Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on experience acquired in the application of 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
Date: 2007-04-17
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Eurostat, air transport, application of EU law, carriage of passengers, freight rate, postal service, statistical method, transport statistics

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 17.4.2007 
COM(2007) 187 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on experience acquired in the application of 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 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.......................................................................................... 3 

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3 

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES ....................................................................... 3 

POLICY CONTEXT.................................................................................................... 4 

IMPLEMENTING RULES.......................................................................................... 5 

COVERAGE OF MEMBER STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES ........................ 5 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION ........................................................ 6 

1 

1.1 

1.2 

1.3 

1.4 

2 

2.1 

ISSUES ENCOUNTERED.......................................................................................... 6 

2.1.1  Respect of legal obligations ......................................................................................... 6 

2.1.2  Burden of the implementation and regular data provision for reporting countries...... 8 

2.1.3  Data collection, compilation and validation process.................................................... 9 

2.1.4  Methodological issues.................................................................................................. 9 

2.2 

RESULTS .................................................................................................................... 9 

2.2.1  Data transmission and validation ................................................................................. 9 

2.2.2  Methodological guidance ........................................................................................... 10 

2.2.3  Data dissemination ..................................................................................................... 10 

3 

3.1 

3.2 

CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................ 12 

SHORT TERM DEVELOPMENTS.......................................................................... 12 

LONG TERM DEVELOPMENTS............................................................................ 12 

INDEX OF TABLES 

Table 1: Compliance with the Regulation requirements: dataset delivery by year.................... 7 

Table 2: Compliance with the Regulation requirements: number of reporting airports by 

dataset and year ............................................................................................................ 8 

Table 3: Passenger, freight and mail air transport by country: 2005 data and growth 2003-

2005............................................................................................................................ 11 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on experience acquired in the application of 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 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

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  air1 
specifies in its article 9.2 that, after data have been collected over a period of three years, the 
Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on experience 
acquired  in  the  application  of  this  Regulation.  This  report  is  aimed  to  comply  with  this 
requirement once the first three years of data collection have been completed (2003-2005). 

After a general description of the background, objectives and policy context of the legal act, 
some issues linked to the implementation are discussed. The report also presents information 
on  the  main  results  achieved.  The  final  section  provides  conclusions  and  possible  future 
developments. 

The  implementation  of  this  Regulation  has  led  to  an  increase  in  the  availability  of  detailed 
information on European  air  passengers  and  freight transport as well as an improvement on 
data quality and timeliness. Member States have made efforts to fulfil the requirements of the 
Regulation and most are providing all requested data respecting the set deadlines. 

1 

INTRODUCTION 

1.1 

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES 

A  voluntary  data  collection  on  air  transport  statistics  had  started  from  reference  year  1993 
based  on  a  methodology  agreed  with  the  Member  States.  The  adoption  of  Regulation 
437/2003  officialised  the  methodology  already  in  place  and  extended  the  scope  of  data 
provision to some additional elements. This Regulation was therefore designed to provide the 
Commission,  other  EU  Institutions,  national  governments  and  the  general  public  with 
comparable,  reliable,  harmonised,  regular  and  comprehensive  statistical  data  on  the 
development of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air in the European Union.  

The main features of Regulation 437/2003 can be summarized as follows: 

•  Data provision obligation is defined at airport level. Some groups of airports are 
defined  to  allow  a  modular  distribution  of  the  burden  on  respondents  by 

1 

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, OJ L 66, 11.3.2003, 
p.1. 

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requesting  more  data  from  medium  and  large  airports  and  by  diminishing  or 
eliminating the data provision obligation from smaller airports. 

•  Two 

levels  for  data  provision  are  defined:  flight  stage  and  on  flight 
origin/destination.  This  is  important  to  monitor  the  intra  and  extra-EU  air 
transport  flows  according  to  the  movement  of  the  aircraft  (flight  stage)  or 
according to the movement of the passengers/freight (on flight origin/destination) 
and to identify the direct transit passengers. 

•  The information has to be provided separately for arrivals and departures as well 
as for scheduled and non-scheduled services. This allows a detailed analysis of the 
incoming and outgoing flows as well as of the different impact of the scheduled 
and non-scheduled services, particularly at extra-EU level. 

