Frequently Asked Questions
Does STATFOR produce statistics on IFR flights only?
STATFOR produces statistics and forecasts on GAT (General Aviation Traffic) IFR (Instrument flight rules) flights. GAT traffic incorporates civil and military flights following civil rules i.e. no operational military air traffic is taken into consideration.
How are the regions defined?
A description of these regions is shown in the table below. The Long-Term and Medium-Term Forecast Reports covers traffic flows that are described as being to or from one of a number of regions as follows (States are indicated in the table for brevity by the first letters of the ICAO location codes).
| ICAO Region/country | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ESRA | |||
| ESRA 1 | ESRA North-West | LO EB EL EK EF LF ED ET EI EH EN ES LS EG LN | |
| ESRA 2 | ESRA Mediterranean | GC LC LG LI LP LM GE LT | |
| ESRA 3 | ESRA East | EP LA LB LD LH LJ LK LQ LR LU LW LY LZ | |
| World 1 | North Atlantic | K, C, B +PA, PO, PF, PP | |
| World 2 | Middle-East | O+LL+LV | |
| World 3 | North-Africa | DA, HE, HL, GM, HS, DT | |
| World 4 | Southern Africa | G, D, H, F (except DA, HE, HL, GM, GE, HS, DT and ESRA (GC)) | |
| World 5 | Far-East | V, Z, R, W (except ZZZZ) | |
| World 6 | Oceania | A, P, Y, N (except APIL, PA, PO, PF, PP) | |
| World 7 | Mid-Atlantic | M, T | |
| World 8 | South-Atlantic | S | |
| World 9 | Former CIS Region | U (except areas in ESRA) | |
| Other | Other | EE EG EN EV EY GE LP |
Is there a uniform glossary of terms on air transport statistics and forecasting?
Yes. STATFOR has developed a Glossary for Flight Statistics and Forecasts.
What are the FAB (Functional Airspace Blocks)?
A functional airspace block is an airspace block based on operational requirements and established regardless of State boundaries, in which the provision of air navigation services and related ancillary functions are optimised and/or integrated.
Note that NUAC has been renamed to DK-SE (and overlapping with NEFAB). DK-SE results are now presented, independently of NEFAB ones.
Results for Blue MED block should be treated with care, as Egypt and Tunisia being beyond the normal scope of STATFOR statistics and forecasts, so arrivals and departure data in particular are likely to be incomplete.
What data sources are used by STATFOR in producing statistics and forecasts?
The primary source for traffic information is the Network Management data. We complement this data with other information received directly from the Air Navigation Services Providers (ANSP) of the countries that are not part of the NM, and we also enrich the data with information resulting from the merge with CRCO data.
For other type of data rather then traffic data (economic, population, passenger...) we use many different sources: EUROSTAT, Oxford Economics, UN, IATA…
You can find more information here under the Data sources tab
What is meant by departures, arrivals, internals and overflights as presented in DAIO?
For a given country or area, departures and arrivals shall be understood as international departures/arrivals, i.e. respectively going to or departing from a foreign country. Internals are sometimes referred to as domestics. Overflights are flights for which both departure and arrival aerodromes are outside the country considered. This breakdown ensures that no multiple counting is performed. The totals in DAIO tables are the sum of departures, arrivals, internals and overflights.
What is meant by traffic segments? How are they defined?
We are always monitoring the European air traffic market to identify specific trends that can affect our forecasts and that are worth a separate analysis. To allow a consistent approach to these studies we created a traffic market segmentation that classifies the traffic in: Traditional Scheduled, Low-Cost, Business Aviation, Cargo, Charter, Military and Other.
This classification is based on a set of rules that use a mixture of operator, aircraft type and route information to determine the corresponding category. These rules are detailed in the document Market Segment Rules 1.0.
A description of the market segments is available on the SID (xls)
What is the ESRA (EUROCONTROL Statistical Reference Area)?
The EUROCONTROL Statistical Reference Area (ESRA), is designed to include as much as possible of the ECAC area for which data are available from a range of sources within the Agency (CRCO, CFMU and STATFOR) sources. It is used for high-level reports from the Agency, when referring to 'total Europe'. The ESRA will change only slowly with time; a region will be added to the ESRA only when there is a full year's data from all sources, so that growth calculations are possible. The current ESRA is really 'ESRA 2008'.
What is the SES area (Single European Sky area)?
The Single European Sky (SES) is an ambitious initiative, launched by the European Commission in 1999, to reform the architecture of European air traffic management (ATM).
It puts forward a legislative approach to meet future capacity and safety needs at a European rather than at local level. The European Commission has mandated EUROCONTROL to develop implementing rules for the implementation of the Single European Sky. Each rule is prepared in close consultation with Member States and aviation stakeholders.
EUROCONTROL is also at the forefront of research on the future air traffic management system through its work in the Single European Sky ATM Research Programme (SESAR), the technological dimension of the Single European Sky.
The regions of 'SES area' are illustrated in this map. In agreement with the SESAR Joint Undertaking, the oceanic airspace is not included in the STATFOR definition of the SES area.
Why are some states grouped and others split?
The decision to group two, or more, states in a single Traffic Zone can be determined either by a strategic decision or by constraints imposed by the fact that it does not exist a separate defined airspace, or we do not receive information about it, for a specific country (e.g. Luxembourg).
The decision to split countries in one or more Traffic Zones is mainly derived by the fact that the country in question will have two or more distinct traffic patterns, as it is the case for Portugal and Spain with a distinct configuration for Continental or Oceanic traffic, and they should be analysed separately.
In any case, these decisions are always previously discussed with the respective National Authority.