Capacity - Austria

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PRB monitoring

▪ 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 p.p. 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.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Focus on en route ATFM delay

Summary of capacity performance

Austria experienced an increase in traffic from 590k flights in 2020 to 739k flights in 2021, with practically zero ATFM delays. However, traffic levels were still substantially below the 1,365k flights in 2019.

It is difficult to follow the number of planned FTE ATCOs since the figures vary in both monitoring reports and performance plans.

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

All capacity targets have been achieved. No ATFM delays were incurred due to reduced COVID 19 traffic and optimum measures of arranging operational ATCO resources.

Monitoring process for capacity performance

Apart from permanent ATFCM processes in place, monitoring traffic during the strategic, pretactical, and tactical phase as well as post OPS analyses are regularly executed.

Capacity planning

Capacity planning process considering traffic forecasts, ATCO resources, ATS procedures and ATM System evolution is in place and executed. Permanent coordination and cooperation with the network manager is ongoing.

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

Not applicable

Other indicators

Focus on ATCOs in operations

N/A

Terminal performance

Arrival ATFM delay (KPI#2)

Focus on arrival ATFM delay

Austria identified six airports as subject to RP3 monitoring. According to the traffic figures at these 4 airports, only Vienna (LOWW) must be monitored for pre-departure delays.
The Airport Operator Data Flow, necessary for the monitoring of these pre-departure delays, is correctly established where required and the monitoring of all capacity indicators can be performed.
Traffic at the ensemble of these airports in 2021 was still 53% lower than in 2019, even if 14% higher than in 2020.

During 2021, arrival ATFM delays in Austria have significantly decreased with respect to the previous year (2020: 0.36 min/arr, 2021: 0.11 min/arr)
ATFM slot adherence has improved (2021: 97.4%; 2020: 95.8%).

Only Vienna and Innsbruck registered delays in 2021.
At Vienna (LOWW: 2019: 0.91 min/arr.; 2020: 0.49 min/arr.; 2021: 0.14 min/arr.) 78% of these delays were attributed to weather and 22% to ATC staffing issues. The worst delays were observed in August, reaching almost 0.7 min/arr.
Innsbruck (LOWI: 2020: 0.18 min/arr.; 2021: 0.09 min/arr.) observed arrival ATFM delays only in December and were all related to weather.

The provisional national target on arrival ATFM delay in 2021 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.

Other terminal performance indicators (PI#1-3)

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
Graz	NA	NA	NA	NA	98.5%	98.0%	NA%	NA%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Innsbruck	0.18	0.09	NA	NA	93.9%	96.5%	NA%	NA%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Klagenfurt	NA	NA	NA	NA	97.6%	98.0%	NA%	NA%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Linz	NA	NA	NA	NA	100.0%	97.2%	NA%	NA%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Salzburg	0.04	NA	NA	NA	88.4%	92.3%	NA%	NA%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Vienna	0.49	0.14	NA	NA	97.4%	98.1%	NA%	NA%	0.75	0.63	NA	NA	8.3	9.8	NA	NA

Focus on performance indicators at airport level

ATFM slot adherence

With the drastic drop in traffic, the share of regulated departures from Austrian airports virtually disappeared until July 2021.
Most Austrian airports showed adherence above 95% and the national average was 97.4%, an improvement with respect to 2020 (95.8%). With regard to the 2.6% of flights that did not adhere, 2.2% was early and 0.4% was late.
According to the Austrian monitoring report: Overall performance was improved on the one hand due to reduced traffic level and on the other hand due to increased awareness on individual flights.

ATC pre-departure delay

Vienna is the only Austrian airport subject to the monitoring of this indicator. The performance has further improved (LOWW; 2019: 1.56 min/dep.; 2020: 0.75 min/dep.; 2021: 0.63 min/dep.) and even if it increased in the second half of 2021, it was still lower than the 2019 values.

According to the Austrian monitoring report: Performance improved due to reduced traffic despite reduced airport facilities and rigid COVID measures.

All causes pre-departure delay

Vienna is the only Austrian airport subject to the monitoring of this indicator.
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Vienna in 2021 increased to 9.75 min/dep. The highest delays per flight were observed in January-February and July-August.
According to the Austrian monitoring report: Average time of all cause departure delay did increase due to reduced airport facilities and thus reduced capacity offer during 2021 plus rigid COVID measures.