DB1B ticket sample

DB1B is the US Department of Transportation's ticket-based survey: instead of counting seats and passengers per flight like the T-100, it samples collected tickets, so each record carries itinerary, fare and origin-destination detail that traffic counts never contain.

The cataloged BTS TranStats record for Air Carrier Statistics (T-100) & Airline On-Time Performance places the two side by side. Its coverage notes state 'DB1B ticket samples from 1993' and tag the record 'db1b' alongside 't100' and 'form-41'; the same portal hosts the T-100 traffic files from 1990 onward and the on-time series from October 1987. The portal's aviation data index lists 21 databases, and the record's licensing notes flag that 'some bulk bundles are gated behind a request form for very large extracts' - the practical limit when pulling whole-history ticket files rather than single-year tables.

Choosing between DB1B and T-100 is choosing between fare analysis and traffic counting, and picking the wrong one wastes the project.

• Fare questions need DB1B. Average yield by market, itinerary diversion, connecting-versus-nonstop splits.

• Traffic questions need T-100. The combined T-100 Segment table holds 14,083,343 records across 50 fields in the cataloged query interface - a census, not a sample, so load factors and capacity come from there.

• Sampled data means sampling error. Because DB1B samples tickets, thin routes carry noisy estimates; the T-100's full enumeration is the safer denominator for small-market work.

• Access is free but not always instant. TranStats publishes without registration, yet the same record notes very large bulk extracts require a request form, which adds days to a download plan.

1. Match the database to the question. Use T-100 for segment traffic (the cataloged Segment table holds 14,083,343 records across 50 fields) and DB1B for fares and itineraries sampled from 1993 onward.
2. Confirm the start year you need. The TranStats record states DB1B ticket samples run from 1993 and T-100 traffic from 1990; pre-1990 work needs the Air Carrier Summary Data archive instead.
3. Check whether your extract hits the request-form gate. The record notes 'some bulk bundles are gated behind a request form for very large extracts'.

Terms that pair with the DB1B sample in the same TranStats stack:

• transtats-portal — The BTS portal hosting both DB1B ticket samples (from 1993) and the census-level T-100 files