Annual Monitoring Report 2021 - Bulgaria
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/778 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Sofia ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 0
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1.95543 BGN
2021: 1.95522 BGN
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2021 3.4%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2021 1.6%
Share en route / terminal costs 2021 100% / 0%
En route charging zone(s)
Bulgaria
Terminal charging zone(s)
Main ANSP
• BULATSA
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Bulgaria recorded 516K actual IFR movements in 2021, +37% compared to 2020 (376K).
▪ Actual 2021 IFR movements were +1.2% above the plan (510K).
▪ Actual 2021 IFR movements represent 59% of the actual 2019 level (879K).
▪ Bulgaria recorded 2,270K actual en route service units in 2021, +29% compared to 2020 (1,766K).
▪ Actual 2021 service units were +1.7% above the plan (2,232K).
▪ Actual 2021 service units represent 56% of the actual 2019 level (4,032K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ BULATSA has not yet achieved the targets on safety risk management, but it has already exceeded the target on safety promotion. BULATSA continued the performance as planned in the performance plan.
▪ Bulgaria adopted the National Safety Plan including specific safety measures to achieve the acceptable level of safety performance. Particular actions were undertaken to improve BULATSA EoSM level in safety risk management.
▪ Bulgaria recorded a stable safety performance, with no reported occurrences of runway incursions in 2021. Bulgaria did not provide monitoring data for separation minima infringements (SMIs).
Environment (Member State)
▪ Bulgaria achieved a KEA performance of 2.48% compared to its target of 2.25% and did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target.
▪ It should be noted that KEA performance improved in comparison to 2020 despite a higher number of movements.
▪ Despite the shortest constrained route increasing in comparison to 2020, KEP performance improved by 0.26 percentage points.
▪ The NSA states the reasons for potential non meeting of environmental targets are outside of the ANSP’s control and related to the geopolitical situation, airspace restrictions and user preferences.
▪ Bulgaria has no airports that are regulated under the RP3 performance and charging scheme.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Bulgaria registered zero minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2021, thus meeting the local breakdown value of 0.04.
▪ Delays should be considered in the context of lower traffic: In Bulgaria, IFR movements in 2021 were 41% lower than in 2019.
▪ Traffic is expected to grow, with 2019 levels likely being reached in 2023 (in base and high growth scenarios). However, delay performance was good in 2019 and no immediate capacity issues are foreseen.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Sofia ACC was 23,880, showing an 8.8% increase compared to 2020. Sector opening hours are 34.8% below 2019 levels.
▪ Sofia ACC registered 21.00 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2021, being 11.0% below 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2020/2021 actual unit cost of Bulgaria was 46.94€2017, -4.0% lower than the determined unit cost (48.89€2017). Bulgaria does not have a terminal charging zone.
▪ The en route 2021 actual service units (2,270K) were +1.7% higher than determined (2,232K).
▪ The en route 2021 actual total costs were -6.0M€2017 (-6.0%) lower than determined. The decrease was mainly attributable to lower staff costs (-4.5M€2017, or -7.5%), the primary reason was a prolonged decrease in salaries of BULATSA due to the deterioration of the COVID-19 situation.
▪ Other operating costs decreased by -2.0M€2017 (-12%) mainly due to the postponement of a service level agreement, decreases of external services, and trainings. It is unclear why the service level agreement has been postponed, which might lead to potential future issues on the quality of service provision.
▪ BULATSA spent 18.6M€2017 in 2021 related to costs of investments, +0.9% more than determined (18.5M€2017) due to slightly higher depreciation costs.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2020/2021 was 50.83€.