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 main objective of this statistics is to provide data on the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by commercial air services as well as on civil aircraft movements to or from Community airports, except for flights by State aircraft.
Three datasets required by the EU-Regulation are provided to Eurostat: the Flight Stage dataset, called A1, the On Flight Origin/Destination dataset, called B1 and the Airport dataset, called C1.
A1: This dataset contains 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.
B1: This dataset contains 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.
C1: This dataset contains 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 freight and mail loaded or unloaded, total commercial aircraft movements and aircraft movements. This dataset must contain at least annual data.
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
The data include commercial and civil air traffic at the major airports (more than 15,000 passenger units per year).
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
Commercial airports located on the territory of Malta.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data has been reported starting from 2001. Passengers carried are available from 2001 and Passengers on board data are available from 2002. Freight and mail on board are available from 2002 and Freight and mail loaded/unloaded data are available from 2002. Direct transit passengers data are available from 2002. Data on transfer passengers (indirect) are not available.
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 two decimal places.
Reference period is the calendar year 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:
Not applicable.
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:
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.
8.1. Release calendar
Not applicable.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not applicable.
Air transport statistics are published monthly 120 days (four months) after the reference month with being preliminary until publishing the annual results.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Not applicable.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Not applicable.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Not applicable.
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.
Specific requirements were developed as per the report/query provided by Eurostat. Data is subsequently validated and checked by Eurostat by applying different controls on the incoming data. Checks and updates are made by Malta airport which are communicated back to Eurostat and the correct data is reuploaded.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Few problems are detected, and is if so, we are immediately contacted to solve any problems. Annually, a data quality report is sent with a summary of the main findings affecting quality. Updates are conducted according to the findings in the report.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Air transport statistics are required for policy formulation and business planning.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
Data is considered as complete.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Ongoing checks on the data are carried out throughout the year which results in an overall good accuracy of data.
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 4 months after the reference quarter.
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
Data is comparable to other geographical location since it is based on the requirements in the aviation manual provided by Eurostat.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data is comparable over time since it is based on the aviation manual provided by Eurostat. If any new qualifiers, airport codes and airline codes are included in the data, the query is amended to incorporate such additions.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Data is coherent across domain since it is based on the requirements in the aviation manual provided by Eurostat.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Data is coherent internally since it is based on the requirements in the aviation manual provided by Eurostat.
Not applicable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
No policy is currently in place. Data is revised upon communication from Eurostat.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Upon communication from Eurostat on certain validation checks, data is queried internally. Once checks are validated/updated, data is revised and extracted in a report which is re-submitted to Eurostat.
18.1. Source data
Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board):
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Aircraft Information in A1 :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Seats information information in A1 :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded):
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the
CNA :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data is continuously being collected. Report is extracted quarterly.
18.3. Data collection
Data is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) and uploaded through the eDAMIS engine tool.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation procedure :
Data validation is carried out by Eurostat in two steps. The first step is automatic validation during the integration and the second step is the quality checks when data has been integrated.
Any errors are communicated to us by email and the corresponding checks are conducted.
Description of consistency checks :
Monthly checks are carried out on the data to ensure that data is consistent and correct.
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.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
None.
The main objective of this statistics is to provide data on the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by commercial air services as well as on civil aircraft movements to or from Community airports, except for flights by State aircraft.
Three datasets required by the EU-Regulation are provided to Eurostat: the Flight Stage dataset, called A1, the On Flight Origin/Destination dataset, called B1 and the Airport dataset, called C1.
A1: This dataset contains 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.
B1: This dataset contains 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.
C1: This dataset contains 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 freight and mail loaded or unloaded, total commercial aircraft movements and aircraft movements. This dataset must contain at least annual data.
27 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.
Commercial airports located on the territory of Malta.
Reference period is the calendar year 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.
Ongoing checks on the data are carried out throughout the year which results in an overall good accuracy of data.
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 two 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.
Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board):
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Aircraft Information in A1 :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Seats information information in A1 :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded):
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the
CNA :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA :
Data is uploaded continuously in an internal database system (AMS). It is exported through SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) into a report which is then uploaded to Eurostat.
Air transport statistics are published monthly 120 days (four 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 4 months after the reference quarter.
Data is comparable to other geographical location since it is based on the requirements in the aviation manual provided by Eurostat.
Data is comparable over time since it is based on the aviation manual provided by Eurostat. If any new qualifiers, airport codes and airline codes are included in the data, the query is amended to incorporate such additions.
