ISTAT - Istituto Nazionale di Statistica
Euro-SDMX Metadata Structure Definition (ESMS_MSD 3.0 ESTAT)
Air transport measurement – passengers, freight and mail, airport traffic and regional statistics
2018 - A0
1. Contact
1.1 Contact organisation
Istat - Italian National Statistical Institute
1.2 Contact organisation unit
ATB - Division for environmental and territorial networks
1.3 Contact name
Laura De Sandro
1.4 Contact person function
Laura De Sandro - Researcher, Division for environmental and territorial networks
1.5 Contact mail address
Viale Liegi, 13 00198 Rome Italy
1.6 Contact email address
ldesandr@istat.it
1.7 Contact phone number
+390646737429
1.8 Contact fax number
2. Metadata update
2.1 Metadata last certified
2.2 Metadata last posted
2.3 Metadata last update
3. Statistical presentation
3.1 Data description
The new statistical survey on air transport is a total survey collection information on the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air, flight stages, available seats for passengers on aircraft and aircraft movements. The reporting units are the airports and the data are provided by their management companies.

The main topics observed are: Carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air
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
All commercial flights Scheduled and Charter, without private, school, touristic, panoramic and State flights.
3.4 Statistical concepts and definitions

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.

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
Italy
3.8 Coverage - Time
All datasets have been provided according to the legal act starting from 2003 reference year.
3.9 Base period

Not applicable.

4. Unit of measure

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 without decimal places.

5. Reference Period

Reference period is the calendar year 2018.

6. Institutional Mandate
6.1 Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements

National level:

  •  The Air Transport survey is included in National Statistical Programme yearly approved by a Republic Presidential decree. Code: IST-00145

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:

6.2 Institutional Mandate - data sharing

Not applicable.

7. Confidentiality
7.1 Confidentiality - policy

National level:
Several national legal acts guarantee the confidentiality of data requested for statistical purposes. According to art. 9, paragraph 1 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, personal data cannot be disseminated but in aggregated form, in order to make it impossible to make any reference to identifiable individuals. They can only be used for statistical purposes. Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, art. 6 bis and Legislative Decree n. 196 of 2003 Annex A3 (Code of conduct and professional practice applying to the processing of personal data for statistical and scientific research purposes within the framework of the national statistical system), art. 8, provide that the exchange of personal data within the National Statistical System (Sistan) is possible if it is necessary to fulfil requirements provided by the National Statistical Programme or to allow the pursuit of institutional purposes. The supply of the identification data of statistical units is allowed within the framework of entities included in the National Statistical System if the requesting party declares that no identical statistical result can be obtained otherwise . Regarding subjects who do not belong to Sistan, Article. 7 of the Code of conduct (Decree n. 196/2003, Annex A3) states that it is possible to transmit individual data files without direct identifiers within the framework of specific laboratories set up by entities included in the National Statistical System, under certain conditions and only if that the data are protected by the application of different statistical methods that make it highly unlikely the identification of statistical units.

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.

7.2 Confidentiality - data treatment

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

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: 

There are some confidentiality problems about the airlines.

 

8. Release policy
8.1 Release calendar

Every year, in December, ISTAT publishes a release calendar providing the exact dates for press releases for the coming year. The calendar is distributed to the press and is available free of charge to interested parties. Statistical information is published in accordance with an approved release calendar.

8.2 Release calendar access

The calendar is available on the website (https://www.istat.it/en/information-and-services/journalists/release-calendar). Not all the disseminations are included in the press release calendar but all are included in the weekly update Calendario delle diffusioni e degli eventi (https://www.istat.it/it/informazioni-e-servizi/per-i-giornalisti/appuntamenti/calendario-diffusioni-ed-eventi ).

8.3 Release policy - user access
According to its mission, Istat disseminates statistical information in order to make it accessible and usable to everyone and to remove any barriers to the use of data. All data releases are posted on Istat website according to a prefixed annual release calendar, published by the previous December. Time series are available on I.Stat data warehouse and users can choose information according to their needs, building customised tables or downloading prepackaged datasets. Data are always accompanied by meta-information ¿ methodologies, classifications, definitions. Microdata files are released free of charge and in compliance with the principle of statistical secrecy and data protection. Books, press releases, datasets and infographics are also available on Istat web site; moreover main contents are disseminated through Istat Official Twitter account and other social networks. All Istat information are available free of charge and data are reusable providing the source.
9. Frequency of dissemination

Air transport statistics are published monthly 120 days (four months) after the reference month with being preliminary until publishing the annual results.

10. Accessibility and clarity
10.1 Dissemination format - News release
10.2 Dissemination format - Publications
10.3 Dissemination format - online database
10.4 Dissemination format - microdata access

Not applicable to air transport statistics.

10.5 Dissemination format - other
Tables: Trasporto aereo. Anni 2003-2009
Conto Nazionale delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti - Anni 2010-2011: Ministry of infrastructure and transport
http://www.mit.gov.it/mit/site.php?p=cm&o=vd&id=2265
Conto Nazionale delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti - Anni 2015-2016: Ministry of transport
http://www.mit.gov.it/sites/default/files/media/pubblicazioni/2017-07/Libro%20CNIT_2015-2016%20bassa%202.pdf
Eurostat (Statistical office of the European Union)
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database
Conto Nazionale delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti Anni 2012 e 2013: Ministry of infrastructure and transport
http://www.mit.gov.it/mit/mop_all.php?p_id=19370
Conto Nazionale delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti - Anni 2009-2010: Ministry of infrastructure and transport
http://www.mit.gov.it/mit/site.php?p=cm&o=vd&id=1858
Conto Nazionale delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti - Anni 2013-2014: Ministry of infrastructure and transport
http://www.mit.gov.it/mit/mop_all.php?p_id=24349
10.6 Documentation on methodology
The survey methodology implements the EU regulation 437/2003.

