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Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Methodology and quality
  3. ESMS metadata
  4. Air transport

Air transport

1. Contact
1.1. Contact organisation

Statistics Estonia

1.2. Contact organisation unit

Economic and Environmental Statistics Department

1.3. Contact name

Anton Kardakov

1.4. Contact person function

Leading Analyst

1.5. Contact mail address

51 Tatari Str, 10134 Tallinn, Estonia

1.6. Contact email address

anton.kardakov [at] stat.ee

1.7. Contact phone number

37253345697

2. Metadata update
2.1. Metadata last certified

27/03/2025

2.2. Metadata last update

27/03/2025

3. Statistical presentation
3.1. Data description

Year: air traffic through Tallinn Airport by flight type and partner country

Quarter: passenger and cargo transportation of Estonian air transport companies; air traffic through Tallinn Airport by flight type

Month: air traffic through Tallinn Airport by flight type and partner country

3.2. Classification system

Estonian Classification of Economic Activities (EMTAK 2008) based on NACE Rev. 2

3.3. Sector coverage

Estonian air transport enterprises and airports

3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions

Direct transit passenger – a passenger who, after a short stop, continues his/her journey on the same aircraft on a flight having the same flight number as the flight on which he/she arrived.

Domestic air traffic – the departure and destination points of a flight are in Estonia.

Enterprise – an enterprise consists of one or more companies (public limited company, private limited company, limited partnership, general partnership, commercial association) or branches of foreign companies or sole proprietors.

Freight traffic turnover – measured in tonne-kilometres. One tonne-kilometre is the transport of one tonne of goods across a distance of one kilometre.

International air traffic – the departure and / or destination point of a flight is in a foreign country.

Goods – property carried on board an aircraft (excl. stocks, mail or baggage), incl. the express and diplomatic parcels.

International flight – the take-off or landing of the flight is in another country.

Mail – dispatches of correspondence and other objects carried on an aircraft, which have been dispatched by and intended for delivery to postal administrations.

Non-scheduled flight – charter flight performed for remuneration. Flight carried out under a valid single air service licence.

Commercial flight – air transport flight or series of such flights performed by civil aircraft for remuneration to or from Community airports. Flights may be either scheduled or non-scheduled. Community airport is any area in a Member State, which is subject to the provisions of the Treaty and open for commercial air transport operations. Each Member State shall collect data on all Community airports in its territory with traffic in excess of 150,000 passenger units annually. According to Commission Regulation (EC) No 546/2005, the Tallinn/Ülemiste Airport (EETN) is subject to observation.

Number of passengers on board – the number of passengers, whose journey begins or terminates at the reporting airport, including connecting passengers and direct transit passengers.

Number of passenger seats available – the total number of passenger seats available for sale between each pair of airports on a flight stage (excluding seats not actually available for the carriage of passengers because of maximum gross weight limitation).

Passenger traffic turnover – measured in passenger-kilometres. One passenger-kilometre is the transport of one person across a distance of one kilometre.

Scheduled flight – flight possessing all the following characteristics:

- performed by aircraft for the transport of passengers, freight and/or 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 airline or from its authorised agents);

- operated so as to serve traffic between the same two or more airports, either:

- according to a published timetable; or

- with flights so regular or frequent that they constitute a recognisably systematic series.

Volume of transport – to estimate the volume of transport, the variables – the total number of carried passengers and passenger traffic volume (in passenger-kilometres) – are used. To measure the amount of goods, the variables – the amount of goods (in tonnes) and freight turnover (in tonne-kilometres) – are used.

3.5. Statistical unit

Airport

Enterprise

3.6. Statistical population

Tallinn Airport; air transport enterprises

FRAME

List of active enterprises whose main activity is air transport. The list is generated from the Business Register for Statistical Purposes. List of air operators compiled by the Estonian Transport Administration.

Tallinn Airport.

3.7. Reference area

Estonia as a whole

3.8. Time coverage

Freight and passenger traffic through Tallinn airport 1993–2015

Passenger traffic through airports, freight traffic through airports 2001–2015

Carriage of passengers and freight by Estonian air transport enterprises 2001–2024

Flight traffic through Tallinn airport by type of flight 2005–2024

Air traffic through Tallinn Airport by flight type and partner country 2024–…

3.9. Base period

Not applicable

4. Unit of measure

Thousand passengers, thousand passenger-km, tonne, thousand tonnes, thousand tonne-km, number of flights, number of passenger seats

5. Reference period

Month

Quarter

6. Institutional mandate
6.1. Legal acts and other agreements

DIRECTLY APPLICABLE LEGAL ACTS

Regulation (EC) No 219/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 adapting a number of instruments subject to the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty to Council Decision 1999/468/EC with regard to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny — Adaptation to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny — Part Two

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 158/2007 of 16 February 2007 amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 1358/2003 as regards the list of Community airports

Commission Regulation (EC) No 546/2005 of 8 April 2005 adapting Regulation (EC) No 437/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council 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

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

OTHER LEGAL ACTS

Not available

OTHER AGREEMENTS

Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

International Transport Forum (ITF)

United Nations (UN)

7. Confidentiality
7.1. Confidentiality - policy

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 32, § 34, § 35, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act.

7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment

The dissemination of data collected for the production of official statistics is based on the requirements laid down in §§ 34 and 35 of the Official Statistics Act.

The principles for treatment of confidential data can be found here.

8. Release policy
8.1. Release calendar

Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. Every year on 1 October, the release times of the statistical database, news releases, main indicators by IMF SDDS and publications for the following year are announced in the release calendar (in the case of publications – the release month).

