Glossary: Air Passenger Origin and Destination, Canada – United States

Carrier:

  • Advertised carrier: The airline whose code and flight number appear on the flight coupon or in the ticket itinerary.
  • Carrier: Any scheduled air carrier, Canadian or foreign, that appears on a coupon stage in a ticket itinerary, including helicopter and taxi carriers.
  • Operating carrier: The air carrier that actually operated the advertised flight. The operating carrier may advertise its own flight while allowing another airline to advertise the same flight.  In some situations, the code-share operator does not advertise service under its own name and only operates flights for the airline advertising the service.
  • Participating carrier: An air carrier that is governed by the survey data collection and reporting instructions and which is required to file Air Passenger Origin and Destination reports with the Aviation Statistics Centre.
    • Participating carrier (Canadian): A Canadian air carrier classified in reporting level I or II that, in each of the two calendar years immediately preceding the report year, transported 600,000 revenue passengers or more on scheduled flights.
    • Participating carrier (American): A certified American air carrier which provides scheduled passenger flights using aircraft with maximum passenger capacities of more than 60 seats.
  • Reporting carrier: The air carrier in a given itinerary, which has identified the reportable flight coupon and recorded the itinerary for inclusion in the data submission to the Air Passenger Origin and Destination Survey.

Change of gauge: The planned change from one aircraft to another or from an aircraft of one size to that of another size within the itinerary of a single flight number.  For example, a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles may operate from Sydney to Auckland with a B767 and from Auckland to Los Angeles with a B747. For the purposes of the Air Passenger Origin and Destination Survey reporting, a passenger with a SYD-LAX coupon is reported as SYD-AKL-LAX such that the point of change of gauge is inserted in the reported itinerary.

City-pair: Two cities between which travel is authorized by a ticket or part of a ticket. The two cities are the directional origin and destination (DOD) in the case of Statistical CANSIM tables 401-0058 and 401-0059. In the case of Statistical CANSIM tables 401-0056 and 401-0057, the two cities are the transborder portion of the international journey.

Classification in reporting levels (2010 definitions):

  1. Level I - This includes every Canadian air carrier that, in the calendar year immediately preceding the reporting year, transported at least 2 million revenue passengers or at least 400 thousand tonnes of cargo.
  2. Level II - This includes every Canadian air carrier that, in the calendar year immediately preceding the reporting year, transported at least 100 thousand, but fewer than 2 million revenue passengers, or at least 50 thousand but less than 400 thousand tonnes of cargo.

Connection:

  • Interline connection: A passenger’s transfer from a flight operated by one airline to a flight operated by another airline, with or without a stopover, at an intermediate point in an itinerary.
  • Intraline connection: A passenger’s transfer from one flight to another flight at an intermediate point in an itinerary, where the same air carrier operates both flights.

Coupon: One part of a ticket which authorizes travel on one segment of the journey represented by the ticket.

Directional origin and destination (DOD): In the Air Passenger Origin and Destination Survey, routing information from each air ticket is broken down into one or more uni-directional trips, with each trip having its own origin and destination. Passenger counts relate to directional origin-destination city-pairs, or DODs, created in the manner described above. The relationship between directional origin and ticket origin and between directional destination and ticket destination (given that they are derived from the same ticket) depends on the characteristics of the itinerary being represented on the ticket. For a one-way itinerary, directional origin is the same as ticket origin and directional destination is the same as ticket destination. For “symmetrical”, “circle” or “open-jaw” itineraries, directional origin is the same as ticket origin, while directional destination and ticket destination are not the same.

Itinerary: All points in the passenger journey, beginning with the origin, followed by the routing, and ending with the destination.

  • Circle itinerary: An itinerary that begins and ends at the same point in which the inbound portion does not retrace the path of the outbound portion.
  • Open-jaw itinerary: Similar to a circle itinerary except that the initial and terminal points are not the same.
  • Symmetrical itinerary: An itinerary that begins and ends at the same point in which the inbound portion retraces the path of the outbound portion.

Intermediate point: Any point in an itinerary, other than the origin and destination, at which the passenger makes an interline or intraline connection or stopover.

International: The world area outside Canada and the United States.

Lifted flight coupon (or electronic equivalent): A passenger ticket coupon, valid for travel on a single flight that has been either removed by the transporting airline at the time of passenger boarding or surrendered by the passenger in exchange for a boarding pass. The electronic equivalent would be any evidence of passenger travel on a flight that is part of a ticket itinerary.

Point: One or more airports and/or one or more cities comprising either a) the directional origin or destination of a transborder journey or b) the beginning or the end of a transborder portion of an international journey.