•  The provision of airline information is also foreseen, although the coverage was 
not  specifically  defined  in  this  Regulation.  This  is  important  to  monitor  the 
liberalisation of the markets and, more particularly, the level of competition in the 
different routes and the introduction of low-cost carriers. 

•  In the case of the flight stage information, three additional variables are requested: 
number of flights, type of aircraft and seats available. This information is relevant 
to  analyse  in  detail  the  airport-to-airport  flows  in  terms  of  congestion,  capacity 
and use of fleets. 

1.2 

POLICY CONTEXT 

The  development  of  the  Common  Transport  Policy  requires  the  best  possible  knowledge  of 
the  extent  and  evolution  of  air  passenger  and  freight  transport.  The  White  Paper  European 
transport policy for 2010: time to decide2 defined the objective of the Community Transport 
Policy as to help provide Europeans with efficient and effective transportation systems. This 
objective  has  been  maintained  in  the  Mid-term  Review  of  the  White  Paper3,  although  more 
oriented  towards  ensuring  sustainable  mobility  in  Europe.  Thus,  Community  aviation 
statistics are used for framing, monitoring and evaluation of EU transport policies and other 
EU policies such the functioning of the internal market. 

The importance  of these  data for EU  decision-making is increasing. For instance, following 
the  competence  attributed  to  the  Commission,  this  information  is  used  increasingly  for  the 
preparation  of  air  transport  agreement  negotiations  with  third  countries.  This  information  is 
also used  for Air Traffic Management matters,  measurement  of  passenger  and  freight  flows 
and the calculation of the modal split of transport in the EU. Another example is the use of 
these data for measuring entries into the EU borders at the airports.  

For  data  on  passengers  the  relevance  is  growing,  as  ticket  reservation  data  in  computerized 
reservation  systems  is  becoming  less  representative  of  the  total  market  due  to  increasing 
internet booking. In addition, the information collected on the type of service (scheduled/non-
scheduled) is very difficult to get from other sources and it is particularly relevant on some 
extra-EU routes where non-scheduled passengers services are predominant. 

2 
3 

COM(2001) 370 of 12 September 2001  
COM(2006) 314 of 22 June 2006: "Keep Europe moving – Sustainable mobility for our continent. Mid-
term review of the European Commission's 2001 Transport White Paper". 

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For  air  freight  transport,  the  better  coverage  and  the  improvement  of  data  quality  enables  a 
more frequent use of this information for which no alternative sources exist. 

Other examples of the use of these data for policy needs are the following: 

•  The  possibility  of  having  airline  codes  reported  under  the  Regulation  requirements  is 

useful to monitor competition and state-aid. 

•  The data collected for medium and small airports is useful for regional policy purposes. 

•  European  Aviation  Safety  Agency  is  also  interested  in  exploiting  these  data  for  safety 

purposes. 

•  There is also a potential to use these data for environmental policy purposes (i.e. emissions 

and noise). 

1.3 

IMPLEMENTING RULES 

Regulation  437/2003  confers  implementing  powers  on  the  Commission,  which  are  to  be 
exercised via the comitology procedure as set out in Articles 10 and 11. Eurostat has used this 
procedure  to  adopt  a  set  of  rules  covering  different  aspects  of  the  implementation  of  the 
Regulation. These rules are adopted in the form of Commission Regulations after opinion of 
the Statistical Programme Committee. 

So  far,  two  implementing  Regulations  have  been  adopted  and  one  more  is  following  the 
procedure for its adoption in 2007. 

Commission  Regulation  1358/20034  provides  a  very  comprehensive  set  of  implementing 
arrangements,  particularly  the  list  of  Community  airports  and  the  permitted  derogations  per 
Member  State,  technical  arrangements  for  data  transmission,  as  well  as  a  revision  of  the 
definitions, nomenclature, codification and datasets to be provided. 

Commission Regulation 546/20055 is mainly aimed to cover the enlargement of the EU to ten 
new  Member  States  in  2004  since  it  provides  the  list  of  their  airports  and  requested 
derogations. 

