STATISTICS POLAND

Statistics Centre for Transport and Communication

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.

Datasets A1 and B1 are delivered on a quarterly basis (data are presented on a monthly basis), while dataset C1 is provided on an annual basis or - in some cases (voluntary) - on a quarterly basis (data are presented on a monthly basis or annual basis).

Category 0 airports (i.e. handling less than 15 000 passenger units annually) do not submit the datasets.

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.

Air transport - commercial air services and civil aircraft movements for the airports with traffic in excess of 15 000 passenger units annually.

The main concepts used in this domain are the following:

Community airport - a defined 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 (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.

Community airports of three categories, as defined by the Regulation (EC) N°1358/2003, submit the datasets:

• Category "1": Airports with between 15 000 and 150 000 passenger units per year transmit only aggregated airport data (dataset C1).
• Category "2": Airports with more than 150 000 passenger units and less than 1 500 000 passenger units per year 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 transmit flight stage data, on flight origin destination data as well as aggregated airport data (datasets A1, B1 and C).

Category "0" airports: Airports with less than 15 000 passenger units per year are considered as having only "occasional commercial traffic" without obligation to report – they do not submit the datasets.

For the purpose of defining the airport category in year N, the reference year taken into account for the calculation of the passenger units is:

— for category 0, 1 and 2 airports: year N-2,

— for category 3 airports: year N (except for the reporting of year 2003 tables where 2001 passenger units are taken into account and for the reporting of year 2004 tables where 2003 passenger units are taken into account).

Airports for which passenger units decreased between year N-2 and year N-1 may use year N-1 as the reference year for their classification.

Note: Due to the covid-19 pandemic impact on the airport services, the list of categories of airports has been frozen - based on 2019 reference year - for the data provisions 2022 onwards in order to assure a continuity and coherence in the data provision.

International airports located on the territory of Poland.

The datasets A1 and B1 are transferred from 2004 in the case of the Okęcie - Warsaw airport, and the remaining airports since 2006. Information on airport traffic (dataset C1) are provided since 2002 reference year for all airports.

Not applicable.

Passengers: passenger

Freigh and mail: tonne (to three decimal places)

Aircraft flights/movements: flight/movement

Passenger seats available: passenger seat

Reference period is the calendar year 2022 (or - in case of few airports - a month of 2022) for C1 and a month of 2022 for A1, B1.

National level:

•  Act of 29 June 1995 on Official Statistics. (Ustawa z dnia 29 czerwca 1995 r. o statystyce publicznej. Dz.U. 1995 nr 88 poz. 439, z późn. zmianami)
•  Statistical Survey Program of Official Statistics (Program Badań Statystycznych Statystyki Publicznej, see for details: PBSSP)

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 437/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 February 2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air.
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 1358/2003 of 31/07/2003.
• Commission Regulation No 546/2005 of 8 April 2005.
• Commission Regulation No 158/2007 of 16 February 2007.

Not applicable.

National level:

•  Act of 29 June 1995 on Official Statistics. (Journal of Law 1995 no. 88 item 439, with later amendments; Art. 10 and Art. 38) (Ustawa z dnia 29 czerwca 1995 r. o statystyce publicznej. Dz.U. 1995 nr 88 poz. 439, z późn. zmianami)

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 procedures with regard to statistical confidentiality follows the 

Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control (2010) and the

Act of 29 June 1995 on Officsial Statistic.

Airlines data are confidential.

The statistics, based on datasets: A1, B1, C1, are published in Eurostat Database (Database by themes/Transport/Air transport).

Release calendar is available on the EUROSTAT website.

Aggregated data, based on dataset B1, are published in Transport – activity results in ...(year) ("Transport - wyniki działalności w ... roku", Polish-English version available in pdf and xlsx format, for a wide range of years, see: Archive available on the publication website)

• table "International passenger traffic at airports in Poland by countries of arrival/departure of passengers"
• table "International passenger traffic at airports in Poland by cities"

Relase calendar is available on the website Statistics Poland calendar.

Calendar of publications is available on the website

The users are informed about the release date in the Statistical Survey Program of Official Statistics for 2022 (Program Badań Statystycznych Statystyki Publicznej na rok 2022 [PBSSP]). The policy provides for dissemination of statistical data to all users at the same time, the scope of dissemination: to the public. The data are available free of charge. The data are available in excel format. Extra analysis, in compliance with confidentiality rules, can be made for a fee.

Aggregated data from set B1 are published in "Transport – activity results in ...(year)" once a year.

 Not applicable

The most important publication in the field of transport (including air transport) is "Transport – activity results in ...(year)" ("Transport - wyniki działalności w ... roku.", Polish-English version available in pdf and xlsx format, for a wide range of years, see: Archive available on the publication website).

The results can be found in the database on Eurostat websites

Not applicable to air transport statistics.

