PRB monitoring
▪ Skyguide recorded 0.04 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight, thus performing better than the local breakdown value of 0.12.
▪ Delays must be considered in the context of the traffic evolution: IFR movements in 2020 were 59% below the 2019 levels in Switzerland.
▪ Switzerland was the only Member State to report significant delays throughout the year in 2020 due to ATC capacity and staffing reasons. The PRB believes that with such low levels of traffic, ATC capacity and staffing issues were avoidable and recommends that capacity improvement measures are implemented before traffic recovers.
▪ Switzerland reported a decrease of over 6% in ATCO FTE numbers in Zurich ACC, while an almost 3% increase in Geneva ACC in 2020 compared to 2019 values.
▪ Delays were mostly related to adverse weather conditions and ATC capacity issues.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Switzerland increased by 1.61 p.p. compared to 2019.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Geneva ACC was 21,088, showing a 34.8% decrease compared to 2019. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Zurich ACC was 21,172, showing a 40.3% decrease compared to 2019.
▪ Geneva ACC registered 12.89 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 38.9% below 2019 levels. Zurich ACC registered 15.42 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2020, being 33.5% 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)
Switzerland identifies its two main airports Zurich (LSZH) and Geneva (LSGG) as subject to RP3 monitoring. Both airports have a fully implemented data flow that allows the proper monitoring of the pre-departure delays.
Traffic in 2020 decreased by 61% at Zurich (LSZH) compared to 2019, and by 56% at Geneva (LSGG). This drastic drop in traffic had an impact on the ATFM regulations, with almost zero arrival ATFM delay since the month of April 2020.
Slot adherence was well above 90% for both airports.
The national average arrival ATFM delay at the two Swiss airports in 2020 was 0.55 min/arr, significantly lower compared with 1.61 min/arr in 2019 (-66%).
The massive traffic drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Europe as from March 2020 (-59% for the whole year for Skyguide) has reduced the 2020 March - December traffic to a very low level (from -46% in March down to -93% in April).
Almost all delays took place in the first trimester at both airports.
At Zurich (LSZH: 2019: 1.99 min/arr.; 2020: 0.60 min/arr.) 77% of these delays were attributed to weather and 15% to aerodrome capacity issues.
At Geneva (LSGG: 2019: 1.04 min/arr.; 2020: 0.49 min/arr.) 65% of the delays were due to weather, 17% to aerodrome capacity and another 17% to ATC staffing issues.
The rest of the year there were minor punctual delays due to weather and staffing.
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 |
| Geneva |
0.49 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
94.7% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.24 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
8.5 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Zurich |
0.60 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
94.4% |
NA% |
NA% |
NA% |
0.48 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
7.5 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
ATFM slot adherence
With the drastic drop in traffic, the share of regulated departures from Zurich and Geneva virtually disappeared as of April. The annual figures are therefore driven by the performance in the first trimester.
These airports showed adherence just below 95% and the national average was 94.6%.With regard to the 5.4% of flights that did not adhere, 3.9% was early and 1.5% was late.
ATC pre-departure delay
Zurich is the only Swiss airport where this indicator can be calculated. The performance has notably improved with respect to the previous year (LSZH; 2019: 1.63 min/dep.; 2020: 0.52 min/dep.)
The share of unidentified delay reported by Geneva in 2020 has been above 40% every month since April 2020 due to the special traffic composition since then. Geneva had proper reporting before the pandemic.
All causes pre-departure delay
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Geneva and Zurich in 2020 was 8.46 min/dep. and 7.55 min/dep respectively. The higher delays per flight were observed in the first trimester of the year and then in December there was again an increase at both airports.