Annual Monitoring Report 2020 - Germany
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2023/177 of 14 December 2022
List of ACCs 4
Bremen ACC
Langen ACC
Karlsruhe UAC
Munich ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 8
<80’K 8
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1 EUR
2020: 1 EUR
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2020 12.9%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2020 15.4%
Share en route / terminal costs 2020 77% / 23%
En route charging zone(s)
Germany
Terminal charging zone(s)
Germany
Main ANSP
• DFS
Other ANSPs
• MUAC
MET Providers
• Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Germany recorded 1,479K actual IFR movements in 2020, -56% compared to 2019 (3,394K).
▪ Germany IFR movements reduced less than the average reduction at Union-wide level (-57%).
▪ Germany recorded 6,792K actual en route service units in 2020, -55% compared to 2019 (15,132K).
▪ Germany service units reduced less than the average reduction at Union-wide level (-57%).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ DFS achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in two out of five management objectives. DFS still needs to improve safety risk management, safety assurance and safety promotion.
▪ The EoSM performance is lower than expected based on the maturity achieved at the end of RP2 when DFS exceeded the target on most management objectives. This may reflect a conservative approach used by DFS when assessing maturity using the new EoSM definition in RP3.
▪ Since DFS needs to improve maturity by one level on five EoSM questions (out of 28) to achieve the RP3 targets, the PRB considers this feasible. However, the NSA did not provide any actions or correcting measures that are being considered/ implemented to improve the EoSM performance. The PRB encourages the NSA to establish these as soon as possible.
▪ Germany recorded lower rates of both SMIs and RIs in 2020 compared with 2019.
▪ DFS should improve its SMS by implementing automated safety data recording systems.
Environment (Member State)
▪ FABEC stated that half of the Union-wide RAD simplifications applied in 2020 were within FABEC airspace and that eNM measures were not needed. This helped improve the shortest constrained routes within FABEC, but was not sufficient in helping to reach the FAB-level KEA reference value (2.90%) in 2020.
▪ At a national level, Germany achieved a KEA performance of 2.37% and the FABEC reference value is 2.90% in 2020.
▪ Karlsruhe Upper Area Control Centre and MUAC, in cooperation with other German ACCs, seized the opportunity of the significant fall in traffic to shorten routes and improve flight profiles in Europe’s busiest airspace. This had a distinct impact that led to shorter constrained routes and improved performance relative to 2019.
▪ The share of flights operating CCO/CDO at German airports improved in 2020 compared to 2019. The additional time airspace users spent taxiing or holding in terminal airspace reduced by 36% compared to 2019.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ DFS recorded 0.18 minutes of en route ATFM delay per flight in 2020 and performed better than its local breakdown value of 0.52.
▪ Delays must be considered in the context of the traffic evolution: IFR movements in 2020 were 56% below the 2019 levels in Germany. When analysing the first two months of 2020, there were slightly less IFR movements than in 2019 (-2%) but delays reduced more notably (-41%).
▪ Germany reported some capacity issues in the early months of 2020 due to the lack of qualified ATCOs. Germany reported a decrease in the number of ATCO FTEs by 4%, 1%, 1% and 2% in Bremen, Karlsruhe, Langen and Münich ACCs respectively.
▪ Based on the analysis of previous capacity profiles, the PRB estimates Germany will face a capacity gap once IFR movementsrise above 80% of 2019 levels. The PRB recommends that capacity improvement measures should be implemented.
▪ Delays were mostly related to ATC capacity and staffing.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Germany decreased by 15.91 percentage points compared to 2019.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Langen ACC was 118,454, showing a 10.5% decrease compared to 2019. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Munich ACC was 70,385, showing a 27.6% decrease compared to 2019. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Karlsruhe ACC was 88,037, showing a 39.2% decrease compared to 2019. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Bremen ACC was 76,975, showing a 25.9% decrease compared to 2019.
▪ Langen ACC registered 5.12 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 49.3% below 2019 levels. Munich ACC registered 7.1 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 42.6% below 2019 levels. Karlsruhe ACC registered 9.82 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 22.3% below 2019 levels. Bremen ACC registered 3.63 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 42.6% below 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The 2020 actual service units (6,792K) were 55% lower than the actual service units in 2019 (15,155K).
▪ Germany reduced total costs in 2020 by only 21M€2017 (-2%) compared to 2019 actual costs. The reduction was mainly driven by a 33M€2017 lower cost of capital (-58%), resulting from a lower WACC due to a change in capital structure.
▪ Germany increased other operating costs by 18M€2017 (+15%) due to “many unspecified individual measures”.
▪ DFS spent 87M€2017 in 2020 related to costs of investments, 3% less than planned in the 2019 draft performance plan (90M€2017).The reduction is mainly driven by a decrease in costs related to existing investments. Moreover, most of new major investments (which were planned for later years of the reference period) have been either postponed or the planning has been revised in order to achieve long term costs savings in response to COVID-19.