Airline Industry Datasets

The following datasets are freely available from the US Department of Transportation.

Origin and Destination Survey (DB1B)

The Airline Origin and Destination Survey Databank 1B (DB1B) is a 10% random sample of airline passenger tickets. It consists of three tables: Coupon, Market, and Ticket.

Frequency: Quarterly

Range: 1993–Present

Source: TranStats, US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/TableInfo.asp?DB_ID=125

The columns listed for each table below reflect the columns available in the prezipped CSV files avaliable at TranStats.

DB1B Coupon

Source: TranStats, US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=289.

This table provides coupon-specific information for each domestic itinerary of the Origin and Destination Survey, such as the operating carrier, origin and destination airports, number of passengers, fare class, coupon type, trip break indicator, and distance.

Columns:

Notes:

1. FareClass does not follow the same coding as the class column of the T100 Domestic Segment table. The US Department of Transportation also warns not to use FareClass for analysis because different carriers treat the categories differently.

DB1B Market

This table contains directional market characteristics of each domestic itinerary of the Origin and Destination Survey, such as the reporting carrier, origin and destination airport, prorated market fare, number of market coupons, market miles flown, and carrier change indicators.

Source: TranStats, US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=247

Columns:

Notes:

1. Carriers report complete itineraries so this should be equal for all markets and coupons in an itinerary.
2. For on-line itineraries (otherwise equal to 99).

DB1B Ticket

This table contains summary characteristics of each domestic itinerary on the Origin and Destination Survey, including the reporting carrier, itinerary fare, number of passengers, originating airport, roundtrip indicator, and miles flown.

Source: TranStats, US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=272

Columns:

Air Carrier Statistics (Form 41 Traffic)

Source: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Tables.asp?DB_ID=111

T100 Domestic Market

This table contains domestic market data reported by both U.S. and foreign air carriers, including carrier, origin, destination, and service class for enplaned passengers, freight and mail when both origin and destination airports are located within the boundaries of the United States and its territories. Foreign carrier data is not available until 3 months after U.S. carrier data is released.

Frequency: Monthly

Range: 1990–Present

Source: TranStats, US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics: http://transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=310.

Columns:

T100 Domestic Segment

The T100 Domestic Segment is a table in the Form 41 Traffic database provided by the US Department of Transportation. The table description from the Form 41 Traffic database profile follows:

This table contains domestic non-stop segment data reported by U.S. air carriers, including carrier, origin, destination, aircraft type and service class for transported passengers, freight and mail, available capacity, scheduled departures, departures performed, and aircraft hours when both origin and destination airports are located within the boundaries of the United States and its territories.

Frequency: Monthly

Range: 1990–Present

Source: TranStats, US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics: http://transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=311.

Columns:

Notes

Carrier Region may take the following values:

• A - Atlantic
• D - Domestic
• I - International
• L - Latin America
• P - Pacific
• S - System

Note that this does not correspond to the coding in the Aviation Support Tables, which simply lists carrier regions by name (e.g. “Atlantic”). One could match on the first character of these fields if needed.

Airline On-Time Performance Data

This table contains on-time arrival data for non-stop domestic flights by major air carriers, and provides such additional items as departure and arrival delays, origin and destination airports, flight numbers, scheduled and actual departure and arrival times, cancelled or diverted flights, taxi-out and taxi-in times, air time, and non-stop distance.

Source: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Tables.asp?DB_ID=120

Range: 1987–Present

Frequency: Monthly

Columns:

Notes:

1. Not unique over time.
2. Includes cancelled or diverted flights.

Aviation Support Tables

The Aviation Support Tables provide comprehensive information about U.S. and foreign air carriers, carrier entities, worldwide airport locations, and other geographic data. These data also include information on various aircraft types, their manufacturer and model names. This information is developed and maintained by the Office of Airline Information, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and is updated on an on-going basis.

Source: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Tables.asp?DB_ID=595

Aircraft Types Table

This table identifies the different types of aircraft being reported to the DOT, by DOT assigned aircraft type codes. The information includes the DOT assigned aircraft code, the aircraft manufacturer, and the aircraft model names.

Source: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=300

Columns:

1. ac_typeid - Aircraft type identification number. This number is related to the aircraft group number and falls within the range of a group number.

2. ac_group - Aircraft type group. This number gives the group or classification of aircraft engine and type of aircraft.

3. ssd_name - Aircraft name.

4. manufacturer - Manufacturing company name.

5. long_name - Complete name of the aircraft.

6. short_name - Abbreviated name of the aircraft.

7. begin_date - The date when the aircraft was added to the database.

8. end_date - The date through which aircraft type remains in effect.

Sample Record:

"691",6,"A300-600/R/CF/RCF","AIRBUS INDUSTRIE","AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A300-600/R/CF/RCF","A300-6",1990-01-01,

Carrier Decode Table

This table provides a list of domestic and foreign air carrier codes, by T–100 and OAG designations, charter carrier codes, carrier descriptions, entity codes, service region, and beginning and ending dates of service.

Source: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=304

Columns:

1. airline_id - An identification number assigned by US DOT to identify a unique airline (carrier). A unique airline (carrier) is defined as one holding and reporting under the same DOT certificate regardless of its Code, Name, or holding company/corporation.

2. carrier - Code assigned by IATA and commonly used to identify a carrier. As the same code may have been assigned to different carriers over time, the code is not always unique.

3. carrier_entity

4. carrier_name

5. unique_carrier - Unique carrier code. When the same code has been used by multiple carriers, a numeric suffix is used for earlier users, for example, PA, PA(1), PA(2). Use this field for analysis across a range of years.

6. unique_carrier_entity - Unique entity for a carrier’s operation region.

7. unique_carrier_name - Unique carrier name. When the same name has been used by multiple carriers, a numeric suffix is used for earlier users, for example, Air Caribbean, Air Caribbean (1).

8. wac - World Area Code.

9. carrier_group - Carrier group code. Used in legacy analysis.

10. carrier_group_new - Carrier group new.

11. region - Carrier’s operation region. Carriers report data by operation region.

12. start_date_source - Starting date of carrier code.

13. thru_date_source - Ending date of carrier code (active = NULL).

Notes:

• The dates are not in the usual ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD) used by most software so be careful when importing this table.

Master Coordinate Table

This table contains a list of domestic and foreign airport codes and their associated city codes, world area codes, city or airport names, state or country names, and latitude and longitude information.

Source: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=288

Columns:

1. airport - Airport code.

2. tr_airport_name - Airport name with country/state information.

3. tr_city_name - City name with country/state information.

4. tr_state_name - State name.

5. tr_country_name - Country name.

6. tr_wac - World Area Code.

7. begin_date_source - Starting date of airport code.

8. end_date - Ending date of airport code (active = NULL).

9. airport_region - Airport region.

10. lat_degrees - Latitude, degrees.

11. lat_minutes - Latitude, minutes.

12. lat_seconds - Latitude, seconds.

13. lat_hemisphere - Latitude, hemisphere.

14. latitude - Latitude (decimal).

15. lon_degrees - Longitude, degrees.

16. lon_minutes - Longitude, minutes.

17. lon_seconds - Longitude, seconds.

18. lon_hemisphere - Longitude, hemisphere.

19. longitude - Longitude.

20. airport_id - Unique airport numeric value.

Notes:

• Some entries in the wac column are zero! This is an invalid value according to the DOT World Area Code lookup table.

• The region column is very inconsistent (e.g., Wisconsin, Wis, Wis.) and is basically a duplication of the information in the state column.

• The coordinates are stored in two formats: minutes-degrees-seconds and decimal degrees.