PRB monitoring
▪ 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.
Summary of capacity performance
Greece experienced a traffic reduction of 57% from 2019 levels, to 383k flights. The traffic level was accommodated with less than 6k minutes en route ATFM delays to airspace users, all of which were attributed to ATC industrial action in October 2020.
NSA’s assessment of capacity performance
No data available
Monitoring process for capacity performance
No data available
Capacity planning
No data available
Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)
No data available
Regarding 2020, due to the COVID 19 crisis the recruitment plan was amended.
20 ATCOs left in 2019 and 22 more left in 2020.
Operational ANS performance at airports is monitored for one airport in Greece (i.e. Athens (LGAV)), the only airport subject to RP3 monitoring. The Airport Operator Data Flow is fully established and the monitoring of all capacity indicators 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 Athens in 2020 decreased by 51% with respect to 2019, significantly less than at other European airports, where the impact of COVID has generally been higher. The arrival ATFM delays showed a 99% reduction with respect to the previous year, with delays only in July and October. Slot adherence was well above 90%.
The average arrival ATFM delay at Athens in 2020 was 0.04 min/arr, drastically lower compared with 3.57 min/arr in 2019 (-99%).
Delays were only observed in July and October, and they were attributed to aerodrome capacity (61%) and ATC capacity (39%) despite the lower traffic.
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 |
| Athens |
0.04 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
94.5% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.03 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
8 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
ATFM slot adherence
The share of regulated departures from Athens in the first trimester was already low (around 5%) but with the drastic drop in traffic, regulated departures virtually disappeared as of April. The annual figure is therefore driven by the performance in the first trimester.
Athens’s ATFM slot compliance was 94.5%. With regard to the 5.5% of flights that did not adhere, 3.7% was early and 1.8% was late.
Greek NSA reports: Performance in relation to the previous year remained almost at the same level, slightly improving (94,5% in 2020 compared to 93.3.%in 2019). Further details will be provided in due time, if necessary, after the completion of relevant consultation with the Provider and the evaluation of the collected data.
ATC pre-departure delay
The quality of the airport data reported by Athens airport 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 Athens.
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 Athens was above 40% since April 2020, preventing the calculation of this indicator, due to the special traffic composition. Athens had proper reporting before the pandemic.
The Greek NSA reports that this issue is under consultation with the Provider. Further information will provided in due time, after the collection and evaluation of all relevant data.
All causes pre-departure delay
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Athens in 2020 was 8 min/dep. with little variation throughout the year.
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.