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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 179 / Monday, September 20, 2021 / Notices
The data are needed to monitor trade in transport services, to analyze the impact of U.S. trade on the U.S. and foreign economies, to compile and improve the U.S. economic accounts, to support U.S. commercial policy on trade in transport services, to conduct trade promotion, and to improve the ability of U.S. businesses to identify and evaluate market opportunities. The data are used in estimating the transport services component of the U.S. international transactions accounts ITAs and national income and product accounts NIPAs.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis BEA is proposing modifications to the information collected on the BE37
survey, and a change to the BE30 and BE37 surveys due dates, beginning with the reporting period for first quarter 2022. The proposed modifications to the BE37 survey would eliminate the collection of certain items not currently needed to estimate international transactions in air transportation services, and introduce new items that will increase the quality and usefulness of BEAs statistics on trade in transport services. BEA
proposes the following changes to the BE37 survey:
BEA proposes to eliminate the collection of several items on the BE37
survey: 1 Total revenue from transporting passengers originating from, or destined to, points outside the United States; 2 total revenue from transporting passengers to and/or from the United States, 3 interline settlement receipts from foreign airline operators; and 4 interline settlement payments to foreign airline operators.
BEA proposes to eliminate these items because the information collected is not currently used to estimate international transactions in air transportation services and is not expected to be needed in the future.
BEA proposes to collect country detail for BE37 survey item 1, revenue from carriage of export freight and express originating from the United States to points outside the United States, and item 2, revenue from carriage of freight and express originating from, and destined to, points outside the United States. Currently, only global totals are collected for these items. Requiring airlines to report these two items by country will improve the quality of the geographic statistics BEA disseminates.
BEA proposes to add U.S. airliners in-flight sales revenue total and by region and expand the information collected on number of passengers to include the region, on the BE37 survey.
In-flight sales are revenues of the airline or a vendor for the purposes of
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consumption on the aircraft food, drinks, Wi-Fi, pillows, etc.. The data will be used to close a gap in the ancillary fees component of air passenger transport. Collecting this information by region will allow BEA to produce more detailed statistics on trade in transport services because large differences exist across regions in perpassenger ancillary fee revenue, mostly corresponding to length of flight. BEA
proposes to collect this item and number of passengers by region according to the three regional designations outlined by the U.S.
Department of Transportation in 14 CFR
241.21gAtlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Latin America. These designations group Canada within the domestic category. Although revenue and expenses for Canada must be included in all other items on this survey, Canada will be excluded from the item on in-flight sales revenue and number of passengers.
Additionally, BEA proposes to collect two additional airline identification elements on the BE37 survey: the U.S.
airlines International Air Transport Association IATA and International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO
codes. These elements will enable BEA
to match information reported on the BE37 with supplemental information received from other government agencies and increase the quality and accuracy of BEAs statistics on trade in services.
BEA also proposes to change the due dates of the BE30 and BE37 surveys to 30 days after the close of each quarter from 45 days. Shortening the reporting timeline will allow BEA to produce more accurate and complete trade in transport services statistics in preliminary estimates of the ITAs, which is critical information for policymakers timely decisions on international trade policy. The earlier due date will allow BEA to use more reported data for preliminary statistics, improving the accuracy of both the aggregates and the country detail, reducing revisions in subsequent statistical releases.
BEA estimates there will be a one hour increase in the average burden for completing the BE37 survey with data, from 4 to 5 hours pers response, primarily as a result of the requirement to report country detail for revenue from the carriage of freight and express.
There will be no change in the average number of burden hours per response for the BE30 survey, currently estimated to be 4 hours. The language in the instructions and definitions will be reviewed and adjusted as necessary to clarify survey requirements.

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II. Method of Collection BEA contacts potential respondents by mail at the end of each quarter.
Respondents would be required to file the completed BE30 and BE37 forms within 30 days after the end of each quarter.
BE30 reports would be required from each U.S. ocean freight carrier owners and operators that engaged in the international transportation of freight, cargo, and/or passengers between U.S.
and foreign ports or between foreign ports, whose total covered revenues or total covered expenses were $500,000 or more in the previous year or are expected to be $500,000 or more during the current year.
BE37 reports would be required from each from U.S. airline operator engaged in the international transportation of passengers or of U.S. export freight, or the transportation of freight or passengers between two foreign points, whose total covered revenues or total covered expenses were $500,000 or more in the previous year or are expected to be $500,000 or more during the current year.
Entities required to report on the BE
30 and BE37 surveys will be contacted individually by BEA. Entities not contacted by BEA have no reporting responsibilities.
BEA offers its electronic filing option, the eFile system, for use in reporting on Forms BE30 and BE37. For more information about eFile, go to www.bea.gov/efile. In addition, BEA
posts all its survey forms and reporting instructions on its website, www.bea.gov/ssb. These may be downloaded, completed, printed, and submitted via fax or mail.
III. Data OMB Control Number: 06080011.
Form Numbers: BE30 and BE37.
Type of Review: Regular submission.
Affected Public: U.S. ocean carriers and U.S. airline operators.
Estimated Number of BE30
Respondents: 200 annually 50 filed each quarter; 48 reporting mandatory data, and 2 that would file exemption claims or voluntary responses.
Estimated Number of BE37
Respondents: 120 annually 30 filed each quarter; 28 reporting mandatory data, and 2 that would file an exemption claim or voluntary response.
Estimated Time per Response: For the BE30, 4 hours is the average for those reporting data and one hour is the average for those filing an exemption claim. For the BE37, 5 hours is the average for those reporting data and one hour is the average for those filing an
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