Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP)
This guide is designed to assist you as you complete the Quarterly Civil Aviation Survey. If you need more information, please call the Statistics Canada Help Line at the number below.
Help Line: 1-877-949-9492
Your answers are confidential.
Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act.
Statistics Canada will use information from this survey for statistical purposes.
Table of contents
- Business or organization and contact information
- Statement of Revenues and Expenses, Quarterly - Statement 21 (I, II)
- Scheduled Services, Revenue Operating Statistics, Quarterly - Statement 10 (I, II)
- Charter Services, Revenue Operating Statistics, Quarterly - Statement 12 (I, II)
Business or organization and contact information
This section verifies or requests basic identifying information of the business or organization such as legal name, operating name (if applicable), contact information of the designated contact person, current operational status, and main activity(ies).
Legal Name
The legal name is one recognized by law, thus it is the name liable for pursuit or for debts incurred by the business or organization. In the case of a corporation, it is the legal name as fixed by its charter or the statute by which the corporation was created.
Modifications to the legal name should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.
To indicate a legal name of another legal entity you should instead indicate it in question 3 by selecting 'Not currently operational' and then choosing the applicable reason and providing the legal name of this other entity along with any other requested information.
Operating Name
The operating name is a name the business or organization is commonly known as if different from its legal name. The operating name is synonymous with trade name.
Designated contact person
Verify or provide the requested contact information of the designated business or organization contact person. The designated contact person is the person who should receive this questionnaire. The designated contact person may not always be the one who actually completes the questionnaire. If different than the designated contact person, the contact information of the person completing the questionnaire can be indicated later in the questionnaire.
Current operational status
Verify or provide the current operational status of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name in question 1. If indicating the operational status of the business or organization is 'Not currently operational' then indicate an applicable reason and provide the requested information.
Main activity
This question verifies the business or organization's current main activity as classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is an industry classification system developed by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Created against the background of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is designed to provide common definitions of the industrial structure of the three countries and a common statistical framework to facilitate the analysis of the three economies. NAICS is based on supply-side or production-oriented principles, to ensure that industrial data, classified to NAICS, are suitable for the analysis of production-related issues such as industrial performance.
The target entity for which NAICS is designed are businesses and other organizations engaged in the production of goods and services. They include farms, incorporated and unincorporated businesses and government business enterprises. They also include government institutions and agencies engaged in the production of marketed and non-marketed services, as well as organizations such as professional associations and unions and charitable or non-profit organizations and the employees of households.
The associated NAICS should reflect those activities conducted by the business or organizational units targeted by this questionnaire only, as identified in the 'Answering this questionnaire' section and which can be identified by the specified legal and operating name. The main activity is the activity which most defines the targeted business or organization's main purpose or reason for existence. For a business or organization that is for-profit, it is normally the activity that generates the majority of the revenue for the entity.
The NAICS classification contains a limited number of activity classes; the associated classification might be applicable for this business or organization even if it is not exactly how you would describe this business or organization's main activity.
Please note that any modifications to the main activity through your response to this question might not necessarily be reflected prior to the transmitting of subsequent questionnaires and as a result they may not contain this updated information.
If the current NAICS associated with this business or organizations is not correct, please provide a brief description of the main activity and provide any additional information as requested.
Statement of Revenues and Expenses, Quarterly - Statement 21 (I, II)
1. Revenue, Expenses and Income
Operating revenue
Scheduled services
Transportation of passengers or goods, or both, by an aircraft provided by an air carrier that operates the air service and that, directly or indirectly, sells some or all of its seats or part or all of its cargo space to the public on a price per seat, price per unit of mass or price per volume of cargo basis.
Charter services
Transportation of passengers or goods, or both, by aircraft pursuant to a contract under which a person, other than the air carrier that operates the air service, or its agent, reserves a block of seats or part of the cargo space of an aircraft for the person's use or for resale to the public.
Include air ambulance service and the movement of people and goods to logging or heli-logging sites.
Exclude firefighting and heli-logging activities and the movement of people and goods to a firefighting site. (The former Transport Canada TP 8880 document "Starting a Commercial Air Service" outlining a list of activities which are specialty has been replaced with a new document TP 4711 "Air Operator Certification Manual" as of December 2020. A PDF version of volumes of this manual can be requested at: Air Operator Certification Manual – TP 4711)
Passenger revenue
Refers to the revenue earned from the transportation of passengers on scheduled and charter services. Include revenue from all surcharges (baggage, fuel, seat selection, and so on) that are retained by the air carrier. Exclude amounts such as taxes, navigation fees, security fees, and so on that are collected but passed on to other entities.
