Capacity - Croatia

PRB monitoring

▪ Croatia registered 0.07 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2021, thus meeting the local breakdown value of 0.09. The delays accrued in the period between July and September during the 2021 summer traffic recovery with ATC capacity, weather, and ATC staffing being the main delay causes.

▪ Delays should be considered in the context of lower traffic: in Croatia, IFR movements in 2021 were 35% lower than in 2019.

▪ Traffic is expected to grow with 2019 levels likely being reached in 2022 (in high growth scenario) or by 2024 (in base growth scenario). An increase in the number of ATCOs in OPS is planned during RP3 enabling Croatia to prepare for the traffic recovery.

▪ Delays were highest in July and August, mostly driven by adverse weather conditions and ATC Capacity issues.

▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Croatia decreased by 28.32 p.p. compared to 2020 and was lower than 2019 values.

▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Zagreb ACC was 24,761, showing a 22.6% increase compared to 2020. Sector opening hours are 32.6% below 2019 levels.

▪ Zagreb ACC registered 17.60 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2021, being 3.5% below 2019 levels.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Summary of capacity performance

Croatia experienced an increase in traffic from 301k flights in 2020 to 461k flights in 2021. However, traffic levels were still substantially below the 714k flights in 2019.

In 2021, Croatia had 30k minutes of ATFM delay - the vast majority of which were in August (21k). There were 77k flights in August 2021. For comparison in September 2019 there were 83k minutes of delay for just over 76k flights.

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

The results are in line with traffic indicators and expectations. In the pandemic year 2021 there were some challenges for LDZO ACC capacities. Limitations occurred occasionally during summer season due to unplanned increase of traffic demand in peak hours.

Monitoring process for capacity performance

Monitoring of all available KPI’s and PI’s is done through the PRU portal which is considered as the main source of information.

Capacity planning

Capacity planning is done in line with NM’s initiative for development of a rolling NOP document in which short-term capacity and demand on the Network level is described. The expected traffic outlook is given for six weeks ahead and revised weekly, while capacity is adapted to traffic demand and reported to NM which assesses the efficiency for planned period. In the planning process on local level, several departments are involved in strategic and tactical development of the plan.

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

No data available

Other indicators

Increase in the ATCO in OPS FTE is mainly due to lower than planned retirement rate coupled with increased ATCO in OPS utilisation following traffic recovery during summer months.