Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

Environmental Statistics Division / Transport, Tourism and Information society statistics section

https://www.stat.si/statweb
Transport Statistics
Statistical Office of the Republik of Slovenia
Litostrojska 54,
POB 3570,
1001 LJUBLJANA
SLOVENIA

The statistics on commercial aviation covers scheduled and non-scheduled air traffic at the biggest international Slovenian airport: Airport Jože Pučnik Ljubljana.

The survey includes all flights with passenger, freight and mail in domestic and international traffic where the take-off or landing airport is located in Slovenia at the Airport Jože Pučnik Ljubljana. The airport contribute to the statistics by collecting and transmitting the data provided by the airlines to the national statistical office within T+40 days after the reference month. In addition to aircraft data (registration, seats, payload etc.), information on the passengers, freight and mail volumes (number and quantity, destination and final destination etc.) are collected.

The statistics are compiled and transmitted separately for each month to Eurostat by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (Statistični urad Republike Slovenije) on a monthly basis.

Based on European legal bases results are transmitted to the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat) within T+6 months after the reference month in the form of monthly data.

The data collection follows the provisions of the following legal acts:

National:

• National Statistics Act – ZDSta (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 45/95 of 4 August 1995); (Zakon o državni statistiki (Uradni list RS, št. 45/95))
• Act Amending the National Statistics Act – ZDSta-A (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 9/01 of 9 February 2001); (Zakon o državni statistiki (Uradni list RS, št. 9/01))
• Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys for each year; (Letni program statističnih raziskovanj (LPSR))

EU:

• Regulation (EC) N°1358/2003, implementing Regulation N°437/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air.

   

  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, B1 and C1 (including the optional variable - total number of transfer passengers) are provided on monthly basis.

  Airports handling less than 15 000 passenger units annually are not included in the data sets.

  All data sets have been provided according to the legal act (with no derogations) starting from 2004 reference year.

For more information please refer to the Web page of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia..

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).

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 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).

List of reporting airports by country with categories as from 2003 onwards is available in avia_esms metadata file in the Annex part.

Airports under category ‘0’ are not included in the statistics provided to Eurostat.

International commercial airports located on the territory of Slovenia.

All data sets have been provided according to the legal act (with no derogations) starting from 2004 reference year.

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.

National:

• National Statistics Act – ZDSta (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 45/95 of 4 August 1995); (Zakon o državni statistiki (Uradni list RS, št. 45/95))
• Act Amending the National Statistics Act – ZDSta-A (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 9/01 of 9 February 2001); (Zakon o državni statistiki (Uradni list RS, št. 9/01))
• Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys for each year; (Letni program statističnih raziskovanj (LPSR))

European level: until 2002, the data were provided to Eurostat on a voluntary basis; since 2003 (with some derrogations given) 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:

• National Statistics Act – ZDSta (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 45/95 of 4 August 1995); (Zakon o državni statistiki (Uradni list RS, št. 45/95))
• Act Amending the National Statistics Act – ZDSta-A (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 9/01 of 9 February 2001); (Zakon o državni statistiki (Uradni list RS, št. 9/01))
• Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys for each year ;(Letni program statističnih raziskovanj (LPSR))

  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.

The procedures with regard to statistical confidentiality folllows the Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control (2010) .

The data provided to Eurostat in the data sets A1, B1 and C1 contain no confidential information.

Air transport statistics are published monthly 45 days  after the reference month and the data are final.

Release dates are publicly available in the release calendar of the NSI.

Since release dates are planned sometimes far in advance, changes of dates might occur in both directions. Therefore, the Release Calendar is updated continually.

The release calendar is publicly available on the website of the NSI.

Main results of commercial aviation statistics are available free of charge to all users.

Next to the release calendar, users are informed of the release of the monthly press release if subscribed to the specific newsletter.

At the release data air transport statistics is available to all users at the same time.

Air transport statistics are published monthly 45 days after the reference month and the data are final.

The results are published monthly 45 days after the reference month and the data are final. The example of the monthly press release can be found under this link.

Publication of air transport statistics is done through our website.

The results can be found in the SiStat database.

All published results are available free of charge.

Not applicable to air transport statistics.