8.2. Release calendar access

Calendar

8.3. User access

All users have been granted equal access to official statistics: dissemination dates of official statistics are announced in advance and no user category (incl. Eurostat, state authorities and mass media) is provided access to official statistics before other users. Official statistics are first published in the statistical database. If there is also a news release, it is published simultaneously with data in the statistical database. Official statistics are available on the website at 8:00 a.m. on the date announced in the release calendar.

9. Frequency of dissemination

Yearly

Quarterly

Montly

10. Accessibility and clarity
10.1. News release

Not published

10.2. Publications

Transport statistics are also available on the following websites:

https://www.stat.ee/en/find-statistics/statistics-theme/energy-and-transport/transport;

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/transport/overview;

europa.eu/pol/trans;

www.unece.org/transport;

https://data.oecd.org/energy.htm#profile-Transport.

10.3. Online database

Data are published in the statistical database at https://andmed.stat.ee/en/stat under the subject area “Economy / Transport / Air transport” in the following tables:

TS191: Carriage of passengers and freight by estonian air transport enterprises (quarters)

TS203: Flight traffic through Tallinn airport by type of flight (quarters)

TS204: Flight traffic through Tallinn airport by type of flight and partner country

TS205: Flight traffic through Tallinn airport by type of flight and partner country (months)

10.4. Microdata access

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 33, § 34, § 35, § 36, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act. Access to microdata and anonymisation of microdata are regulated by Statistics Estonia’s procedure for dissemination of confidential data for scientific purposes.

10.5. Other

Data serve as input for statistical activities 21408 “Supply and use tables”, 21405 "National accounts (quarter)" and 22029 “Transport of passengers and goods by transport enterprises”.

10.6. Documentation on methodology

Glossary for Transport Statistics (prepared by the Intersecretariat Working Group on Transport Statistics – Eurostat, ITF and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe)

Reference Manual for Air transport statistics

10.7. Quality documentation

Published in the statistical database, table TC40: Population, sample and respondents of transport enterprises.

11. Quality management
11.1. Quality assurance

To assure the quality of processes and products, Statistics Estonia applies the EFQM Excellence Model, the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (ESS QAF). Statistics Estonia is also guided by the requirements in § 7. “Principles and quality criteria of producing official statistics” of the Official Statistics Act.

11.2. Quality assessment

Statistics Estonia performs all statistical activities according to an international model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process; this information can take many forms, including feedback from users, process metadata, system metrics and suggestions from employees. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality problems related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions.

12. Relevance
12.1. User needs

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

Ministry of Climate

Ministry of Finance

Transport Administration

12.2. User satisfaction

Since 1996, Statistics Estonia has conducted reputation and user satisfaction surveys. All results are available on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section User surveys.

12.3. Completeness

In compliance with the rules (regulations)

13. Accuracy and reliability
13.1. Overall accuracy

The type of survey and the data collection methods ensure sufficient coverage and timeliness.

13.2. Sampling error

Not applicable

13.3. Non-sampling error

Not measured

14. Timeliness and punctuality
14.1. Timeliness

The data are published three months after the end of the reference month (airport) and three months after the end of the reference quarter (air transport enterprises).

14.2. Punctuality

The data have been published at the time announced in the release calendar.

15. Coherence and comparability
15.1. Comparability - geographical

The data are comparable with data of other European Union countries because a common methodology has been used for transport statistics.

15.2. Comparability - over time

The data are comparable over time because a common methodology has been used.

15.3. Coherence - cross domain

The data on freight and passenger transport volume of air transport enterprises are comparable with the same data in other activities of transport statistics.

15.4. Coherence - internal

The data are made internally coherent by using a common methodology in data collection and the same rules of data aggregation.

16. Cost and burden

Total time of filling in reports of the statistical activity, hours: 31 (data for 2023)

17. Data revision
17.1. Data revision - policy

The data revision policy and notification of corrections are described in the section Principles of dissemination of official statistics on the website of Statistics Estonia.

17.2. Data revision - practice

The published data may be revised if the methodology is modified, errors are discovered, new or better data become available within a year from the end of the reference period.

18. Statistical processing
18.1. Source data

SURVEY DATA

The population of the survey includes companies whose main activity is the air transport of passengers or goods and who have been issued an activity licence. Also airports located on the territory of Estonia.

The population includes active air transport enterprises and Tallinn Airport. Census is used.

ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

Not used

DATA FROM OTHER STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES

Not used

18.2. Frequency of data collection

Quarterly

Monthly

18.3. Data collection

Data are collected and the submission of questionnaires is monitored through eSTAT (the web channel for electronic data submission). The questionnaires have been designed for independent completion in eSTAT and include instructions and controls. The questionnaires and information about data submission are available on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section Questionnaires.

Data are collected with the official statistics monthly questionnaire “Air traffic” and quarterly questionnaire “Air transport”.

18.4. Data validation

Arithmetic and qualitative controls are used in the validation process, including comparison with the data of previous periods and other surveys.

18.5. Data compilation

In the case of missing or unreliable data, estimate imputation based on established regulations will be used.

Variables and statistical units which were not collected but which are necessary for producing the output are calculated. New variables are calculated by applying arithmetic conversion to already existing variables. This may be done repeatedly, the derived variable may, in turn, be based on previously derived new variables.

Microdata are aggregated to the level necessary for analysis. This includes aggregating the data according to the classification, and calculating various statistical measures.

The collected data are converted into statistical output. This includes calculating additional indicators.

18.6. Adjustment

Not applied

19. Comments

Since 2017, the national component of the statistical activity is reduced (data collection with the questionnaire “Lennujaam” is discontinued) and the data of Estonian airports are not published in tables “Passenger traffic through airports” and “Freight traffic through airports”. Also the data table “Freight and passenger traffic through Tallinn airport” is not published. From 2024, data collection with the "Air Traffic" questionnaire has been changed to monthly.

Contacts

+372 625 9300
stat [at] stat.ee
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