International Services Surveys: BE-9, Quarterly Survey of Foreign Airline Operators' Revenues and Expenses in the United States

This final rule amends regulations to set forth the reporting requirements for the BE-9, Quarterly Survey of Foreign Airline Operators' Revenues and Expenses in the United States. The survey is mandatory and will be conducted under the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act. Data from the BE-9 survey are needed for the compilation of the U.S. balance of payments accounts. The information collected in this survey will be used in developing the "transportation" portion of the U.S. balance of payments accounts. The balance of payments accounts, which are published quarterly in the Survey of Current Business, are one of the major statistical products of BEA. They are used extensively by both government and private organizations. Without the information collected in this survey, quarterly data needed for estimating an integral component of the transportation account would be unavailable. The data are utilized by private organizations and numerous government agencies for analyzing economic trends. The data collected are also used for compiling the U.S. national income and product accounts, and for reporting to international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. The survey will cover the transactions currently covered on the BE- 36, Foreign Airline Operators' Revenues and Expenses in the United States, which is collected annually. The BE-36 will be discontinued following the final data collection for 2003.