Air passenger origin and destination statistics can be used as an indicator of the travel patterns and the approximate volumes of traffic generated at individual Canadian and American points. The figures do not, however, give recognition to passengers stopping over at an intermediate point or points en route to their destination. For example, although an itinerary from Montréal to Los Angeles may involve several visits en route, only the initial origin and final destination are taken into account.

A given point of origin or destination may include more than one airport and/or more than one city or area. This is because the markets of some airports extend beyond the limits of the cities or areas in which they are located. In addition, some cities or areas may be served by more than one airport. This aggregation of airports and/or cities and areas ensures a comprehensive representation of air passenger markets. The city or area name for a given point of origin or destination which includes more than one city or area is the name of the most prominent city or area of the cities and/or areas which constitute the point of origin or destination. For example:

  • Montréal, Québec includes:
  1. Montréal/Mirabel International Airport
  2. Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
  3. Montréal/St-Hubert Airport
  • Toronto, Ontario includes:
  1. Toronto/Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport
  2. Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport
  3. Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International Airport
  • Hawaii includes:
  1. Hana Airport, Hana
  2. Hilo International Airport, Hilo
  3. Honolulu International Airport, Honolulu
  4. Kahului Airport, Maui
  5. Kalaupapa Airport, Molokai
  6. Kamuela Waimea-Kohala Airport, Kamuela
  7. Kapalua, Maui
  8. Keahole-Kona International Airport, Kailua-Kona
  9. Lanai City Airport, Lanai City
  10. Lihue Airport, Lihue
  11. Molokia Airport, Kaunakakai
  • Los Angeles, California includes:
  1. Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport, Burbank
  2. Long Beach Airport, Long Beach
  3. Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles
  4. Ontario International Airport, Ontario County
  5. John Wayne International Airport, Orange County
  • New York, New York includes:
  1. John F. Kennedy International Airport
  2. La Guardia Airport
  3. Long Island MacArthur
  4. Manhattan Heliport
  5. Newark International Airport
  6. New York-East 34 Street Heliport
  7. New York-East 60 Street Heliport
  8. Westchester County Airport, Westchester County
  • San Francisco/Oakland, California includes:
  1. Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, Oakland
  2. San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco
  3. San Jose International Airport, San Jose

Revenue passenger: A person receiving air transportation from an air carrier for which remuneration of 25% or more of the regular economy fare is received by the air carrier. Air carrier employees or others receiving air transportation against whom token service charges are levied are not considered as revenue passengers. Infants for whom a token fare is charged are not counted as revenue passengers. Passengers flying on ‘frequent flyer’ redemptions are counted as revenue passengers.

Routing: The carrier on each flight coupon stage in an itinerary and the intermediate points of connection (interline and intraline) in the sequence of occurrence in the movement of the passengers from origin to destination.

Scheduled service: The operation of a flight on a regular basis according to a published timetable and available to the public on short notice.

Stopover: An intermediate stop in an itinerary where the passenger arrives at and departs from the point on different days.

Surface segment: Ground transportation (bus, rail, boat) that is included as part of a ticketed air itinerary and the total value of the ticket.

Ticket: Contains all coupons and individual passenger travel authorizations covering the passenger’s complete itinerary.

  • Conjunction ticket: Two or more tickets concurrently issued to a passenger, which in total constitute a single travel document for a single ticket itinerary.
  • Electronic ticket: A computer record of a ticketed passenger itinerary and fare.
  • Group-fare ticket: A single ticket valid for the transportation of two or more revenue passengers over the same itinerary.
  • Reissued ticket: A ticket issued in exchange for all or part of the unused portion of a previously issued ticket.
  • Single-passenger ticket: A passenger ticket valid for transportation of only one revenue passenger over a given itinerary.

Ticket number: The sequential number on a ticket, consisting of a three-digit carrier number and a ten-digit document number.  The check digit is excluded.  For the purposes of identifying zero-ending tickets for inclusion in the sample for the Air Passenger Origin and Destination Survey, it is the tenth digit of the document number that is to be considered. The ticket number is also known as the document control number or form and serial number.

Ticket origin and destination (TOD): The first and last points identified on the passenger’s ticket.

Transborder: Journeys which begin in Canada and terminate in the United States or vice versa.

Transborder portion of an international journey: The first Canadian point and the last United States point (or vice versa) within a journey which originates at or is destined to some point outside Canada and the United States. The following two examples delineate the transborder portions of the international journeys.

  • Example 1: Montréal - New York - Paris. The transborder portion is Montréal - New York.
  • Example 2: Madrid - Chicago - Winnipeg - Calgary. The transborder portion is Chicago - Calgary.

Note that city-pairs listed in Statistical CANSIM table 401-0056 are not included in Statistical CANSIM table 401-0058.

Unit toll: Transportation at per passenger rates.

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