DOT seeks to collect more ticket data from more US airlines

The US DOT intends to collect additional passenger ticket data from airlines as part of an overhaul of its Origin-Destination Survey. The agency on Tuesday released a proposed rule that would require a broader swath of airlines to submit data. The DOT also proposes that airlines be required to submit more ticket data and to do so monthly, not quarterly. For years, the US has required that large US passenger airlines submit a “10% sample of airline tickets” to the DOT every quarter. Required ticket data includes the dollar value of tickets and travellers’ starting and ending points. The DOT exempts airlines that operate aircraft with less than 60 seats from participating. The data, which the DOT publishes in its quarterly Origin-Destination Survey, can be used to “plan air services, develop commercial aviation infrastructure, measure the economic impact of passenger flows and create business plans for start-up airlines”, says the DOT. But the agency says its current requirements are based on “accounting processes long abandoned by airlines”. As a result, the data does not reflect “today’s decentralised and integrated industrywide practices…and, in some cases, is not capable of accurately documenting consumer behaviour.”<br/>