No other access available for the results of air transport statistics.

A Standard-documentation with Meta information (Definitions, comments, methods, quality) on Air Transport Statistics is available at national level.

Standard-documentation with Meta information (Definitions, comments, methods, quality) on Air Transport Statistics is available at national level.

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.

Moreover, in the framework of Statistical Office of the republic of Slovenia quality approach, Statistical Office has introduced standard quality reports (standard-documentation) to be produced and kept up-to-date for all statistics. The reports are based on the ESS definition of quality in statistics and follow the European standard quality report and provide users with information about the underlying concepts, definitions, methods used and the quality of the statistics (meta-information) in a standardised format.

Data quality can be assessed as high. There is a set of validation rules and quality checks put in place, which detect various types of issues. In case of any issues detected, the data providers are contacted to provide explanations or/and revise the data accordingly. Mirror checks and checks for the consistency over times are prepared and revised as well and the results are compared with the data published by the airport at their website.

Annually, Eurostat provides a data quality report with a summary of the main findings affecting quality as well as showing the solution adopted and the materiality of the existing differences. Mirror checks and checks for the consistency over times are prepared as well.

Next to the extensive plausibility checks, main strength include the completely automatic data transmission by the airports via XML and the excellent cooperation with the relevant departments of the airports. Timeliness and punctuality are very good. Revisions concern only a few flights.

If there are any inconsistencies Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia provides an explanation which is then included in the Country Specific Notes (CSNs) file available as an Annex to the Eurostat’s metadata.

The key users of air transport statistics collected according to the Regulation 437/2003 are:

• Ministry of Infrastructure
• Universities and research institutions
• Users involved in the aviation industry (e.g. airlines, airports)

Data of commercial aircraft movements, the 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.

There was no user survey especially on air transport statistics data carried out so far but direct feedback from main users like the ministry of Infrastructure, universities or aviation companies indicates a good level of satisfaction regarding data coverage and availability.

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.

Datasets A1 and B1- possibility to identyfy the true first origin/ final destination of a passenger:

External users expressed interest in true O/D data, but for the time being they are not collected by NSI of Slovenia.

Overall accuracy of the air transport statistics data is good. The processing with several plausibilty checks as well as checks done before transmitting data to Eurostat provides a high accuracy of the data. Comparisions with published data by the airport are occasionally made and show a good level of comparability.

Not applicable for air transport data collection.

By working closely with the relevant departments of the airport, the various plausibility checks and the legal obligation to cooperate and report the data, misclassifications, under- or over-coverage can be excluded. Moreover, the correctness of the data is of great importance for the airport, since the data serves as basis for billing.

The use of an internal aircraft register for plausibility reasons and the additional use of the classification lists provided by Eurostat prevents a misclassification of aircraft types or partner airports.

All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are transmitted to Eurostat in T+6 months after the reference month.

All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 437/2003 are available at Eurostat in T+6 months after the reference month and before the deadline for the data provisions set up in the legal act.

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. Comparisions of the data regarding passengers and freight/mail declared by partner reporting airports (so-called mirror checks) by Eurostat allow further the detection of possible inconsistencies which can be corrected if possible.

As from 2004 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.

There is no breaks in time series for Slovenia air transport data.

(Time series breaks occur in case of airport being closed temporarily (for maintenance, reconstructions, etc.) or in case an airport does not exceed the threshold of 15 000 passenger unit per year (and may be excluded from air transport data provisions). The detailed information on eventual breaks in the time series is provided in the Country Specific Notes (CSNs) available at Eurostat’s metadata page (in Annex part).)

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.

When comparing transported freight with foreign trade statistics it has to be kept in mind, that foreign trade statistics exchange goods and their value between individuals while aviation statistics show the performance of the transport mode air. Information regarding the means of transport used is only partially known in foreign trade statistics. In addition, the movement of the goods is observed, while the movement of the means of transport is important in transport statistics. As a result, a certain product appears only once in the foreign trade statistics. In contrast to transport statistics, where every reloading is collected.

A comparison of passenger data with tourism statistics is also only possible to a limited extent. The data of the aviation statistics contains no information about the origin of the passengers; a distinction between Slovenian and foreign passengers is therefore not possible.

