Program Description

The U.S. International Air Travel Statistics (or I-92) program is a joint effort between the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and Tourism Industries to provide international air traffic statistics data to the government and the travel industry. The I-92 provides baseline data on the population of U.S. citizen outbound travel from the United States. The I-92 is the only federal government source for this estimate. All other programs provide total traffic figures without any breakdown of citizenship.

It also serves as an information source on international flights to and from the U.S., reporting the total volume of air traffic and numerous subsets of the traffic to help the government and industry better understand the international travel market.

The information collected from this program is based upon the INS Form I-92. This form must be completed for all international arrival and departing flights with the exception of Canada. The information collected provides point-to-point air traffic totals between the U.S. and other countries around the world. Information is also collected on airport to airport traffic flows. This information is further subset by providing figures on the number of passengers who were on a U.S. flag carrier or a foreign flag carrier. In addition, a breakdown of whether or not they were on a scheduled or charter flight.

In the monthly, quarterly and annual I-92 reports, there are four sets of tables. The first three sets have an arrivals portion (Ia, IIa, and IIIa), as well as a departures section (Id, IId, and IIId). The fourth table is a summary of traffic by flag of carrier.

Table Ia and Id provide passenger travel volume data between the United States and other countries by two major distribution breakouts: scheduled and charter flights. Within the two larger column headings are further subsets of U.S. and foreign flag, and they are subset by aliens and citizens. There are also totals for scheduled and charter flights as well as a grand total for arrival or departure traffic. Each column heading as corresponding traffic volume data totals by world region and countries.

Table IIa and IId provide passenger volume data between the United States and other countries for U.S. and Foreign Flag carriers regardless of whether or not the flight was scheduled or charter. The volume totals by flag of carrier is sub-divided further by citizens and alien traffic along with a total traffic figure by flag of the carrier. There is also a total traffic figure as well. Each column heading as corresponding traffic volume data totals by world region and countries.

Table IIIa and IIId provide passenger volume data between the United States ports and other countries/ports. The column headings in these tables are: citizens, aliens, U.S. flag, foreign flag, scheduled charter, and total.

Table IV provides passenger volume data by flag of carrier and foreign countries. The column headings include: citizens, aliens, arrivals, departures, scheduled charter, and total.

The information reported is based upon the INS I-92 form. All international arrival and departure flights are required to have an I-92 form with the exception of Canada. These forms are never seen by passengers. The information for the I-92 comes from the airline manifest which provides the total passenger count for the flight. The I-94 forms collected provide the breakout of citizens and aliens, and the other pieces of information reported are collected on the I-92 form. All of the I-92 forms are sent to INS's contractor for keypunching.

The I-92 data was originally sent to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for processing and publishing. DOT through the Volpe Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts processed and published the 1975- 1994 reports. In November 1994, DOT informed TI (which was USTTA's Office of Research at the time) that there budget had be cut and they were terminating the I-92 program. They offered to work with us to transition the program over to us upon their completion of processing the calendar year 1994 data. In June/July 1995, most of the historical data, reports and equipment were provided to TI from DOT. TI worked with DOT to take over the entire I-92 processing and publishing function. No additional funds or staff were provided to TI to assume this program. TI through the Commerce advanced data processing and Composition offices has processed and published this data starting with the January 1995 data/report.

In 1996, TI implemented a major update of the airline, country, and airport (U.S. and foreign) codes. Over 230 codes were changed or added to the I-92 coding system. TI has been trying to keep the coding system up to date on a monthly basis before any of the I-92 data is processed. TI hopes the new codes and improved processing by INS's contractor has proven to provide better data to the industry. TI hopes the industry users will help identify any data anomalies that occur. If you ever see anything that is inconsistent, please contact TI. We will try to work with INS to correct the problem(s). We cannot guarantee that past data can be corrected, but the longer you wait to inform TI, the longer the program will occur.

Since July 1995, the INS contractor has been sending TI monthly files on the records processed each month. Commerce's advanced data processing center staff run the I-92 files to produce the data and reports. A print file is sent to the Commerce Composition staff and reports are generated directly from the print file.

TI has maintained the DOT format for the printed monthly, quarterly, and annual reports entitled "U.S. International Air Travel Statistics." The reports and data are sold by Tourism Industries.

The reports can be purchased separately, or in numerous combinations to obtain the monthly, quarterly and annual reports. The price for reports range from $30 to $300, a subscription can range from $185 to $1,700. To order reports, please contact TI. Data tapes, diskettes, or electronic files of the data can also be purchased. Data costs range from $7,000 to $28,000. Data can be purchased for internal use only or resale. To obtain the I-92 data, please contact TI, additional information and forms are required before the data will be released. Please note, TI relies upon the sale of this data to support the program. It is not fully funded by a congressional appropriation.