Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) on statistical returns in respect of carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air (95/C 325/08) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(95) 353 final - 95/0232(CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission on 18 September 1995) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 213 thereof,

Having regard to the draft Regulation submitted by the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Whereas to carry out the tasks entrusted to them, in the context of the Community air transport policy and in the context of the future development of the Common Transport Policy, the institutions must have at their disposal comparable, consistent, synchronized and regular statistical data about the scale and development of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air within the Community or to and from the Community;

Whereas there are currently no such comprehensive Community-wide statistics on the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air;

Whereas Council Decision 93/464/EEC of 12 July 1993 on the framework programme for priority actions in the field of statistical information 1993 to 1997 (1) has identified the need to establish such comprehensive statistics;

Whereas the common data collection on a comparable or harmonized basis enables the provision of an integrated system with reliable, consistent and prompt information;

Whereas the data for carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air should where possible be compatible with international data provided by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and be made comparable where applicable as between Member States and with the different modes of transport;

Whereas after a certain period the Commission should submit a report in order to allow an assessment of the operation of this Regulation;

Whereas measures for the implementation of this Regulation and its adaptation to economic and technical developments, should be carried out in consultation with the Statistical Programme Committee as set up under Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (2);

Whereas according to the principle of subsidiarity the objectives of the proposed action can only be achieved on the basis of a Community legal act because only the Commission can coordinate the necessary harmonization of the statistical information at Community level while the collection of the data can be organized by the Member States.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

General provision

Member States shall proceed with the production of Community statistical returns on the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air as well as on total aircraft movements within and to and from the Community.

Article 2

Data collection domain and definitions

1. This Regulation shall cover:

(a) the carriage of passengers, freight and mail on all commercial air services to and from Community airports;

(b) total aircraft movements at Community airports.

2. The terms given above are defined as follows:

(a) commercial air services

An air transport flight or series of flights performed by civil aircraft for remuneration within the Community or to and from the Community. Services can be either scheduled or non-scheduled.

(b) Community airport

Any area in a Member State which is open for commercial air transport operations.

(c) Total aircraft movements

All landings and take-offs at Community airports.

Article 3

Data collection characteristics

1. Each Member State shall collect statistical data, as referred to in Article 1, on the carriage of passengers, freight and mail on commercial air services by air carriers using Community airports in its territory, and on total aircraft movements at those airports.

2. The data collection characteristics shall relate to the following areas:

(a) passengers;

(b) freight and mail;

(c) flight stages;

(d) passenger seats available;

(e) aircraft movements.

The statistical variables in each domain, the nomenclatures for their classification, as well as their periodicity of observation, are set out in the Annexes I and II to this Regulation which form an integral part hereof.

3. Each Member State shall collect all data as specified in Annex I for all Community airports in its territory representing, in descending order of importance according to traffic, at least 98 % of total annual traffic expressed in passenger units. The data for airports:

- with more than 100 000 passenger movements annually,

- for which routes exist where a public service obligation has been declared according to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2408/92 (3),

- within the Trans-European Airport Network (4),

are to be collected irrespective of the 98 % threshold.

A list of Community airports covered by the above paragraph will be drawn up by the Commission, and if necessary updated, in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 11.

4. For those airports, but not including those having only occasional commercial traffic, for which data will not be reported according to Article 3 (3), Member States need only report annual data as specified in Section 1.3 of Annex I.

Article 4

Collection of data

1. The data collection shall be based where possible on available resources minimizing the burden on respondents.

2. Respondents called upon by Member States to supply information shall be obliged to give true and complete information within the prescribed time periods.

Article 5

Accuracy of statistics

The collection of data shall be based on complete counts. The methods of data collection shall ensure that Community air transport statistics are produced with the precision appropriate for the data files of statistics described in Annex I.

Article 6

Processing of Results

Member States shall use methods for data processing which ensure that the information collected under Article 3 complies with the precision required under Article 5.

Article 7

Transmission of results

1. Member States shall transmit the results referred to in Article 6 including the data declared confidential by the Member States pursuant to domestic legislation or practice concerning statistical confidentiality, in accordance with the provisions of Council Regulation (Euratom/EEC) No 1588/90 (5) of 11 June 1990 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

2. The results shall be transmitted according to the data files shown in Annex I. The files and the medium to be used for the transmission shall be specified by the Commission in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 11.

3. The first period of observation shall begin nine months after the end of the quarter in which the Regulation enters into force. The transmission shall take place as soon as possible and no later than six months from the end of the period of observation.

Article 8

Reports

1. Member States shall transmit upon request of the Commission all information concerning the methods used in the production of the data. Member States shall also forward details of any subsequent changes of these methods.

2. After data have been collected over a period of three years the Commission shall submit a report to the Council on experience acquired in the work carried out pursuant to this Regulation.

Article 9

Dissemination of data

The Commission shall disseminate appropriate statistical results with the same periodicity as for the transmission of results.

Article 10

Committee

The arrangements for implementing this Regulation, including measures for adaptation to economic and technical developments, in particular:

- adaptation of the specifications of the contents of the Annexes of this Regulation,

- adaptation of the data collection characteristics (Article 3),

- accuracy of statistics (Article 5),

- description of the record of a data file, codes and the medium to be used for transmission of results to the Commission (Article 7),

- dissemination of statistical results (Article 9).

shall be laid down by the Commission, in consultation with the Statistical Programme Committee set up by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 11.

Article 11

Procedure

1. The representative of the Commission shall submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The Committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft within a time limit which the chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter. The opinion shall be delivered by the majority laid down in Article 148 (2) of the Treaty in the case of decisions which the Council is required to adopt on a proposal from the Commission. The votes of the representatives of the Member States within the Committee shall be weighted in the manner set out in that Article. The chairman shall not vote.