A draft Commission Regulation is scheduled to be adopted in 2007. This will provide a full 
revision of the list of Community airports to be applicable from January 2007. This list does 
not include any derogation as all have already expired in 2006. 

1.4 

COVERAGE OF MEMBER STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES 

Regulation 437/2003 applies directly and in its entirety to all Member States. It does not have 
to be transposed into national legislation. However, the Regulation provided the possibility of 

4 

5 

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1358/2003  of  31  July  2003  implementing  Regulation  (EC) 
No 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  and  amending  Annexes  I  and  II  thereto,  OJ  L  194, 
1.8.2003, p.9. 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 546/2005 of 8 April 2005 adapting Regulation (EC) No 437/2003 as 
regards  the  allocation  of  reporting-country  codes  and  amending  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1358/2003 as regards the updating of the list of Community airports, OJ L91, 9.4.2005, p.5. 

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granting derogations for certain airports, datasets and variables according to certain rules and 
for a maximum period of time of three years (until 2005 included). 

Concerning Romania and Bulgaria, both countries have declared their willingness to comply 
fully with the EU legislation on this field upon accession without requesting any derogation. 
The list of airports of these two new Member States has been included in the Accession Treaty 
of Bulgaria and Romania under the Technical Adaptations to the Statistical Acquis.  

Concerning candidate countries, Croatia and Turkey provide aggregated data at airport level 
while the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia does not provide any information.  

In 2003, Regulation 437/2003 was formally incorporated into Annex XXI (Statistics) of the 
EEA  Agreement  by  a  Decision  of  the  EEA  Joint  Committee6.  According  to  this  Decision 
Iceland and Norway have to transmit the data required in the Regulation while Liechtenstein 
is exempted. 

Data based on the Regulation principles is also transmitted by Switzerland in accordance with 
the  Agreement  between  the  European  Community  and  the  Swiss  Confederation  on 
cooperation in the field of statistics7.  

2 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION 

2.1 

ISSUES ENCOUNTERED 

2.1.1 

Respect of legal obligations 

The  compliance  with  the  data  provision  obligations  defined  in  the  Regulation  has 
experienced  a  positive  evolution  during  the  period  considered.  The  2003  data 
provision, although quite complete in general, presented for some reporting countries 
specific problems related to the periodicity of the datasets or to gaps in the delivery 
of  some  elements  (aircraft  movements,  transit  passengers  or  seats  available).  The 
data provision in the two subsequent years has improved the situation, particularly as 
regards the periodicity of the datasets which is now fully respected.  

Table 1 shows the status of the data delivery for the period 2003-2005 by dataset and 
periodicity.  According  to  Regulation  1358/2003,  datasets  A1  and  B1  are  monthly 
(quarterly was acceptable only in 2003) and dataset C1 is at least annual. 

6 

7 

Decision  of  the  EEA  Joint  Committee  No  132/2003  of  26  September  2003  amending  Annex  XXI 
(Statistics) to the EEA Agreement, OJ L 331, 18.12.2003, p. 68. 
Signed on 26 October 2004 and approved by Council Decision of 27 February 2006 on the conclusion 
of the Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on cooperation in the 
field of statistics, OJ L 90 of 28 March 2006, pp.1-21. 

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Table  1:  Compliance  with  the  Regulation  requirements:  dataset  delivery  by 
year 

Belgium 
Czech Republic 
Denmark 
Germany 
Estonia 
Greece 
Spain 
France 
Ireland 
Italy 
Cyprus 
Latvia 
Lithuania 
Luxembourg 
Hungary 
Malta 
Netherlands 
Austria 
Poland 
Portugal 
Slovenia 
Slovakia 
Finland 
Sweden 
United Kingdom 
Bulgaria 
Romania 
Croatia 
Turkey 
Iceland 
Norway 
Switzerland 

2003 
B1 
M 
Q 
M 
M 
- 
M 
M 
M 
- 
M 
Q 
- 
A 
- 
M 
M 
M 
M 
- 
Q 
- 
Q 
M 
- 
M 
- 
Q 
- 
- 
M 
M 
Q 

C1 
Q 
Q 
M 
A 
Q 
M 
M 
M 
- 
M 
Q 
Q 
Q 
A 
M 
M 
A 
A 
A 
Q 
M 
Q 
A/M 
M 
M 
M 
Q 
- 
M 
A/M 
M 
A 

A1 
M 
M/Q 
M 
M 
Q 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M/Q 
M 
- 
A 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M/Q 
M 
M 
M 
- 
Q 
- 
- 
M 
M 
M 

