Origin-Destination 40 Percent Survey of Airline Passenger Traffic - Frequently Asked Questions
Most Common FAQs
19–8.3 Applicability.
(a) All U.S. certificated (Part 241) and commuter (Part 298) air carriers conducting scheduled passenger services (except helicopter carriers) shall participate in a Passenger Origin-Destination (O&D) Survey covering domestic and international air carrier operations, as prescribed by the Department of Transportation’s Office of Airline Information (OAI) in the instructions manual, Instructions to Air Carriers for Collecting and Reporting Passenger Origin-Destination Survey Statistics, and in Passenger Origin-Destination Directives issued by OAI.
A sample data file is available for download at https://esubmit.rita.dot.gov/OD-US-40.aspx. Please refer to the ‘Index’ tab for examples on reporting. If your carrier has itinerary situations not covered in the file, please email OAI.OD40.Support@dot.gov with an example so it can be added. BTS has included as many examples as possible to assist with reporting.
Yes, carriers are encouraged to submit a sample of data before the official data submission begins. Please submit up to 1,000 rows of data in Excel format as an attachment to OAI.OD40.Support@dot.gov. BTS will review the file and provide feedback to ensure your carrier is on the right track.
Please email OAI.OD40.Support@dot.gov to be added to the OD40 distribution list.
The Instructions to Air Carriers for Collecting and Reporting Passenger Origin-Destination Survey Data (Domestic Carriers and Immunized Foreign Carriers) document will remain a working draft until data collection begins, as changes are likely. Each version will be dated to ensure the most recent version is being used. When a new version is released, reporting carriers will be notified and will receive the document via email. The Instructions to Air Carriers for Collecting and Reporting Passenger Origin-Destination Survey Data is available at https://esubmit.rita.dot.gov/OD-US-40.aspx.
Please email OAI.OD40.Support@dot.gov with the reason why you believe your carrier should be removed from the Reporting Carrier List. If it is determined that your carrier does not need to report, an updated list will be posted reflecting the removal of your carrier.
Please email OAI.OD40.Support@dot.gov with your carrier’s name, contact information (phone/email), carrier code and demonstrate a hardship to reporting.
Airlines must submit their data within 45 days after the end of the reporting period. If the 45th day falls on a weekend or U.S. national holiday, the submission is due the next business day. The carrier will receive immediate feedback on submissions if there are filename or data field formatting errors. If there are errors found during the data validation process, feedback will be provided as soon as possible. If a data resubmission is required, the carrier will be required to resubmit within 5 days after notification, unless other arrangements are made with Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ Office of Airline Information (BTS OAI).
The file name should be the two or three letter character carrier code, year and month. For example, BA202507.CSV would be the file name for data filed by British Airways for July 2025.
Submission File Format FAQs
The file name should be the two or three letter character carrier code, year and month. For example, BA202507.CSV would be the file name for data filed by British Airways for July 2025.
- There are multiple quality assurance checks that can be performed before a carrier submits data, including verifying:
- The file format is .CSV.
- The file name follow the format: [CarrierCode][Year of Submission][Month of Submission].
- The year is 4 digits.
- The month is 2 digits.
- The Record Identification Number (RIN) field follows the format: CarrierCode (either 2 or 3 characters), followed by the year of submission, followed by month of submission, and then a sequential number starting at 00000001. For example, the first itinerary’s RIN of United Airlines’ July 2025 file should be: UA20250700000001.
- The Total Amount is:
- Is submitted with two decimal places.
- Is not less than the Tax Amount (unless Tax Amount is $0, as Tax Amount is included in Total Amount).
- Is not greater than $50,000. For itineraries with Total Amount greater than $50,000, please verify the U.S. currency conversion, and if valid, send an email to OAI.OD40.Support@dot.gov to let the Office of Airline Information (OAI) know that it is a valid fare.
- Is not less than $0.
- The Tax Amount is:
- Is submitted with two decimal places.
- Is not greater than $1,999. For itineraries with Tax Amount greater than $1,999, send an email to OAI.OD40.Support@dot.gov to let the Office of Airline Information (OAI) know that the taxes are valid and provide an explanation for why the taxes are high.
- Reporting Carrier, Issuing Carrier, Operating Carrier and Marketing Carrier codes are 2 or 3 character airline codes, unless surface segments are involved. If an itinerary has a surface segment, Operating Carrier and Market Carrier may not be airline codes (see below).
- Surface Segments:
- If there is a surface segment in the itinerary, and it is non-carrier ticketed transportation, the dwell time should be ‘-1’, the operating carrier should be ‘--’ (hyphen hyphen), and the marketing carrier should be ‘--’ (hyphen hyphen).
- If there is a surface segment in the itinerary, and it is carrier ticketed transportation, the dwell time should be ‘-1’, the operating carrier should be ‘TRN’ for train or ‘BUS’ for bus segments, and the marketing carrier should be the 2 or 3 character airline code of the carrier.
- The Dwell Time value is between 1 and 1440, -1, or 9999. In Category Two reporting, ‘B’ or blank are also valid values.
- The Purchase Window Group value is 2290, 91UP, or 21AP. In Category Two reporting, this value can also be NULL.
If a carrier has multiple .CSV files to submit, is the RIN Number to start new on each file or continue from the previous file?
If there are multiple .CSV files, the RIN should start at 000000001 in the first file. For subsequent files, the RIN should continue from where the last RIN in the previous file left off.
Submission File Content FAQs
No, bulk contract fares, which were submitted as ‘99999’ in O&D 10% reporting, are not to be submitted in O&D 40%. Each passenger’s itinerary Total Amount should be based on the ticket data.
Data Validation FAQs
The O&D data are compared to schedules in the Official Airline Guide (OAG), so please ensure that your carrier submits accurate and complete schedule information to the OAG. The O&D data will also be validated against the carrier’s T100 submission.
File Resubmission FAQs
To resubmit data, follow the same process as for the original submission. The file name is to be the same as of the originally submitted name.
No, 19-7 Reporting Directives do not apply to 19-8. If Reporting Directives need to be released for 19-8, they will be posted to the site of: https://www.bts.gov/accounting-reporting-directives. The carriers will also be notified via email.