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.
Trafikanalys, Rosenlundsgatan 54, SE-118 63 Stockholm
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
21 November 2023
2.2. Metadata last posted
21 November 2023
2.3. Metadata last update
21 November 2023
3.1. Data description
Dataset A1 and B1- data storage:
Data for passengers is stored on movement level and is saved continuously. Data for freight and mail is stored on movement level and is saved continuously.
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
Transport – commercial air transport.
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
National and international commercial airports located on the territory of Sweden.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Annual passenger data (passengers on board) are available as from reference year 1993. Monthly flight stage data on passenger and freight transport (according to the Regulation, dataset A1) available as from reference year 2003, while monthly data on flight O/D on passenger and freight transport (according to the Regulation, dataset B1) available as from 2004 reference year. Monthly airport traffic data on passenger and freight transport (according to the regulation, dataset C1) available as from reference year 2003. Monthly transfer passenger data (optional variable provided in dataset C1) available as from reference year 2014.
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.
Reference period is the calendar year 2022.
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:
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.
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).
Since the data provided to Eurostat in the data sets A1, B1 and C1 may contain confidential information. Eurostat performs disclosure controls before when needed before releasing the statistics.
8.1. Release calendar
Not available.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not available.
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
There are no press or news releases for the data, only at the national level.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Air transport data are used in Eurostat's publication “Statistics explained”.
Air transport data are also published at national level and in a Transport analysis publication similar to "Statistics explained" (only in Swedish).
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
External users can extract air transport statistic data (only in Swedish) on national level at Transport analysis homepage - https://www.trafa.se/luftfart/.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable to air transport statistics.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
No other formats.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Standard-documentation with Meta information (Definitions, comments, methods, quality) on Air Transport Statistics is available at national level (only in Swedish).
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Standard-documentation with Meta information (Definitions, comments, methods, quality) on Air Transport Statistics is available at national level (only in Swedish).
11.1. Quality assurance
The general quality assurance framework (or similar) and brief description how it is implemented for the domain-specific quality assurance activities (the use of best practices, quality reviews, self-assessments, compliance monitoring etc.) is found here.
Standard-documentation with Meta information (Definitions, comments, methods, quality) on Air Transport Statistics is available at national level (only in Swedish).
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Annual national evaluation of the statistics.
Regular national user councils (relevance and accessibility).
Implementation and compliance with the SDMX standards: Sweden reports the files in the SDMX format by using the converter. The SDMX standard is not used for other providers.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Among the users are public authorities in Sweden, the Swedish government and parliament, consultants and journalists. The statistics is used to describe the evolution of the civil aviation sector alone and with comparison to other transport modes.
The statistics is in particular used for research, for journalism and for education. Users requests include geographical breakdowns of movements and passengers per airline/flight and by type of trip. Other needs include transport-related domains as educational background of staff, air emissions etc.
Unmet needs may be met by other statistical agencies. Statistics with detailed geographical breakdown, eg. by flight, may not be satisfied due to confidentiality reasons.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Sweden conduct satisfaction surveys and arrange physical meetings with main users on a regular basis. The results of these consultation are to possible extent taken into consideration in the development of the statistics. The most recent satisfaction survey is from year 2014.
12.3. Completeness
The data collection on air transport statistics follows the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003. All variables in all three data sets are provided including the voluntary variable – transfer passenger. Additional needs expressed by data users - at the present it is not possible to identify the true origin/destination for passengers travelling via intermediate destinations.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The overall quality is good. The statistics is based on registers rather than samples of observations.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Assessed to be small and of minor importance.
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 weeks before the deadline for the data provisions set up in the legal act.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not relevant.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Since the statistics is based on registers which slowly change, the comparability over time is good.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
International standard classifications are used. Statistical measures may be compared to statistical measures in other transport statistics, for example amount of goods loaded/unloaded and number of passengers. The comparisons with other transport modes is sometimes difficult due to various definitions.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Sufficient quality. The national official statistics is annual, which might result in minor differences from the European statistics based on monthly data extractions.
Data is collected for other purposes than statistics and do not result in additional burden.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Data is normally final and not subject to revisions.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data is normally final and not subject to revisions.
18.1. Source data
Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board): the airports
Aircraft Information in A1: the airports.
Seats information information in A1: the majority of the movements contain exact data, but there are also movements with information about numbers of seats based on the aircraft technical data/average capacity.
Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded): the airports
Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data: Information source for freight data is load message, not air waybill.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the CNA: Is included in the weekly report from the airports. The airports often get the information from the handling agents. The information is included in the SITA-messages sent to the airport and are then reported into the airports data system.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA: Is included in the weekly report from the airports. The information comes from the ATS on the airport.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Monthly data collection.
18.3. Data collection
Dataset A1 – Data supplier’s information sources( Passengers on board/ Freight and mail on board): Mainly handling agents
Dataset A1 – Data transmission to CNA – level of aggregation, system and periodicity (Passengers on board/ Freight and mail on board): Weekly, per movement via a webpage
Dataset B1 – Data supplier’s information sources (Passengers carried/ Freight and mail loaded/unloaded): Mainly handling agents
Dataset B1 – Data transmission to CNA – level of aggregation, system and periodicity(Passengers carried/ Freight and mail loaded/unloaded): Weekly, per movement via a webpage
Datasets A1 and B1 - OFOD data derived from FS data or collected separately by the data supplier: FS and OFOD derive from the data material.
Implementation of the data collection and compilation process: The requirement to report OFOD (table B1) has resulted in that new information has to be collected for all airports. For the non-state-owned airports concerned by A1 and B1 information on movement level has to be reported, earlier this information has been reported monthly on an aggregated level.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation procedure: Automatic checks are implemented. Errors are communicated with reporting airport.
Description of consistency checks: Manual comparisons with other data sources and historical data.
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: There is no problem using the codes.
Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery: There is no problem on data compilation, validation and delivery.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable for air transport data collection.
Not applicable.
Dataset A1 and B1- data storage:
Data for passengers is stored on movement level and is saved continuously. Data for freight and mail is stored on movement level and is saved continuously.
21 November 2023
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.
National and international commercial airports located on the territory of Sweden.
Reference period is the calendar year 2022.
The overall quality is good. The statistics is based on registers rather than samples of observations.
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: There is no problem using the codes.
Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery: There is no problem on data compilation, validation and delivery.
Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board): the airports
Aircraft Information in A1: the airports.
Seats information information in A1: the majority of the movements contain exact data, but there are also movements with information about numbers of seats based on the aircraft technical data/average capacity.
Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded): the airports
Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data: Information source for freight data is load message, not air waybill.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the CNA: Is included in the weekly report from the airports. The airports often get the information from the handling agents. The information is included in the SITA-messages sent to the airport and are then reported into the airports data system.
Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA: Is included in the weekly report from the airports. The information comes from the ATS on the airport.
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.
Not relevant.
Since the statistics is based on registers which slowly change, the comparability over time is good.