2004 
B1 
M 
M/Q 
M 
M 
Q 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M/Q 
M 
Q 
- 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M/Q 
M 
M 
M 
- 
Q 
- 
- 
M 
M 
M 

C1 
A/M 
M/Q 
M 
A 
Q/A 
M 
M 
M 
A/M 
M 
M/Q 
M/Q 
Q 
- 
M 
M 
- 
A 
A/M 
M 
M 
M/Q 
A/M 
M 
M 
M 
Q 
A 
M 
A/M 
M 
A 

A1 
M 
Q 
M 
M 
Q 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
Q 
M 
- 
A 
M 
M 
M 
M 
- 
Q 
- 
Q 
M 
M 
M 
- 
- 
- 
- 
M 
M 
Q 

2005 
B1 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
- 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
- 
M 
- 
- 
M 
M 
M 

C1 
A/M 
M 
M 
- 
Q 
M 
M 
M 
A/M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
- 
A/M 
M 
- 
A 
A/M 
M 
M 
M 
A/M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
A 
M 
A/M 
M 
A 

A1 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
M 
- 
M 
- 
- 
M 
M 
M 

KEY: M: Monthly; Q: Quarterly; A: Annual; -: Not provided 

Still some problems remain for certain Member States. The main issues to solve are 
the provision of appropriate freight data, the delivery of dataset C1 and data quality 
problems with the information on seats available. However, in most of the cases the 
concerned countries are implementing correcting measures or have plans to improve 
their systems to ensure the full compliance with the legal requirements.  

Concerning  the  application  of  the  granted  derogations,  no  particular  problem  has 
been detected. Those countries which had requested them have started providing the 
necessary data after their expiration. Even some countries have decided not to profit 
from  them  for  the  whole  granted  period  and  have  provided  the  data  before  it  was 
compulsory. The number of reporting airports per country is shown on Table 2. 

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Table  2:  Compliance  with  Regulation  requirements:  number  of  reporting 
airports by dataset and year. 

2003 
B1 

A1 

C1 

A1 

2004 
B1 

C1 

A1 

2005 
B1 

C1 

Belgium 
Czech Republic 
Denmark 
Germany 
Estonia 
Greece 
Spain 
France 
Ireland 
Italy 
Cyprus 
Latvia 
Lithuania 
Luxembourg 
Hungary 
Malta 
Netherlands 
Austria 
Poland 
Portugal 
Slovenia 
Slovakia 
Finland 
Sweden 
United Kingdom 
Bulgaria 
Romania 
Croatia 
Turkey 
Iceland 
Norway 
Switzerland 

1 
4 
8 
70 
1 
38 
33 
80 
3 
30 
2 
1 
: 
1 
1 
1 
5 
6 
: 
9 
: 
2 
31 
18 
47 
: 
: 
: 
: 
1 
81 
7 

1 
4 
3 
69 
: 
38 
33 
80 
: 
30 
2 
: 
1 
: 
1 
1 
5 
6 
: 
9 
: 
2 
28 
: 
47 
: 
17 
: 
: 
1 
54 
7 

1 
4 
9 
40 
1 
38 
38 
80 
: 
42 
2 
2 
3 
1 
1 
1 
5 
6 
12 
9 
1 
2 
26 
42 
60 
4 
17 
: 
14 
24 
133 
62 

2 
4 
10 
68 
1 
38 
33 
64 
3 
34 
2 
1 
: 
1 
1 
1 
5 
6 
1 
9 
1 
2 
31 
18 
47 
: 
16 
: 
: 
1 
81 
7 

2 
4 
10 
68 
1 
38 
33 
64 
3 
34 
2 
1 
1 
: 
1 
1 
5 
6 
1 
9 
1 
2 
30 
3 
47 
: 
16 
: 
: 
1 
55 
7 