Not applicable

Metodology follows Reference Manual on Air Transport Statistics v.15

There are national procedures applied for quality management, e.g. every year the quality report is prepared (for internal purposes, not available for the public).

The system follows as far as possible the European Statistics Code of practice and Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System, more precisely Principle 4: Commitment to Quality:

"Quality policy is defined and made available to the public. An organisational structure and tools are in place to deal with quality management (...). There are procedures in place to plan, monitor and improve the quality of the statistical processes.

Procedures based on quality reporting are in place to internally monitor product quality. Results are analysed regularly and improving actions are undertaken, if needed (for example after obtaining annual summary results and mirror checks reports from Eurostat). There is a regular and thorough review of the key statistical outputs using also external experts where appropriate."

Data quality can be assessed as high. There is a set of validation rules and quality checks put in place. The data providers are asked to provide explanations or/and revise the data accordingly if needed. Mirror checks and consistency over time checks are prepared and the results are compared with the data published by the airports at their websites or other data sources if available.

Once a year quality check and mirror check are initiated by Eurostat. Based on international data, additional revision is performed.

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.

Not applicable - opinions are not collected.

The collection of data on air transport statistics is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 437/2003.  Information on freight and mail (on board, loaded/unloaded) in international traffic in dataset A1 and B1 is not provided by one airport. From 2021 onwards the number of transfer passengers (voluntary value in dataset C1) is provided by a few airports (those which keep the register of transfer passengers).

Overall accuracy of the air transport statistics data can be assesed as good.

Some airports encounter problems with multi-stage flights registration. There are some discrepancies between data on freight presented by partner airports following from inappropriate information flow between airlines, handlers and airports, especially visible at the national level in case of multi-stage flights.

Not applicable

Most common:

• incorrect type of weight unit (loaded goods in kg instead of tonnes), possible RSF included in freight and mail on board/carried mass,
• flights with no passengers/freight/mail included in datasets A1,
• transit passengers included in dataset B1,
• incorrect multi-stage flight registration in A1 and B1 (i.e. incorrect: number of passengers, freight and mail mass, partner airports).

From 2021 onwards all the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are transmitted to Eurostat not later than 6 months after the reference month.

Monthly data are provided on a quarterly basis.

 From 2021 onwards, monthly data are provided to Eurostat on a quarterly basis within Q+3.

No key comparability problems detected.

Data comparable from 2004.

The data comparison with other sources is not made.

Data consistent from 2004.

The burden imposed on airports is reduced to minimum. Data providers submit the data via IT tool.

There is a set of validation rules and quality checks put in place. The data providers are asked to provide explanations or/and revise the data accordingly if needed. Mirror checks and consistency over time checks are prepared and the results are compared with the data published by the airports at their websites or other data sources if available.

Once a year quality check and mirror check are initiated by Eurostat. Based on international data, additional revision is performed.

The policy described in 17.1 is fully implemented.

Additionally, some corrections are initiated by the airports themselves.

Source of data: airports registers.

Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board): Airports

Aircraft Information in A1:

Polish Airports get information on the basis of electronic movement messages, from different sources as:
ATC reports
Airport Services
Airports Fees Departments

Seats information information in A1:

Polish Airports get information from airlines, when possible reported on the basis of commercial data (mostly in case of scheduled flights), and based on technical parametres in case of other movements (e.g. non-scheduled flights).

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: Data suppliers do not include freight transported by truck into data sent to CSO.

Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the CNA: This information is collected in cooperation with airlines by airports authority.
Polish airports supply the data to CSO via IT tool.

Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the commercial and total aircraft movement to the CNA:

This information is collected in cooperation with airlines and Air Traffic Control Agency by airports authority.

Polish airports supply the data to CSO via IT tool. 

Dataset A1, B1 quarterly

Dataset C1 annually (or quarterly - on the voluntary basis)

The data are collected from respondents in excel questionnaires via IT tool. The scope of information in questionnaires are compliant with the ones required by the Regulations.

Meeting deadlines of data delivery is monitored.

The data are finally combined and initially checked in CSO before they are forwarded to Eurostat.

The results are monitored and validated on a regular basis. The following activities are undertaken to ensure high quality of data:

• validation of coding with ICAO lists (airports, airlines, airplanes),
• comparison of the number of passengers with the amount of seats offered on the plane,
• check of the number of passengers per flight (in dataset A1 and C1),
• check of the amount of cargo per flight (in dataset A1 and C1)
• check of empty flights (no passengers, freight, mail),
• interdataset checks.
  

The data received from the airports are compiled, verified and finally delivered to Eurostat. Some mistakes in raw data, i.e. inappropriate coding, are corrected by CSO if possible.

Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery :

For the time being, not all databases of the Polish airports are fully compatible with the requirements of the Regulation. The most significant errors following from the incompatibility are the following:

• multi-stage flights are recorded inappropriately (previous/next airport is sometimes given instead of on flight/destination airport),
• direct transit passengers are recorded only once (at departures).

Not applied for air transport data collection.

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