2. The Commission shall adopt measures which shall apply immediately. However, if these measures are not in accordance with the opinion of the Committee, they shall be communicated by the Commission to the Council forthwith. In that event, the Commission shall defer application of the measures which it has decided for a period of three months from the date of such communication.

3. The Council, acting by qualified majority, may take a different decision within the time limit referred to in paragraph 2.

Article 12

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

This regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

(1) OJ No L 219, 28. 8. 1993, p. 1.

(2) OJ No L 181, 28. 6. 1989, p. 47.

(3) OJ No L 240, 24. 8. 1992, p. 8.

(4) COM(94) 106 final (OJ No C 220, 8. 8. 1994, p. 1).

(5) OJ No L 151, 15. 6. 1990, p. 1.

ANNEX I

RECORD STRUCTURE FOR DATA TRANSMISSION TO EUROSTAT

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(1) Airports

Airports shall be coded according to the ICAO 4-letter codes as listed in the ICAO Document 7910.

(2) Airline code

Airlines shall be coded according to the ICAO 3-letter airline designator codes as listed in the ICAO Document 8585.

(3) Aircraft codes

Aircraft shall be coded according to ICAO aircraft type designators as listed in the ICAO Document 8643.

ANNEX II

DEFINITIONS AND STATISTICAL VARIABLES

Scheduled services

Services possessing all the following characteristics:

(i) they are performed by aircraft for the transport of passengers, freight and mail for remuneration, in such a manner that on each flight seats are available for individual purchase by members of the public (either directly from the air carrier or from its authorized agents);

(ii) they are operated so as to serve traffic between the same two or more airports, either:

1. according to a published timetable; or

2. with flights so regular or frequent that they constitute a recognizably systematic series (1).

Non-scheduled services

Air services for remuneration other than those reported under scheduled services. Includes taxi flights.

Passenger services

All flights carrying one or more revenue passengers, and any flights listed in timetables as providing passenger services.

All-freight/mail services

Services relating to scheduled or non-scheduled flights performed by aircraft carrying loads other than passengers, i.e. freight, mail. Exclude any flights carrying one or more revenue passengers, and flights listed in timetables as providing passenger services.

Passenger units

With regard to the drawing up of the list of Community airports as referred to in Article 3 (3) of this Regulation, one passenger unit is equivalent to either one passenger or 75 kilogrammes of freight and mail for calculation purposes.

Airline

An air transport undertaking with a valid operating licence. Where airlines have joint venture or other contractual arrangements requiring two or more of them to assume separate responsibility for the offer and sale of air transport products on a flight or combination of flights, the airline actually operating the flight shall be reported.

FLIGHT STAGE DEFINITIONS AND VARIABLES

The flight stage data refers to commercial air services only.

Flight stages

A flight stage is the operation of an aircraft from take-off to its next landing. A technical stop should not result in any flight stage being classified differently than would have been the case had the technical stop not been made. The classification of traffic (passengers, freight, mail) irrespective of its nature, shall be identical to the classification of the flight stage flown by the aircraft.

Flights

The number of flights performed between each pair of airports on a flight stage.

Passengers on board

All passengers whose air journey begins or terminates at the reporting airport, including connecting passengers. Direct transit passengers are also to be counted. (Direct transit passengers are passengers who continue their journey on a flight having the same flight number as the flight on which they arrived).

Freight on board

Any property carried on an aircraft other than stores and baggage, includes express and diplomatic bags but not passenger baggage or mail.

Mail on board

Dispatches of correspondence and other projects carried on an aircraft which have been dispatched by and intended for delivery to postal administrations.

Passenger seats available

The total number of passenger seats available for sale between each pair of airports on a flight stage (excludes seats not actually available for the carriage of passengers because of the weight of fuel or other load). Where information is not available on exact aircraft configuration, estimated data should be provided.

ON FLIGHT ORIGIN/DESTINATION DEFINITIONS AND VARIABLES

The on flight origin and destination data refers to commercial air services only.

On flight origin and destination traffic

Traffic on a given flight with the same 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).

Passengers carried

Includes all passengers whose air journey begins or terminates at the reporting airport. Excludes direct transit passengers.

Freight loaded/unloaded

Any property loaded or unloaded onto or off an aircraft other than stores and baggage, includes express and diplomatic bags but not passenger baggage or mail.

Mail loaded/unloaded

Dispatches of correspondence and other objects loaded or unloaded onto or off an aircraft which have been dispatched by and intended for delivery to postal administrations.

AIRPORTS - TOTAL QUARTERLY DATA DEFINITIONS AND VARIABLES

The airports data refers to commercial air services only with the exception of 'total aircraft movements` which refers to all aircraft movements at Community airports.

Passengers carried on commercial flights

Total passengers whose air journey begins or terminates at the reporting airport. Excludes total direct transit passengers but includes connecting passengers.

Direct transit passengers carried on commercial flights

Total direct transit passengers, i.e. passengers who continue their journey on a flight having the same flight number as the flight on which they arrived.

Freight and mail loaded/unloaded on commercial flights

Any property loaded or unloaded onto or off an aircraft other than stores and baggage, includes express and diplomatic bags but not passenger baggage.

Total aircraft movements on commercial air services

All take offs and landings performed by civil aircraft for remuneration. Services can be either scheduled or non-scheduled.

Total aircraft movements

All take offs and landings by non-military aircraft. This includes aerial work flights, i.e. specialized commercial aviation operations which are performed by aircraft chiefly engaged in agriculture, construction, photography and surveying, as well as pilot training, business/executive flying and all other non-commercial flights.

(1) OJ No L 240, 24. 8. 1992, p. 9.