5 
4 
10 
40 
2 
38 
39 
64 
11 
42 
2 
2 
3 
: 
1 
1 
: 
6 
12 
10 
1 
6 
26 
42 
61 
4 
16 
8 
15 
24 
137 
62 

2 
4 
10 
71 
1 
38 
33 
66 
6 
34 
2 
1 
3 
1 
1 
1 
5 
6 
1 
10 
1 
2 
30 
18 
48 
: 
3 
: 
: 
1 
82 
7 

2 
4 
10 
71 
1 
38 
33 
66 
6 
34 
2 
1 
3 
: 
1 
1 
5 
6 
1 
10 
1 
2 
30 
3 
48 
: 
3 
: 
: 
1 
52 
7 

5 
4 
10 
: 
2 
38 
39 
66 
11 
43 
2 
2 
3 
: 
3 
1 
: 
6 
10 
10 
1 
6 
26 
32 
61 
4 
9 
9 
14 
24 
166 
7 

2.1.2 

Burden of the implementation and regular data provision for the reporting countries 

In  the  majority  of  reporting  countries  the  compliance  with  the  Regulation  has 
required  the  implementation  of  a  new  data  collection  and  compilation  process.  In 
other countries, extensions or adaptations of the existing processes have been needed. 
In  very  few  cases  no  specific  measures  have  been  taken  as  the  existing  processes 
were sufficient to satisfy  the requirements. It has to be mentioned that no financial 
support was foreseen in the Regulation to cover the cost of its implementation. 

Concerning  the  regular  data  provision,  the  workload  involved  is  considered  as 
acceptable by a majority of reporting countries. Nevertheless, in some countries this 
involves a major burden, particularly for the airports as original data providers.  

In terms of costs, a pilot study launched in 2006 on behalf of the Working Group on 
European  Statistical  System  Programming  and  Coordination  revealed  a  very 

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heterogeneous situation, with an average annual cost per reporting airport varying up 
largely  depending  on  the  country.  Until  certain  extent,  this  reflects  the  different 
position  of  the  Competent  National  Authority  (CNA)  responsible  for  the  data 
delivery  to  Eurostat  in  relationship  with  their  national  data  providers,  normally  the 
airports. The CNA may be the national statistical office, the civil aviation authority, 
the Ministry of Transport or even the airport administration in the reporting countries 
where there is only one airport. 

2.1.3  Data collection, compilation and validation process 

The  data  collection  and  compilation  process  on  the  reporting  countries  follows  a 
traditional bottom-up flow of information. In general, this flow starts at the airlines 
and/or the handling agents that supply the data to the airport organisations, normally 
on the basis of electronic standard movement messages. Then, the airports transmit 
the  information  to  the  CNA  which  makes  the  compilation,  validation  and 
transmission of the national data to Eurostat.  

Some  variants  to  this  general  flow  exist,  however.  In  some  cases,  the  airports  use 
their  own  databases  or  sources  to  provide  the  information,  particularly  for  some  of 
the variables requested on dataset C1 such as aircraft movements. In other cases, the 
airlines or handling agents deliver directly the information to the CNA. 

All CNA apply validation checks before sending the information to Eurostat, using 
internally  developed  control  procedures  and/or  using  a  pre-validation  software  tool 
provided  by  Eurostat.  The  validation  rules  cover  many  aspects  of  the  process 
including data format, codification, consistency between datasets and variables, etc. 

2.1.4  Methodological issues 

The  methodological  arrangements  of  the  implementing  Regulation  1358/2003  have 
provided  a  common  framework  to  ensure  a  harmonized  data  collection  and  the 
production  of  comparable  results.  During  the  period  considered,  no  major 
methodological issues have been raised.  

2.2 

RESULTS  

2.2.1  Data transmission and validation. 

Article  7  of  Regulation  437/2003  requires  the  data  transmission  no  later  than  six 
months after the end of the period of observation. During the period considered, the 
compliance with this deadline has improved significantly. Currently, this deadline is 
generally respected and, in many cases, it has been significantly reduced. 

Regarding  the  technical  arrangements  for  data  transmission,  a  high  level  of 
standardisation  has  been  achieved.  Data  are  transmitted  electronically  to  Eurostat 
respecting the requested structure of the data files and the record format. This allows 
a  quick  integration  of  the  information  on  the  Eurostat  production  database  and  an 
early detection of basic errors and unknown codes. 