Goods revenue
Refers to the revenue earned from the transportation of goods on scheduled and charter services. Exclude taxes such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) or Provincial Sales Tax (PST).
All other operating revenue
Refers to the revenue earned from all other sources. Include air transport activities not included in passenger revenue or goods revenue, revenue from other flying services (such as flying training, recreational flying and other specialty flying), subsidies and net incidental air transport related revenue, that is revenue less expenses from non-flying services incidental to air transport including aircraft fuel and oil sales; maintenance and aircraft ramp handling service and so on for other carriers; commissions (or sales revenue minus payments to the carrier that does the flying) received for the sale of transportation which takes place on other carriers; and revenue received for the provision of aircraft to other carriers from operations under their control.
Total operating revenue
The sum of passenger revenue, goods revenue and all other operating revenue.
Operating expenses
Turbo fuel expenses
Include fuel used in both turboprop and jet aircraft.
Include the expenses for turbo fuel consumed for all scheduled and/or charter operations, regardless of where purchased. Include throughput charges, non-refundable duties and taxes. If the fuel was supplied by a customer, an approximate value may be provided based on prevailing market rates. Expenses should be reported in Canadian dollars, regardless of where purchased.
Employee wages, salaries and benefits
Include the wages, salaries and benefits (employer contributions to pensions, medical benefits, insurance, and so on and layover expenses such as hotels and meals, for flight and cabin crews) for all employees.
All other operating expenses
Include all operating expenses not reported in the two expense categories above.
Total operating expenses
The sum of the previous three expense items.
Income
Net operating income (a loss should be a negative number)
Total operating revenue less total operating expenses from above.
Net non-operating income (enter a negative number for a loss)
Include provision for income taxes.
Include:
- interest and discount income from all sources, including cash discounts on the purchase of materials and supplies;
- interest on unpaid taxes and all classes of debt, including premiums, discounts and expenses on short-term obligations, as well as amortization of premiums, discounts and expenses on short-term and long-term obligations;
- capital gains (or losses) from retiring operating property and equipment, aircraft equipment, expendable parts, miscellaneous materials and supplies and other assets, when they are sold or otherwise retired from service as part of a general program and not as incidental sales performed as a service to others;
- gains or losses made on investments in securities;
- net miscellaneous non-operating income or loss, which refers to revenue and expenses attributable to financing or other activities that are not an integral part of the air transportation activities undertaken by the carrier, or its incidental services. These could include dividend income, the balance of all income or losses from affiliated companies reimbursed to the carrier, foreign exchange adjustments and special items, such as restructuring expenses, which do not occur on a regular basis;
- provisions for taxes payable on net income for the accounting period and adjustments of income taxes relating to previous years, including the provisions for deferred income taxes resulting from differences between accounting income and taxable income that arise when the time of including items of revenue and expense in the computation of accounting income and taxable income do not coincide.
Exclude staff reduction expenses which should be included under all other operating expenses.
Net income (a loss should be a negative number)
Net operating income plus net non-operating income from above.
2. Average number of employees
Refers to the average number of people employed during the quarter. Include all employees (all categories), temporary or permanent, on the payroll of the air carrier during the quarter being reported. Part-time employees should be included in the total, prorated to the amount of time worked when compared with the time worked by full-time employees (for example two part-time employees working half-time are equivalent to one full-time employee).
Scheduled Services, Revenue Operating Statistics, Quarterly - Statement 10 (I, II)
1. Scheduled services - operating statistics
Include fixed wing and helicopter services.
Sector of operation
Refers to the regions where carriers provide transportation services. There are three breakdowns – domestic, transborder (Canada-US) and other international.
Domestic includes operations between points in Canada.
Transborder (Canada-US) includes operations between points in Canada and points in the United States (including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico).
Other international includes all other operations, (including between points outside of Canada).