Recently, new variables have been added. Indeed, from 2018 data, Istat ask New variables to the Airports per flight: Code of commercial flight, Date/Hour, ICAO Origin/Final Destination, ICAO First stop, ICAO Second stop, ICAO Third stop, New Type of service: Scheduled, Charter for passengers and freight, General Aviation (Aerotaxi), Deviated flight, Technical stops, Arriving/Departing Adults, Childs and Infants, per Origin/Destination and stops and freight per O/D and stops and mail per O/D and stops

Errors and Missing data:
- Improving harmonization on units and/or variables (Total passengers = Adults + Children + Infant)
Distinguishing a systematic error from a random one, Mirror checks (following slides...), Missing values within Record Linkage (on Transits, on some minor airports, on Flights)
- Survey data to integrate missing on Transit
- Record Linkage
- Mirror checks to improve quality
10.7 Quality management - documentation
The Istat Information system on quality of statistical production processes SIQual (http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/lang.do?language=UK) contains information on the execution on Istat statistical production processes and on activities developed to guarantee quality of the produced statistical information. For Details: http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/visualizza.do?id=5000072&refresh=true&language=EN

11. Quality management
11.1 Quality assurance

Since the 90s Istat adopted a systematic approach to ensure quality in both statistical information and service to the community. For this purpose, the Italian National Institute of Statistics has defined a quality policy providing itself with appropriate tools as well as management changes to carry it out.

Istat quality policy is aimed at the improvement of statistical outputs and processes through the development of appropriate methodologies and tools as well as an appropriate scientific and technical support, provided to the personnel directly involved in the production and dissemination of statistical information.

Istat quality policy is coherent with the European framework developed by Eurostat, taking up its main principles and definitions stated in the European Statistics Code of Practice and useful to ensure and strengthen the accountability and governance of the European Statistical System and of the National Statistical Systems.

For details: https://www.istat.it/en/organisation-and-activity/institutional-activities/quality-commitment


11.2 Quality management - assessment

 Implementation and compliance with the SDMX standards: 

 Yes we use SDMX Converter.

12. Relevance
12.1 Relevance - User Needs
Our users are:
- our respondents, i.e airport management companies
- Transport Department, Universities in the world, air companies (Ryanair, Alitalia, etc..), Assaeroporti as external bodies
- National Account and consuption prices index sectors of Istat
12.2 Relevance - User Satisfaction
Istat is constantly interested in understanding who the users of the statistics it produces are, what the information needs are, whether they match production and if the statistics produced satisfy users. To this aim, together with the analysis of user requests received through the Web Contact Center service, tools for direct consultation were developed, such as the annual online survey of customer satisfaction and indirect tools such as analysis of accesses and of users' browsing paths on the web site.
12.3 Completeness

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

It can be possible but only on the ground of the data included on the dataset A1 and B1. In practice, this is a difficult problem to solve.

13. Accuracy
13.1 Accuracy - overall
Maximum
13.2 Sampling error

Not applicable for air transport data collection.

13.3 Non-sampling error
The quality actions to control unit nonresponse are:
Telephone follow-ups
Special care in writing clear instructions to fill-in questionnaires

The quality actions to control the sources of processing error (data entry, coding, editing and imputation) are:
Evaluation of editing and imputation impact on final estimates
Evaluation of types of errors (item nonresponse, systematic errors, random errors, outliers)
Supervising activities of operators in charge of editing and imputation
Evaluation of editing and imputation impact on microdata
Debriefing operators in charge of editing and imputation
Storage of row data
Editing and imputation procedures are used to correct for item nonresponse and measurement errors
Data are validated to the following actions:
Coherence control with data from other surveys or sources
Coherence control with previous data of the same survey

14. Timeliness and punctuality
14.1 Timeliness

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

Difficulties to respect deadline for data transmission: 

We usually respect T+6 months. It isn’t possible T+5.

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. Coherence and comparability
15.1 Comparability - geographical
Georeferencing air routes
15.2 Comparability - over time

Length of comparable time series:
VariableLength
aircraft movements from 12/2001 to today
carriage of passengers from 12/2001 to today
15.3 Coherence - cross domain
Yes with an informatic application
15.4 Coherence - internal
Yes with an informatic application
16. Cost and Burden
About costs, we haven't external services, so our costs are internal. The survey has 4,3 human resources per year
The burden is the same for these last years.
17. Data revision
17.1 Data revision - policy
Not applicable
17.2 Data revision - practice
Not applicable
18. Statistical processing
18.1 Source data

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

Aircraft Information in A1:  Airports

Seats information information in A1:  technical data from airports

Dataset B1 –Data Suppliers (Passengers carried/Freight and mail loaded/unloaded): YES

Datasets A1 and B1 - Use of Air Waybill Data as information source of freight data: NO

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

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

18.2 Frequency of data collection
Frequency of data collection is Monthly
18.3 Data collection

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

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

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

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

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

Airports transmit all data to Istat by uploading datasets on ARCAM, a System for the collection (upload) of administrative archives and survey data

18.4 Data validation

Data validation procedure :

  • Interactive corrections (wrong codes…)
  • Consistency between Arr and Dep
  • Comparison between dataset A1, B1 and C1 etc.

Description of consistency checks:

  • No information avaiable. 
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: It’s often necessary to undertake transcodification.

Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery:

  • There are several problems due to wrong data transmitted from airports.
  • There is some problems about the deadline for data transmission from airports (dataset A1, B1,C1).
18.6 Adjustment

Not applicable for air transport data collection.

19. Comment