Once data have been loaded in the Eurostat database, detailed validation procedures 
are applied to ensure the quality of the transmitted data. The validation includes the 
internal  consistency  of  the  datasets,  the  consistency  over  the  time,  the  coherence 

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between datasets and a comparison of the results for routes shared by two reporting 
countries.  

The overall level of data quality can be judged as high. This statement is based on the 
implementation of a solid common methodological framework, on the efforts in the 
compilation and validation procedures at national level as well as on the subsequent 
quality controls performed at Eurostat before data dissemination. 

2.2.2  Methodological guidance 

Eurostat  has  produced  a  Reference  Manual  on  Air  Transport  Statistics  to  provide 
guidance  to  Member  States  and  other  reporting  countries  in  the  implementation  of 
the Regulation. The Reference Manual is updated annually to include the most recent 
information, documentation or guidelines relevant to the collection of these statistics.  

2.2.3  Data dissemination 

According to Article 3 of Regulation 1358/2003, the Commission can disseminate all 
data  not  declared  as  confidential  by  the  Member  States.  In  practice,  very  few 
countries  have  used  this  clause  and  the  large  majority  of  the  data  delivered  to 
Eurostat can be disseminated. 

However, the dissemination of the airline information has been limited to aggregated 
values for EU and non-EU licensed carriers. The provision of detailed information on 
airlines  is  optional  and,  in  practice,  confidentiality  constraints  at  national  level 
prevent many countries to do such provision or limit it to aggregated values. 

Eurostat  releases  the  data  collected  through  its  dissemination  database  freely 
accessible  from  the Eurostat web site. Due to size limitations, a threshold structure 
for  the  dissemination  of  airport-to-airport  data  (air  routes)  is  applied.  Eurostat  also 
disseminates  this  information  though  specific  publications  such  as  the  series 
Statistics in Focus or news releases that provide relevance to the data for the media 
and the general public. 

Table  3  contains  some  key  figures  on  the  European  air  transport  collected  on  the 
basis of this Regulation. 

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Table  3:  Passenger,  freight  and  mail  air  transport  by  country:  2005  data  and 
growth 2003-2005.  

Passengers 

Freight and mail 

Belgium 
Czech Republic 
Denmark2 
Germany 
Estonia 
Greece 
Spain 
France 
Ireland 
Italy 
Cyprus 
Latvia 
Lithuania 
Luxembourg 
Hungary 
Malta 
Netherlands 
Austria 
Poland1 
Portugal 
Slovenia1 
Slovakia 
Finland 
Sweden 
United Kingdom 
European Union 251 
Bulgaria 
Romania 
Croatia1 
Turkey 
Iceland 
Norway 
Switzerland 

 2005 data 

17,813,943 
11,265,764 

22,172,778 
145,977,422 
1,393,105 
30,798,527 
143,679,871 
107,955,149 
24,254,298 
87,906,423 
6,782,277 
1,872,040 
1,434,241 
1,538,152 
8,048,760 
2,757,240 
46,433,037 
19,684,822 

7,080,325 
20,272,160 

1,217,167 
1,582,978 
12,348,113 
22,899,135 
204,013,386 

705,820,750 
5,022,584 
3,493,783 

3,915,666 
53,515,594 
2,111,100 
: 
28,876,072 

Growth 
2003-2005 
18.0%
45.2%

14.1%
20.5%
96.2%
9.3%
19.5%
12.1%
24.4%
18.9%
11.6%
165.5%
98.7%
6.1%
60.6%
4.1%
12.8%
24.6%

16.2%
14.3%

16.3%
152.9%
17.4%
12.0%
14.7%

8.5%
40.5%
28.6%

18.7%
58.9%
35.2%
-
12.5%

2005 data (in 
tonnes) 

694,523 
56,259 

7,465 
3,005,967 
9,739 
105,502 
526,125 
1,476,721 
89,356 
754,302 
39,220 
15,428 
9,580 
624,803 
55,472 
16,891 
1,550,736 
181,533 