Data reported must include both fixed wing and helicopter services, where:
Fixed wing
Means a power-driven, heavier-than-air aircraft, deriving its lift in flight chiefly from aerodynamic reactions on surfaces which remain fixed. An aircraft having wings fixed to the airplane fuselage and outspread in flight – that is non-rotating wings.
Helicopter
Means a rotary wing, heavier-than-air aircraft, supported in flight chiefly by the reactions of the air on one or more power-driven rotors on substantially vertical axes. A helicopter does not have conventional fixed wings, nor is it provided with a conventional propeller for forward thrust.
Scheduled services
Transportation of passengers or goods, or both, by an aircraft provided by an air carrier that operates the air service and that, directly or indirectly, sells some or all of its seats or part or all of its cargo space to the public on a price per seat, price per unit of mass or price per volume of cargo basis.
Enplaned passengers
Refers to revenue passengersFootnote 1 who board aircraft and surrender one or more flight coupons or other documents good for transportation over the itinerary specified in these coupons or documents.
Passenger-kilometres
Represents the carriage of one revenue passenger on each flight stage multiplied by the number of kilometres flown on that stage. Passenger-kilometres are obtained by totalling the number of kilometres flown by all passengers.
Let's take an example with two flight stages, where:
Flight stage A to B
Number of passengers = 5
Distance between points (km) = 161
Passenger-kilometres = 805
Flight stage B to C
Number of passengers = 4
Distance between points (km) = 322
Passenger-kilometres = 1,288
The total number of passenger-kilometres for the flights covering A to B and B to C is 2,093.
Conversion factor
To convert nautical miles (6 080 feet) into kilometres (km), multiply by 1.852.
To convert statute miles (5 280 feet) into kilometres (km), multiply by 1.609344.
Available seat-kilometres
Represents the aircraft kilometres flown on each flight stage multiplied by the number of seats available for use on that stage. This represents the total passenger carrying capacity offered. Seats not actually available for the carriage of passengers should be excluded.
Hours flown
Represents the block hours, in other words, the number of hours which elapsed between the time the aircraft started to move to commence a flight and the time the aircraft came to its final stop after the conclusion of a flight. Report the total number of block hours flown to the nearest hour.
Enplaned goods
Refers to all types of non-passenger traffic. It includes priority freight, freight, mail and excess baggage for which revenue is obtained. Enplaned goods should be reported to the nearest kilogram.
Conversion factor
To convert pounds (lbs.) into kilograms (kg), multiply by 0.453592.
Goods tonne-kilometres
Represents the carriage of one tonne of goods on each flight stage multiplied by the number of kilometres flown on that stage. Goods tonne-kilometres are obtained by totalling the number of kilometres flown with all tonnes of goods.
Let's take an example with two flight stages, where:
Flight stage A to B
Tonnes of goods = 5
Distance between points (km) = 161
Goods tonne-kilometres = 805
Flight stage B to C
Tonnes of goods = 4
Distance between points (km) = 322
Goods tonne-kilometres = 1,288
The total number of goods tonne-kilometres for the flights covering A to B and B to C is 2,093.
Conversion factor
To convert nautical miles (6 080 feet) into kilometres (km), multiply by 1.852.
To convert statute miles (5 280 feet) into kilometres (km), multiply by 1.609344.
Available tonne-kilometres
Represents the aircraft kilometres flown on each flight stage multiplied by the usable weight capacity of the aircraft. This represents the load carrying capacity offered for passengers and/or goods.
2. Scheduled services - revenue
Include fixed wing and helicopter services.
Passenger revenue
Refers to the revenue earned from the transportation of passengers on scheduled services. Include revenue from all surcharges (baggage, fuel, seat selection, and so on) that are retained by the air carrier. Exclude amounts such as taxes, navigation fees, security fees, and so on that are collected but passed on to other entities. Total passenger revenue should equal the passenger revenue from scheduled services from the first screen.
Goods revenue
Refers to the revenue earned from the transportation of goods on scheduled services. Exclude taxes such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) or Provincial Sales Tax (PST). Total goods revenue should equal the goods revenue from scheduled services from the first screen.
Charter Services, Revenue Operating Statistics, Quarterly - Statement 12 (I, II)
1. Charter services - operating statistics
Include fixed wing and helicopter services.
Sector of operation
Refers to the regions where carriers provide transportation services. There are three breakdowns – domestic, transborder (Canada-US) and other international.
