Annual Monitoring Report 2021 - Austria
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/774 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Vienna ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 5
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1 EUR
2021: 1 EUR
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2021 2.7%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2021 3.1%
Share en route / terminal costs 2021 82% / 18%
En route charging zone(s)
Austria
Terminal charging zone(s)
Austria
Main ANSP
• Austro Control
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Austria recorded 739K actual IFR movements in 2021, +25% compared to 2020 (590K).
▪ Actual 2021 IFR movements were +2.4% above the plan (722K).
▪ Actual 2021 IFR movements represent 54% of the actual 2019 level (1,365K).
▪ Austria recorded 1,799K actual en route service units in 2021, +19% compared to 2020 (1,509K).
▪ Actual 2021 service units were -0.4% below the plan (1,807K).
▪ Actual 2021 service units represent 54% of the actual 2019 level (3,338K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ Austro Control did not achieve the targets for the EoSM in any of the safety management objectives in 2021, however, improvements to achieve the next level of maturity have been identified and included in the strategic planning processes.
▪ Austro Control developed an improvement plan including enhancements in the area of risk management, an amendment of audit checklists, and implementation of measures derived from the safety culture survey.
▪ The overall safety performance of the organisation is stable, the rate of occurrences has decreased compared with previous years and remain below the Union-wide average.
▪ Austro Control should improve its safety management by implementing automated safety data recording systems.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Austria achieved a KEA performance of 1.87% compared to its target of 1.96% and contributed positively to the Union-wide target. KEA performance improved by 0.3 percentage points in comparison to 2020.
▪ Lower traffic figures and the implementation of free route airspace contributed positively to achieving the target.
▪ Both KEP and SCR improved in comparison with 2020’s performance and reached the lowest values since 2017.
▪ Only one out of six Austrian airports that are regulated reported terminal environment data.
▪ The share of flights operating CDO at Austrian airports decreased in 2021 compared to 2020. Austria notes that their focus is CDO, with the performance being the best since 2017.
▪ The additional time airspace users spent taxiing out decreased by 6% compared to 2020. Additional time in terminal airspace de-creased by 26% compared to 2020.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Austria registered near zero minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2021, thus meeting the local breakdown value of 0.10.
▪ Delays should be considered in the context of lower traffic: IFR movements in 2021 were 46% lower than in 2019.
▪ Traffic is expected to grow with 2019 levels likely being reached in 2023 (in base and high growth scenarios). The number of ATCOs in OPS is not planned to increase significantly, the capacity issues experienced in 2019 may reappear.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Austria decreased by 0.94 percentage points compared to 2020 and was higher than 2019 values.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Vienna ACC was 49,603, showing a 39.6% increase compared to 2020. Sector opening hours are 10.4% below 2019 levels.
▪ Vienna ACC registered 10.71 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2021, being 36.1% below 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2020/2021 actual unit cost of Austria was 104.43€2017, -4.4% lower than the determined unit cost (109.28€2017). The terminal actual unit cost was 407.72€2017, -0.9% lower than the determined unit cost (411.29€2017).
▪ The en route 2021 actual service units (1,799K) were in line with the determined service units (1,807K).
▪ The en route 2021 actual total costs were -17M€2017 (-8.7%) lower than determined. The main decreases were attributable to staff (-9.3M€2017, or -7.5%) and other operating costs (-4.7M€2017, or -14%). The NSA explained that costs variations were mainly due to residual effects from cost savings in 2020 and the prolonged situation of COVID-19.
▪ Austro Control spent 29M€2017 in 2021 related to costs of investments, -11% less than determined (33M€2017). Some investments were delayed due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation.
▪ The discrepancies regarding total costs and costs of investments are significant, especially as the performance plan has been submitted at the end of 2021. The PRB invites the NSA to analyse the discrepancies and identify their reasons, including potential inaccurate planning and possible misusing of the regulatory framework to finance the liquidity.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2020/2021 was 112.01€, while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 428.53€.