31,130 
129,516 

4,549 
4,069 
119,569 
: 
2,450,838 

10,953,661 
16,845 
17,980 

18,109 
333,511 
62,969 
: 
334,024 

Growth 
2003-2005 
14.5%
5.7%

-17.0%
23.0%
92.8%
-23.0%
19.6%
4.3%
114.6%
10.3%
23.3%
14.0%
83.6%
3.7%
9.8%
2.2%
11.7%
41.0%

-48.3%
4.8%

-27.1%
-68.3%
33.3%
-
7.2%

3.5%
8.5%
13.5%

82.3%
19.5%
38.7%
-
3.8%

EU aggregates are calculated excluding double counting between EU partner airports 
1 Due to data availability, growth is calculated between 2004 and 2005 
2 Danish freight data do not include Kobenhavn/Kastrup airport figures as they are not available 

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3 

CONCLUSIONS 

The experience gained and the results obtained on the implementation of Regulation 
437/2003  can  be  considered,  in  general,  as  very  positive.  Even  if  a  similar  system 
was running before the adoption of the Regulation, the work and resources put into 
the  setting  up  of  the  legal  requirements,  both  at  national  and  Eurostat  level,  have 
allowed  a  quick  production  of  comparable  and  reliable  results.  This  is  particularly 
relevant  in  the  case  of  the  ten  Member  States  which  joined  the  EU  in  2004,  where 
previous experience in air transport data collection was limited.  

Most  of  the  issues  linked  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Regulation,  data  collection, 
compilation, transmission and validation have been addressed and properly tackled. 
The  implementation  of  this  Regulation  has  led  to  an  increase  in  the  availability  of 
information on the sector as well as an improvement on data quality and timeliness. 
Regarding the use of the data, the results obtained have an immediate application for 
policy-making, particularly for the development, implementation and monitoring of 
the air transport sector policies at national and EU level. Data dissemination through 
different public means has contributed to give visibility to the whole process and to 
provide a return to the citizens for the investment of resources made on it. 

3.1 

SHORT TERM DEVELOPMENTS 

In the short term, the efforts should be concentrated on the following issues: 

•  Further  improvement  of  data  quality  for  certain  elements.  Some  reporting 
countries  need  to  make  additional  efforts  to  supply  regularly  reliable  and 
comparable  data  for  the  freight  variables,  the  information  on  seats  available  or 
some of the elements contained on dataset C1.  

•  Provision of airline information. The delivery of airline information separating, at 
least,  EU  from  non-EU  carriers  should  be  a  reachable  objective  for  all  Member 
States  without  diminishing  their  confidentiality  restrictions.  Furthermore,  under 
special  circumstances  such  as  the  negotiation  of  air  transport  agreements  with 
third countries, it maybe needed to define a procedure for which the Commission 
could request Member States to provide detailed airline information not delivered 
under the regular data provision. 

•  Enlargement  of  the  EU  to  Bulgaria  and  Romania.  Eurostat  will  pay  particular 
attention  to  ensure  that  these  two  new  Member  States  comply  with  the  EU 
legislation on air transport statistics.  

3.2 

LONG TERM DEVELOPMENTS 

Long term developments would probably imply the extension of the data collection 
to new variables such as: true origin/final destination of passengers when the journey 
includes  multiple  flights  (at  least,  for  passengers  having  one  single  ticket  for  the 
complete  journey);  nationality  of  incoming  extra-EU  passengers;  ticket  pricing; 
number  of  indirect  transit  passengers  (i.e.  transfer  passengers)  by  airport;  or  a 
breakdown  of  the  number  of  movements  by  period  of  the  day  and  by  technology 
according to standards on certified noise levels. 

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These variables are addressed by new policy needs and go beyond the present scope 
of  the  Regulation.  However,  reporting  countries  have  clearly  expressed  the  current 
impossibility of collecting such information and the need to duly justify any further 
burden linked to the collection of air transport statistics.  

Anyway, at least two future developments not linked to new data requirements could 
be envisaged: 

•  A short reduction on the data transmission period to five months after the end of 
the period of observation, in line with the statistical data collection of other modes 
of transport. 

•  Extension  of  the geographical coverage due to either future EU enlargements or 
the voluntary involvement of third countries through co-operation agreements.  

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