Domestic includes operations between points in Canada.
Transborder (Canada-US) includes operations between points in Canada and points in the United States (including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico).
Other international includes all other operations (including between points outside of Canada).
Data reported must include both fixed wing and helicopter services, where:
Fixed wing
Means a power-driven, heavier-than-air aircraft, deriving its lift in flight chiefly from aerodynamic reactions on surfaces which remain fixed. An aircraft having wings fixed to the airplane fuselage and outspread in flight – that is non-rotating wings.
Helicopter
Means a rotary wing, heavier-than-air aircraft, supported in flight chiefly by the reactions of the air on one or more power-driven rotors on substantially vertical axes. A helicopter does not have conventional fixed wings, nor is it provided with a conventional propeller for forward thrust.
Charter services
Transportation of passengers or goods, or both, by aircraft pursuant to a contract under which a person, other than the air carrier that operates the air service, or its agent, reserves a block of seats or part of the cargo space of an aircraft for the person's use or for resale to the public.
Include air ambulance service and the movement of people and goods to logging or heli-logging sites.
Exclude firefighting and heli-logging activities and the movement of people and goods to a firefighting site. (The former Transport Canada TP 8880 document "Starting a Commercial Air Service" outlining a list of activities which are specialty has been replaced with a new document TP 4711 "Air Operator Certification Manual" as of December 2020. A PDF version of volumes of this manual can be requested at: Air Operator Certification Manual – TP 4711)
Enplaned passengers
Refers to revenue passengersFootnote 1 who board aircraft and surrender one or more flight coupons or other documents good for transportation over the itinerary specified in these coupons or documents.
Passenger-kilometres
Represents the carriage of one revenue passenger on each flight stage multiplied by the number of kilometres flown on that stage. Passenger-kilometres are obtained by totalling the number of kilometres flown by all passengers.
Let's take an example with two flight stages, where:
Flight stage A to B
Number of passengers = 5
Distance between points (km) = 161
Passenger-kilometres = 805
Flight stage B to C
Number of passengers = 4
Distance between points (km) = 322
Passenger-kilometres = 1,288
The total number of passenger-kilometres for the flights covering A to B and B to C is 2,093.
Conversion factor
To convert nautical miles (6 080 feet) into kilometres (km), multiply by 1.852.
To convert statute miles (5 280 feet) into kilometres (km), multiply by 1.609344.
Hours flown
Represents the block hours, in other words, the number of hours which elapsed between the time the aircraft started to move to commence a flight and the time the aircraft came to its final stop after the conclusion of a flight. Report the total number of block hours flown to the nearest hour.
Enplaned goods
Refers to all types of non-passenger traffic. It includes priority freight, freight, mail and excess baggage for which revenue is obtained. Enplaned goods should be reported to the nearest kilogram.
Conversion factor
To convert pounds (lbs.) into kilograms (kg), multiply by 0.453592.
Goods tonne-kilometres
Represents the carriage of one tonne of goods on each flight stage multiplied by the number of kilometres flown on that stage. Goods tonne-kilometres are obtained by totalling the number of kilometres flown with all tonnes of goods.
Let's take an example with two flight stages, where:
Flight stage A to B
Tonnes of goods = 5
Distance between points (km) = 161
Goods tonne-kilometres = 805
Flight stage B to C
Tonnes of goods = 4
Distance between points (km) = 322
Goods tonne-kilometres = 1,288
The total number of goods tonne-kilometres for the flights covering A to B and B to C is 2,093.
Conversion factor
To convert nautical miles (6 080 feet) into kilometres (km), multiply by 1.852.
To convert statute miles (5 280 feet) into kilometres (km), multiply by 1.609344.
2. Charter services - revenue
Include fixed wing and helicopter services.
Passenger revenue
Refers to the revenue earned from the transportation of passengers on charter services. Include revenue from all surcharges (baggage, fuel, seat selection, and so on) that are retained by the air carrier. Exclude amounts such as taxes, navigation fees, security fees, and so on that are collected but passed on to other entities. Total passenger revenue should equal the passenger revenue from charter services from the first screen.
Goods revenue
Refers to the revenue earned from the transportation of goods on charter services. Exclude taxes such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) or Provincial Sales Tax (PST). Total goods revenue should equal the goods revenue from charter services from the first screen.