PRB monitoring
▪ IAA ANSP registered zero minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2020, thus meeting the local breakdown value of 0.07.
▪ Delays must be considered in the context of the traffic evolution: IFR movements in 2020 were 60% below the 2019 levels in Ireland.
▪ Ireland reported no capacity issues and a 3% decrease in ATCO FTE numbers in 2020 compared to 2019 for both Dublin and Shannon ACCs. This decrease was driven by a 4.5-day working week between July-October 2020 and job sharing measures between the two ACCs as part of cost containment measures. Training classes in 2020 were also cancelled.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Dublin ACC was 18,666, showing a 0.3% increase compared to 2019. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Shannon ACC was 46,116, showing a 0.3% increase compared to 2019.
▪ Dublin ACC registered 4.92 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 64.1% below 2019 levels. Shannon ACC registered 4.28 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 57.7% below 2019 levels.
Summary of capacity performance
Ireland experienced a traffic reduction of 60% from 2019 levels, to 225k flights. The traffic level was accommodated with zero en route ATFM delays to airspace users.
NSA’s assessment of capacity performance
The performance in 2020 is reflective of the significant drop in traffic levels.
Monitoring process for capacity performance
No data available
Capacity planning
No data available
Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)
No data available
Dublin ACC: 2.5% reduction FTE in 2020 to reflect 4.5 day working week July-October 2020. Reduction of 1 FTE to account for Job Sharing in response to Cost Containment (0.5 SNN / 0.5 DUB)
Actual
Shannon ACC: These figures reflect a lower number of ATCOs in training following the cancellation of classes in 2020
Original RP3 Plan indicated a need for 3 new ATCOs in 2020 (2 SNN; 1 DUB)
Figures are on an FTE basis; ATCO Headcount went from 309 in 2019 to 301 in 2020
Ireland includes 3 airports under RP2 monitoring. However, in accordance with IR (EU) 2019/317 and the traffic figures, only Dublin must be monitored for pre-departure delays.
The Airport Operator Data Flow is fully established at Dublin 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 these Irish airports has decreased by 62% in 2020 with respect to 2019. Dublin was the only Irish airport that registered arrival ATFM delays in 2020, all in January and February. Slot adherence was above 95% for all three airports.
The national average arrival ATFM delay at Irish airports in 2020 was 0.11 min/arr, slightly lower than the 0.14 min/arr in 2019 (-20%).
Only Dublin (EIDW: 2019: 0.17 min/arr.; 2020: 0.14 min/arr.) registered delays in 2020, all in January and February. , 73% of these delays were attributed to weather and 27% to aerodrome capacity.
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 |
| Cork |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
97.9% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
15.6 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Dublin |
0.14 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
96.6% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.26 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
7.1 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Shannon |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
98.3% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
ATFM slot adherence
With the drastic drop in traffic, the share of regulated departures from Irish airports virtually disappeared as of April. The annual figures are therefore driven by the performance in the first trimester.
All three airports showed adherence above 95% and the national average was 96.8%.With regard to the 3.2% of flights that did not adhere, 2.2% was early and 1% was late.
The Irish monitoring report points out that Throughout RP2 adherence to ATFM slots at IAA controlled airports has been in the range 95% to 97%. The 2020 adherence performance is better than that in 2019.
The NSA holds regular performance meetings with the ANSP at the airports where the data related to adherence to ATFM measures is reviewed and discussions are held on the factors that impact or enhance performance.
ATC pre-departure delay
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 Dublin (the only Irish airport subject to monitoring of this indicator).
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 Dublin was above 40% for most months since April 2020, preventing the calculation of this indicator, due to the special traffic composition during the months of the pandemic. Dublin had proper reporting before April 2020.
According to the Irish monitoring report: The NSA holds regular performance meetings with the ANSP at Dublin Airport where the data related ATC pre-departure delay are reviewed and discussions are held on the factors that impact or enhance performance.
All causes pre-departure delay
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Dublin in 2020 was 7.08 min/dep. The higher delays per flight were observed in February.
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.