Indicator 9.1.2 Passenger and freight volumes, by mode of transport

Indicator 9.1.2: Passenger and freight volumes, by mode of transport

Target 9.1: Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and trans-border infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); International Transport Forum (ITF); United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Definitions:

Passenger volumes are measured in passenger-kilometres while freight volumes are measured in tonne-kilometres, and broken down by mode of transport. For the purposes of monitoring this indicator, passenger-km data are split between aviation, road (broken down between passenger cars, buses and motorcycles) and rail, and tonne-km are split between aviation, road, rail and inland waterways. Maritime freight is measured in metric tons and container port traffic is measured in twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

Concepts:

Aviation:

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) through its Statistics Division has established standard methodologies and definitions to collect and report traffic (passenger and freight volume) data related to air transport. These standards and methodologies have been adopted by the 193 Member States of ICAO and also by the Industry stakeholders i.e. air carriers and airports. The data of ICAO is used by States and also the World Bank for its development indicators. ICAO uses Air Transport Reporting Forms A, AS, B and C to arrive at the passenger and freight volumes for air transport. The aviation data reported under indicator 9.1.2 is for scheduled traffic.

Precise definition of all different concepts and metadata related to Air Transport Reporting Forms A, AS, B and C to arrive at the passenger and freight volumes for air transport, as approved by the ICAO Statistics Division and Member States can be found at the ICAO website given below -

http://www.icao.int/sustainability/pages/eap-sta-excel.aspx/.

Martime

Definitions:

International maritime freight is an indicator reflecting (1) the sum of international freight volumes loaded (exports) and unloaded (imports) at ports worldwide and measured in metric tonnes, and (2) container port traffic at world ports measured in twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

Data is collected by the UNCTAD secretariat from various sources, including industry, government and specialised maritime transport data providers and consultancies. Volumes are expressed in metric tonnes and twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

As data on international maritime freight volumes are not widely available, only the data in tonnes (rather than tonne-km) and at the regional level are reported.

Data at country level are available for container port traffic measured in twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

Concepts:

The UNCTAD secretariat collects and compiles the data from various websites and reports, including, by port and industry associations and authorities, national statistics offices, UN Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, governments, specialised agencies such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and British Petroleum (BP). Data is also collected from reports issued by maritime specialised sources such as Drewry Maritime Research (DMR), Clarksons Research Services (CRS), Dynamar, and Lloyd’s List Intelligence (LLI).

Road, Rail, Inland waterways

For definitions of all relevant terms, the UNECE/ITF/Eurostat Glossary for Transport Statistics can be consulted. The 5^th edition of this publication is available at https://unece.org/DAM/trans/main/wp6/pdfdocs/Glossary_for_Transport_Statistics_EN.pdf

Aviaiton: Revenue Passenger-Kilometres (RPK) and Freight Tonne-Kilometres (FTK)

Martime: Metric tonnes and twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

Road, Rail:

Passenger-Kilometres (Pkm) and Tonne-Kilometres (Tkm)

Inland Waterways: Tonne-Kilometres (Tkm)

Aviation

ICAO Air Transport Reporting Forms approved by the Statistics Division of ICAO and its Member States has been used to define standards, methodologies and to collect aviation data since the 1950's. ICAO definitions and metadata is also used by the Aviation Industry as the basis of collecting data and conducting analysis.

Maritime:

The UNCTAD secretariat collects and compiles the data from various websites and reports, including, by port and industry associations and authorities, national statistics offices, UN Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, governments, specialised agencies such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and, British Petroleum (BP). Data is also collected from reports issued by maritime specialised sources such as Drewry Maritime Research (DMR), Clarksons Research Services (CRS), Dynamar, and Lloyd’s List Intelligence (LLI).

Road, Rail, Inland waterways:

The ITF runs transport models that are used to provide transport information for all regions.

Name:

ICAO, ITF, UNCTAD

Aviation :

International Civil Aviation organisation (ICAO).

Maritime:

Name: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Description: Data collected by UNCTAD from various sources, including government, industry and specialized maritime data sources and providers.

Road, Rail, Inland waterway:

Data are from ITF Global Model estimation.

Aviation:

Coverage for aviation is for all ICAO 193 Member States.

Maritime:

Freight loaded and unloaded, maritime transport: Coverage only at regional and sub-regional level.

Container port traffic, maritime transport: Coverage at regional, sub-regional and member state level. Totals may conceal the fact that some minor ports are not included. The data includes container port throughput for ports with time series that are complete since 2010 or that can be made complete by repeating an observation for a maximum of three years after the original observation. This means that on country level time series are comparable over time but that the coverage of ports may differ between countries.

Road, Rail, Inland waterways:

Coverage at regional and sub-regional level.

Aviation

The aviation passenger and freight volumes are reported for the air carriers through ICAO Air Transport Reporting Forms and grouped by Member States of ICAO.

Road/Rail/Inland waterways

Urban passenger transport model

The model is designed as a systems dynamic model (stock and flow model) to evaluate the development of urban mobility in all cities over 50 000 inhabitants around the world. It combines data from various sources that form one of the most extensive databases on global city mobility to account for fifteen transport modes. These range from the conventional private car and public transport to new alternative modes such as shared mobility.

Non-urban passenger transport model

The model provides scenario forecasts for non-urban transport activity and its related CO2 emissions up to 2050. The model estimates activity between urban areas (intercity travel) and passenger activity happening locally in non-urban areas (intra-regional travel). The latter includes travel in peri-urban and rural areas. The model is developed to assess the impact of transport, economic and environmental policy measures (air liberalisation, carbon pricing, etc.), as well as the impact of technological developments and breakthroughs (electric aviation, autonomous vehicles, etc.).

Non-urban freight transport model

The most recent version of the ITF freight model integrates the (previously distinct) surface and international freight models. International and domestic freight flows are calibrated on data on national freight transport activity (in tonnes-kilometres, tkm) as reported by ITF member countries. Reported data is also used to validate the route assignment of freight flows. Trade projections in value terms stem from the OECD trade model and converted into cargo weight (tonnes). These weight movements are then assigned to an intermodal freight network that develops over time in line with scenario settings. These define infrastructure availability, available services and related costs.

The model uses 2015 as its baseline year and provides estimation values for 2015, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2025, then with computations done in five-year intervals. Therefore, the data for 2021 is derived through interpolation of the simulated values for 2020 and 2022.

The ITF Modelling Framework is available at The ITF Modelling Framework.

Maritime:

The indicator is calculated through a sum of international maritime freight volumes and container port traffic as collected by UNCTAD secretariat from websites and reports by various industry, government and specialised maritime transport data providers and consultancies. Data on international maritime freight excludes transhipments and domestic maritime freight volumes.

Cargo flows originating in or destined to landlocked countries are attributed to the ports of neighbouring coastal transit countries. The mode of transport “maritime” is assigned to an international trade transaction when the goods arrived at the country’s external border (the seaport) transported by ship.

Data on container port traffic include full and empty containers as well as transhipment traffic.

Data is collected and compiled from various websites and reports, including, by port and industry associations and authorities, national statistics offices, UN Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, governments, specialised agencies such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and British Petroleum (BP). Data is also collected from reports issued by maritime specialised sources such as Drewry Maritime Research (DMR), Clarksons Research Services (CRS), Dynamar, and Lloyd’s List Intelligence (LLI).

2024-05-24

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); International Transport Forum (ITF); United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).