As from 2004 the 3 data sets (A1, B1 and C1) collected and provided to Eurostat are consistent.

The response burden is put on the airport, but is reduced to a minimum – the data users provide the data automatically via a data interface and are only contacted if plausibility errors cannot be solved by the NSI.

The results are published monthly T+45 days after the reference month and tha data are final.

The policy described in 17.1 is fully implemented.

The air transport data are derived from the airport in the form of a datasets survey, which is checked at the NSI and then compiled into the required data sets.

The airport is the source of the following information:

• Next/previous airports and on flight origin/destination airport
• Flight information – passenger/freight/mail, scheduled/non-scheduled Airline information
• Aircraft type
• Number of passengers on board and carried
• Freight and mail on board as well as loaded and unloaded Number of direct transit and transfer passengers
• Number of commercial aircraft movements and total aircraft movements.

Dataset A1 – Data Suppliers (Passengers on board/Freight and mail on board):  Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport

Aircraft Information in A1:  Airport local flight information system database is based on IATA and ICAO aircraft types classification.

Seats information information in A1: Airport local flight information system database is based on IATA and ICAO aircraft types classification; it refers to technical data (average aircraft capacities).

Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded):  Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport

Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data:  Air waybill (AWB) is original information source for the freight data; freight transported by truck is not included

Dataset C1 – Bodies that supply the direct transit information to the CNA:

• CNA receives the data monthly by e-mail
• Information is supplied by Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport and it is collected through local flight information system

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

• CNA receives the data monthly by e-mail.
• Information is supplied by Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport through local flight information system

Information needed for the data sets A1, B1 and C1 are collected on monthly basis from all reporting airports.

The data for the purpose of the Regulation 437/2003 is collected monthly with a CSV-file from the airport. The transmission is possible via e-mail.

Dataset A1 – Data supplier’s information sources( Passengers on board/ Freight and mail on board):

• Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport data are collected from the other airports, on the bases of SITA electronic messages

• CNA data are collected directly from the airport

Dataset A1 – Data transmission to CNA – level of aggregation, system and periodicity (Passengers on board/ Freight and mail on board):

•  Data are aggregated monthly and transmitted by e-mail every month.

Dataset B1 – Data supplier’s information sources (Passengers carried/ Freight and mail loaded/unloaded):

• Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport data are collected from the other airports, on the bases of SITA electronic messages
• CNA data are collected directly from the airport

Dataset B1 – Data transmission to CNA – level of aggregation, system and periodicity(Passengers carried/ Freight and mail loaded/unloaded):

•  Data are aggregate monthly and transmitted by e-mail every month

Datasets A1 and B1 - OFOD data derived from FS data or collected separately by the data supplier:

•  OFOD data are collected separately by data supplier.

Implementation of the data collection and compilation process:

• The Regulation demands have required the implementation of a new data collection and compilation process

Data validation takes place at several levels of the data processing. The first step is the automatic validation during the integration of the received file into the database, the second step are the quality checks when data has been integrated. After that mirror checks as well as times series checks are performed and the results are compared to the results published by the airport.

The initial checks especially ensure that the record format is correct, there are no duplicate records within the data set and that each record contains valid and correct codes (especially for airlines, airports and aircraft types). Furthermore it is also checked if the number of passengers or amount of freight and mail is possible with the transmitted aircraft type and its configurations (seats, MTOW or payload). Further quality checks include:

• Consistency over time
• Comparisons between arrivals and departures
• Comparison of results with the summary tables provided by the airport
• If necessary the relevant airport are contacted and asked to confirm questionable information.

Data validation procedure: CNA check codes used by the data providers and also total sum of passengers and goods as well as comparison between the flight stage declarations (A1) and on flight origin/destination declarations (B1), comparison between the flight stage declarations (A1) and the airport declarations (C1) and comparison between the on flight origin/destination declarations (B1) and the airport declarations (C1). When the errors are detected CNA contact directly with the airport (data provider to CNA), exactly with person who prepare the data.

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: Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has harmonized its information system with the codes requested in the Regulation.

Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery: No problems

Not applicable for air transport data collection.

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