PRB monitoring
▪ Skeyes recorded 0.06 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight, thus performing better than the local breakdown value of 0.20.
▪ Delays must be considered in the context of the traffic evolution: IFR movements in 2020 were 57% below the 2019 levels in Belgium-Luxembourg. No capacity issues were reported by Belgium-Luxembourg. The number of ATCO FTEs increased by 1% compared to 2019 (2020 planned values were not reported).
▪ Based on the analysis of previous capacity profiles, the PRB estimates that Belgium-Luxembourg will face a capacity gap once IFR movements rise above 83% of 2019 levels. The PRB recommends that capacity improvement measures are implemented before traffic begins to recover.
▪ Delays were driven mostly by ATC capacity and staffing issues.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Belgium decreased by 19.34 p.p. compared to 2019.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Brussels ACC was 28,585, showing a 1.9% decrease compared to 2019.
▪ Brussels ACC registered 10.01 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 54.1% below 2019 levels.
Summary of capacity performance
NSA’s assessment of capacity performance
Monitoring process for capacity performance
Capacity planning
Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)
Belgium identifies only Brussels airport as subject to RP3 monitoring.
The Airport Operator Data Flow is fully established and the monitoring of pre-departure delays can be performed. Nevertheless, the quality of the reporting does not allow for the calculation of the ATC pre-departure delay, with more than 60% of the reported delay not allocated to any cause.
Traffic levels in 2020 decreased by 60% at Brussels airport. This drastic drop in traffic had an impact on the ATFM regulations, with zero arrival ATFM delay since the month of April 2020. All causes pre-departure delay in 2020 was one of the highest in the SES monitored airports.
The massive traffic drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Europe as from March 2020 has reduced the 2020 March - December traffic to a very low level.
Traffic at Brussels airport was -73% in the period April to December compared to 2019. All delay occurred in the period January-March (EBBR; 2019: 0.90 min/arr; 2020: 0.38 min/arr)
91% of the arrival delay at Brussels was attributed to Weather.
The provisional national target on arrival ATFM delay in 2020 was met.
In accordance with Article 3 (3) (a) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1627: The incentive scheme shall cover only the calendar years 2022 to 2024.
| Airport level |
| Airport name |
Avg arrival
ATFM delay (KPI#2)
|
Slot adherence (PI#1)
|
ATC pre departure
delay (PI#2)
|
All causes pre departure
delay (PI#3)
|
| 2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
| Brussels |
0.38 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
97.4% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.35 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
13.9 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
ATFM slot adherence
With the drastic drop in traffic, regulated departures from Brussels also virtually disappeared as of April. The annual figure is therefore driven by the performance in the first trimester.
Brussels ATFM slot compliance was 97.4%
With regard to the 2.6% of flights that did not adhere, 1.11% was early, 1.47% was late.
ATC pre-departure delay
The share of unidentified delay reported by Brussels was well above 40% since April 2020, preventing the calculation of this indicator, due to the special traffic composition. Brussels had proper reporting before the pandemic.
All causes pre-departure delay
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Brussels in 2020 was 13.88 min/dep. which is the 4th highest among the RP3 monitored airports.
The highest average delay per flight was observed in the months of April, May and June, exceeding the 20 min/dep.