Capacity - Czech Republic
PRB monitoring
▪ ANS CR registered near zero minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2020, thus meeting the local breakdown value of 0.20 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight .
▪ Delays must be considered in the context of the traffic evolution: IFR movements in 2020 were 61% below the 2019 levels in the Czech Republic.
▪ The Czech Republic reported no capacity issues and an increase in ATCO FTEs by 17% compared to 2019. This was due to training activities as well as the relocation of APP controllers to ACC. The actual number ATCO FTEs in 2020 was almost 8% over the planned value.
▪ Based on the analysis of previous capacity profiles, the PRB estimates the Czech Republic to face a capacity gap once IFR movements rise above 94% of 2019 levels. The PRB recommends that the reported capacity improvement measures are continued before traffic begins to recover.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Prague ACC was 36,911, showing a 21.1% decrease compared to 2019.
▪ Prague ACC registered 8.48 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 52.3% below 2019 levels.
Summary of capacity performance
The Prague FIR experienced a traffic reduction of 61% from 2019 levels, to 340k flights. The traffic level was accommodated with negligible en route ATFM delays to airspace users.
NSA’s assessment of capacity performance
There was no delay recorded in the Czech Republic due to significantly lower traffic caused by the COVID crisis.
Monitoring process for capacity performance
The monitoring process is based on quarterly monitoring reports prepared by ANS CR. These are based on the company Annual plan and cover all KPA.
Capacity planning
All measures are aiming to increase capacity so that the traffic level of 2019 can be managed without additional costs (excessive overtimes and high ATFM delays). The next years of the RP3 aiming on capacity increase in accordance with the requirements of NM. ATCOs training was realized in the maximum possible range (with regard to traffic levels) and in accordance with to ‘ATS optimisation’ project. The main projects Neopteryx and ‘ATS optimisation’ project are being deployed while main benefits are expected in RP4).
Within capacity planning, the key project ‘ATS optimisation’ project (centralization of APP and better use of operational staff as described in the PP2019).
The reported increase in ATCOs is a consequence of the above transfer of ATCOs from APP and ACC.
Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)
No data available
ANS CR had 13 employees holding licence but being assigned to other duties, with 4.3 FTE dedicated to ATS provisioning.
There are four airports in Czech Republic subject to RP3 monitoring. According to the traffic figures at these 4 airports, only Prague (LKPR) must be monitored for pre-departure delays.
The Airport Operator Data Flow is fully established at Prague 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 at the ensemble of these airports decreased by 63% in 2020. Arrival ATFM delays were only observed in Prague and only in the month of January. Slot adherence is almost 95% for Prague. The other airports had almost no regulated departures and all of those adhered to the STW.
The national average arrival ATFM delay at Czech airports in 2020 was 0.07 min/arr, even lower than the 0.16 min/arr in 2019 (-55%).
Only Prague (LKPR: 2019: 0.18 min/arr.; 2020: 0.09 min/arr.) registered delays in 2020, all in January, and 100% of these regulations were 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 |
| Brno Turany |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
100.0% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Karlovy Vary |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
100.0% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Ostrava |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
100.0% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Prague/Ruzyne |
0.09 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
94.7% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.22 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
8.3 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
ATFM slot adherence
With the drastic drop in traffic, the share of regulated departures from Czech airports virtually disappeared as of April. The annual figures are therefore driven by the performance in the first trimester.
Only 81 departures in total from Brno-Tuřany (LKTB), Karlovy Vary (LKKV) and Ostrava (LKMT)
were regulated in the entire year, with a 100% compliance.
The national average, driven by Prague, was 94.9%.With regard to the 4.2% of flights that did not adhere, 3.9% was early and 1.2% was late.
ATC pre-departure delay
The quality of the airport data reported by Prague (the only Czech airport subject to monitoring of this indicator) is too low, preventing the calculation of this indicator.
The calculation of the ATC pre-departure delay is based on the data provided by the airport operators through the Airport Operator Data Flow (APDF) which is properly implemented at Prague.
However, there are several quality checks before EUROCONTROL can produce the final value which is established as the average minutes of pre-departure delay (delay in the actual off block time) associated to the IATA delay code 89 (through the APDF, for each delayed flight, the reasons for that delay have to be transmitted and coded according to IATA delay codes.
However, sometimes the airport operator has no information concerning the reasons for the delay in the off block, or they cannot convert the reasons to the IATA delay codes. In those cases, the airport operator might:
- Not report any information about the reasons for the delay for that flight (unreported delay)
- Report a special code to indicate they do not have the information (code ZZZ)
- Report a special code to indicate they do not have the means to collect and/or translate the information (code 999)
To be able to calculate with a minimum of accuracy the PI for a given month, the minutes of delay that are not attributed to any IATA code reason should not exceed 40% of the total minutes of pre-departure delay observed at the airport.
Finally, to be able to produce the annual figure, at least 10 months of valid data is requested by EUROCONTROL.
The share of unidentified delay reported by Prague was well above 40% since April 2020, preventing the calculation of this indicator, due to the special traffic composition. Prague had proper reporting before the pandemic.
All causes pre-departure delay
Prague is the only Czech airport subject to the monitoring of this indicator.
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Prague in 2020 was 8.30 min/dep. The higher delays per flight were observed in the first trimester of the year and then back in November and December.
This performance indicator has been introduced in the performance scheme for the first time this year, so no evolution with respect to 2019 can be analysed.