PRB monitoring
▪ 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 p.p. 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.
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)
Germany identifies a total of 16 airports as subject to RP3 monitoring.
However, in accordance with IR (EU) 2019/317 and the traffic figures, only 8 of those airports must be monitored for pre-departure delays.
The Airport Operator Data Flow, necessary for the monitoring of these pre-departure delays, is established for the 8 airports required. Nevertheless, the quality of the reporting does not allow for the calculation of the ATC pre-departure delay at any of these airports, with more than 60% of the reported delay not allocated to any cause.
Traffic at the ensemble of German airports under monitoring decreased by 59% in 2020 with respect to 2019. The reduction per airport depends very much on the type of operation. Leipzig (EDDP), with an important cargo operation observed only a 18% drop in traffic, while Munich (EDDM) and Dusseldorf (EDDL) observed a 65% reduction.
Berlin Tegel ceased operations as of November 2020, so 2020 is the only year it will appear in the monitoring.
This traffic drop obviously had an important impact in terms of arrival ATFM delays, with virtually zero delays as of April. Slot adherence is above 90% for all German airports and regarding All causes pre-departure delay, Frankfurt stands out with the second highest delay among the SES monitored airports.
The national average arrival ATFM delay at these German airports in 2020 was 0.10 min/arr, significantly lower compared with 0.39 min/arr in 2019 (-74%).
The biggest contributor to the minutes of arrival ATFM delays was Frankfurt (EDDF: 2019: 0.69 min/arr.; 2020: 0.19 min/arr.) with important delays in the first trimester. 92% of all delays at EDDF were attributed to weather.
Dusseldorf showed very high weather delays in the first two months of the year, leaving this airport with the highest annual average arrival ATFM delay per flight in Germany (EDDL: 2019: 0.68 min/arr.; 2020: 0.26 min/arr.) although still very low. 81% of these delays were due to weather.
In a very similar way, Munich (EDDM: 2019: 0.25 min/arr.; 2020: 0.08 min/arr.) only had delays the first two months of the year, and mostly associated with weather (81%)
Leipzig had some weather delays at different moments in the year.
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 |
| Berlin Schönefeld |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
97.7% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.04 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
8.2 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Berlin-Tegel |
0.05 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
94.2% |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
6.7 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Bremen |
0.01 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
94.9% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.01 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
3.4 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Dresden |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
99.7% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.00 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
7.9 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Düsseldorf |
0.26 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
95.8% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.11 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
8.2 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Erfurt |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
96.0% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.00 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
4.8 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Frankfurt |
0.19 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
92.3% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.28 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
16.5 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Hamburg |
0.03 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
97.5% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.08 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
7.4 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Hannover |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
95.9% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.01 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
11.6 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Köln-Bonn |
0.03 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
97.2% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
10.8 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Leipzig |
0.14 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
98.9% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.16 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
15.2 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| München |
0.08 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
94.3% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.01 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
7.3 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Münster-Osnabrück |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
97.1% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.00 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
8.6 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Nürnberg |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
97.6% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.03 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
13.4 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Saarbrücken |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
98.4% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.00 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
3.3 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Stuttgart |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
98.9% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.05 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
6.9 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
ATFM slot adherence
With the drastic drop in traffic, the share of regulated departures from German airports virtually disappeared as of April. These annual figures are therefore driven by the performance in the first trimester.
All German airports showed adherence above 92% and the national average was 95.5%. With regard to the 4.5% of flights that did not adhere, 3.5% was early and 1% was late.
It is worth mentioning that at the two biggest airports Frankfurt and Munich, the share of departures ahead of the Slot Tolerance Window (6.6% and 4.9%, respectively) was significantly higher than the departures after the STW (1.1% and 0.7%)
ATC pre-departure delay
The share of unidentified delay reported by all 8 German airports subject to monitoring of this indicator in 2020 has been above 40% for more than 2 months in the year, preventing the calculation of this indicator. This is partially due to the special traffic composition for most months in 2020. Most of these airports normally had proper reporting before the pandemic and only after April 2020 the share of unidentified delay exceeded the required minimum for the computation.
On the other hand the insufficient data quality provided by Cologne (EDDK) is a long standing issue prior to April 2020.
All causes pre-departure delay
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at German airports in 2020 was between 6.71 min/dep for Tegel (EDDT) and 16.49 min/dep. for Frankfurt (EDDF) which is the 2nd highest among the RP3 monitored airports.
The higher delays per flight were observed in the second trimester of the year, due to the lower traffic and extraordinary circumstances. In December there was also a general increase at most of these airports.