SDE2)
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
50 rue Henry Farman
F-75720 Paris Cedex 15
France
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
10 May 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
10 May 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
10 May 2025
3.1. Data description
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
Commercial air services and civil aircraft movements for the French airports located in EU 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
French Commercial airports located on the territory of France and included in EU. French airports located outside EU are not provided.
Bi-national Basel-Mulhouse airport: the data provided concerns only flights operated under French traffic rights.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data has been reported starting from 1993. Passengers carried data are available from 1993. Passengers on board data are available from 2002. Direct transit passenger data are available from 2002. Transfer passenger data (monthly) are available from 2010. Freight and mail on board are available from 2002. Freight and mail loaded and unloaded data are available from 1993.
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.
According to the legal act the weight of freight and mail is transmitted in tonnes with three decimal places.
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
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:
Collection, processing and communication of data are subject to national regulations on commercial and industrial secrecy within the meaning of the Act of 17 July 1978 (Loi n° 78-753 du 17 juillet 1978 portant diverses mesures d'amélioration des relations entre l'administration et le public et diverses dispositions d'ordre administratif, social et fiscal)
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.
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. The data provided to Eurostat in the data sets A1, B1 contain confidential information since for an airport pair a single company may accounts for 85% of the traffic.
DGAC also provides Open Data aggregated by month (files in csv format) on the government website data.gouv.fr
8.2. Release calendar access
The annual data are usually published at the end of the first quarter of the following year
8.3. Release policy - user access
The French Open Data system is free (licence free and free or charge). Data available in csv files.
DGAC does not commercialise any data
Air transport statistics are published monthly 90 days (three months) after the reference month with being preliminary until publishing the annual results.
Monthly: tendanCIEL trend publication 21 days (three weeks) after the reference month with being preliminary until publishing the annual results
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Open Data aggregated by month (files in csv format) on the government website data.gouv.fr. Annual data are available at the end of the first quarter of the following year.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable to air transport statistics.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable
10.6. Documentation on methodology
A Standard-documentation with Meta information (Definitions, comments, methods, quality) on Air Transport Statistics is available at national level.
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
Data on flights, commercial aircraft movements, routes, numbers of passengers, amount of transported freight and mail as well as seats available provides an important basis for decision-making of politics, society and economy in the context of the development and promotion of transport projects.
The main users are: governmental institutions, enterpreneurs, individual users.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable
12.3. Completeness
Datasets A1 and B1- possibility to identyfy the true first origin/ final destination of a passenger:
In the framework of a traffic of multiple flights, it is not always possible to know the true origin, or the true destination, the system is dependent on the change of the flight number that is the basis of the collection.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy of the data is high. Regular mirror checks exercises and comparisons with other relevant international sources (ICAO, Eurocontrol, 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
14.1. Timeliness
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are transmitted to Eurostat 3 months after the reference quarter.
Difficulties to respect deadline for data transmission:
In the current system, it happens that for T + 3 the collection of all the data for the different airports is not complete and therefore it is difficult to envision in the framework of this system a reduction of the delays regarding the availability of the information and the technical impossibility of sending partial supplementary files.
14.2. Punctuality
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are available 2 months 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 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
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 high. 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
No preliminary data are published for air transport. Therefore, in general published data are considered final.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Global revision of year N around april of year N+1
18.1. Source data
Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board): Airports
Aircraft Information in A1: The information on the type of aircraft is registered with the collection of the airport. The corrections are applied by the DGAC with respect to the registration of the aircraft.
Seats information information in A1: The information on the type of aircraft is registered with the collection of the airport. The information is essentially technical, certain companies transmit to the airports the commercial configuration.
Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded): Airports
Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data: The information on the freight comes from the declarations of the companies or of their agents.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the CNA: The information is given by the company or his representative to the airport which communicates it to the DGAC.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA: The commercial movements come from the collection of the commercial traffic by airport. Every airport addresses to the DGAC via a form the monthly total of the non-commercial movements. The information on the movements comes from the declarations of the companies and the information on the air navigation is recovered by certain airports.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Information needed for the data sets A1, B1and C1 are collected on a monthly basis
18.3. Data collection
Dataset A1 – Data supplier’s information sources (Passengers on board/ Freight and mail on board):
Companies or their agents
Dataset A1 – Data transmission to CNA – level of aggregation, system and periodicity (Passengers on board/ Freight and mail on board):
Aggregated information by month but being precise on the traffic by flight. Transmitted by e-mail monthly by airports.
Dataset B1 – Data supplier’s information sources (Passengers carried/ Freight and mail loaded/unloaded):
Aggregated information by month but being precise on the traffic by flight. Transmitted by e-mail monthly by airports.
Dataset B1 – Data transmission to CNA – level of aggregation, system and periodicity (Passengers carried/ Freight and mail loaded/unloaded):
Aggregated information by month but being precised on the traffic by flight. Transmitted by post, e-mail monthly by airports.
Datasets A1 and B1 - OFOD data derived from FS data or collected separately by the data supplier:
Currently the OFOD is derived from traffic on stages.
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;
Check accordance between data received from airports and the flight plan database (Eurocontrol)
When errors are detected, the data are corrected after a dialog with the airport source (correct codes, average aircraft capacities…).
Description of consistency checks :
A mirror analysis is set up for the national traffic.
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 :
The information is mostly collected with the codes ICAO, those collected in other coding (IATA notably) are transcoded by the DGAC.
Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery :
The validation of the national traffic could only be done once the declarations of all the national traffic has been received. The new civil aviation system should reduce the delays by harmonising the collection system.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
None
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.
10 May 2025
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.
French Commercial airports located on the territory of France and included in EU. French airports located outside EU are not provided.
Bi-national Basel-Mulhouse airport: the data provided concerns only flights operated under French traffic rights.
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 data is high. Regular mirror checks exercises and comparisons with other relevant international sources (ICAO, Eurocontrol, 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.
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 :
The information is mostly collected with the codes ICAO, those collected in other coding (IATA notably) are transcoded by the DGAC.
Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery :
The validation of the national traffic could only be done once the declarations of all the national traffic has been received. The new civil aviation system should reduce the delays by harmonising the collection system.
Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board): Airports
Aircraft Information in A1: The information on the type of aircraft is registered with the collection of the airport. The corrections are applied by the DGAC with respect to the registration of the aircraft.
Seats information information in A1: The information on the type of aircraft is registered with the collection of the airport. The information is essentially technical, certain companies transmit to the airports the commercial configuration.
Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded): Airports
Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data: The information on the freight comes from the declarations of the companies or of their agents.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the CNA: The information is given by the company or his representative to the airport which communicates it to the DGAC.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA: The commercial movements come from the collection of the commercial traffic by airport. Every airport addresses to the DGAC via a form the monthly total of the non-commercial movements. The information on the movements comes from the declarations of the companies and the information on the air navigation is recovered by certain airports.
Air transport statistics are published monthly 90 days (three months) after the reference month with being preliminary until publishing the annual results.
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are transmitted to Eurostat 3 months after the reference quarter.
Difficulties to respect deadline for data transmission:
In the current system, it happens that for T + 3 the collection of all the data for the different airports is not complete and therefore it is difficult to envision in the framework of this system a reduction of the delays regarding the availability of the information and the technical impossibility of sending partial supplementary files.
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 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.
