Annual Monitoring Report 2020 - Greece
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/2421 of 5 December 2022
List of ACCs 2
Athens ACC
Makedonia ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 0
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1 EUR
2020: 1 EUR
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2020 5.2%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2020 2.0%
Share en route / terminal costs 2020 89% / 11%
En route charging zone(s)
Greece
Terminal charging zone(s)
Greece
Main ANSP
• HASP
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• HNMS
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Greece recorded 383K actual IFR movements in 2020, -57% compared to 2019 (884K).
▪ The reduction in IFR movements for Greece was in line with the average reduction at Union-wide level (-57%).
▪ Greece recorded 2,756K actual en route service units in 2020, -54% compared to 2019 (6,005K).
▪ Greece service units reduced less than the average reduction at Union-wide level (-57%).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ HCAA achieved the RP3 EoSM target for safety promotion in 2020, but remained below the targets on the other four management objectives.
▪ Specific measures to improve maturity during 2020 were identified but were suspended due to the pandemic situation. Significant initiatives are still planned both by the NSA and the ANSP to restructure and improve the safety function in the organisations, which the PRB will closely monitor in 2021.
▪ HCAA must improve maturity by one level in five out of 28 EoSM questions and by two levels in one EoSM question to achieve its RP3 targets.
▪ The rates of occurrences are below Union-wide level for both RIs and SMIs, but the rate of SMI increased in 2020.
▪ HCAA should improve its SMS by implementing automated safety data recording systems for occurrences.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Greece achieved a KEA performance of 2.51% compared to its reference value of 1.94% and therefore did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target.
▪ Greece stated that the reduction in overflights, which normally have a better KEA, affected their national results. The PRB does not consider this justification sufficient since other Member States still achieved their targets and were affected by reduced overflights like Greece was but still managed to achieve their reference values.
▪ Given the fall in traffic, Greece stated that area reservations by the military increased, which affected KEA. Since Greece did not report the hours of area reservation vs. actual usage, it is not possible to say whether this was the case. However, Greece should improve its flexible use of airspace as it is an anomalous result to not improve KEA performance given the drop in traffic.
▪ The share of flights operating CCO/CDO improved in 2020. The additional time airspace users spent taxiing or holding in terminal airspace reduced by 34% compared to 2019.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ HCAA registered 0.02 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2020, thus meeting the local breakdown value of 0.34.
▪ Delays must be considered in the context of the traffic evolution: IFR movements in 2020 were 57% below the 2019 levels in Greece.
▪ Greece reported that the number of ATCO FTEs decreased by 9% in 2020 compared to 2019 which represents a 32% deficit when compared to the 2020 planned values. Due to amended recruitment plans, only two ATCO FTEs started working in OPS in 2020 compared to the initially planned 59.
▪ Based on the analysis of previous capacity profiles, the PRB estimates Greece will face a capacity gap once IFR movements rise above 92% of 2019 levels. The PRB recommends that capacity improvement measures are implemented before traffic begins to recover.
▪ Delays were related to disruptions (ATC industrial actions).
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Greece increased by 19.05 p.p. compared to 2019.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Athens ACC was 50,631, showing a 11.4% decrease compared to 2019.
▪ Athens ACC registered 5.83 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 60.9% below 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The 2020 actual service units (2,756K) were 54% lower than the actual service units in 2019 (6,004K).
▪ Greece reduced total costs in 2020 by 17 M€2017 (-12%) compared to 2019 actual costs. The reduction in total costs is primarily driven by a decrease in staff costs of 21 M€2017 (-19%), resulting from changes in the ATCO recruitment plan and reduced traffic dependent staff costs.
▪ NSA SAR costs are included for the first time and mainly responsible for the increase in other operating costs and cost of capital of 1.9 M€2017 (+7%) and 2.4 M€2017 (+184%) respectively.
▪ HCAA spent 1.7 M€2017 in 2020 related to costs of investments, 38% less than planned in the 2019 draft performance plan (2.8 M€2017). The reduction is due to a lower cost of capital and depreciation resulting from a lower asset base than originally planned.