PRB monitoring
▪ The en route 2020/2021 actual unit cost of Italy was 119.35 €2017, -3.5% lower than the determined unit cost (123.72 €2017). The terminal zone 1 actual unit cost was 390.28 €2017, -3.9% lower than the determined unit cost (406.06 €2017) and the terminal zone 2 actual unit cost was 324.60 €2017, -3.9% lower than the determined unit cost (337.73 €2017).
▪ The en route 2021 actual service units (5,783K) were +4.9% higher than determined (5,514K).
▪ In 2021, actual total costs were -9.4 M€2017 lower (-1.6%) than determined. Italy decreased all cost categories except cost of capi-tal. The reduction was mainly due to lower other operating costs (-8.4 M€2017, or -6.3%). The NSA justifies the difference due to difficulties to predict the recovery from COVID-19 while drafting the performance plan.
▪ Cost of capital increased by +2.1 M€2017 (+4.4%), due to an increase in the average interest on debt (from 1.9% to 3.0%).
▪ ENAV spent 138 M€2017 in 2021 related to costs of investments, -2.4% less than determined (141 M€2017). This was mainly driven by a decrease in depreciation costs due to a reduction of the revenues through funding, which should however be deducted from the unit rate instead of the cost base.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2020/2021 was 123.86€, while the terminal zone 1 actual unit cost incurred by users was 410.81€ and 338.47€ for terminal zone 2.
En route charging zone
Unit cost (KPI#1)
| Actual and determined data |
| Total costs - nominal (M€) |
2020-2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
| Actual costs |
1,186 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Determined costs |
1,197 |
651 |
674 |
689 |
| Difference costs |
−12 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Inflation assumptions |
2020-2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
| Determined inflation rate |
NA |
1.8% |
1.2% |
1.2% |
| Determined inflation index |
NA |
105.3 |
106.6 |
107.9 |
| Actual inflation rate |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Actual inflation index |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Difference inflation index (p.p.) |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA |
AUC vs. DUC
In the combined year 2020-2021, the AUC was lower than the planned DUC (-3.5%, or -4.36€2017). This results from the combination of higher than planned TSUs (+2.8%) and lower than planned en route costs in real terms (-0.8%, or -9.4 M€2017).
En route service units
The difference between actual and planned TSUs (+2.8%) falls outside of the ±2% dead band. Hence, the resulting gain is shared between the ANSP and airspace users, with the ANSP retaining an amount of 22.2 M€ (see items 10 to 14).
En route costs by entity
Actual real en route costs for 2020-2021 are -0.8% (-9.4 M€2017) lower than planned. This reflects the results across all the entities in the charging zone: main ANSP - ENAV (-0.6%, or -5.5 M€2017), other ANSP - ITAF (-0.9%, or -0.8 M€2017) and the NSA/EUROCONTROL (-3.5%, or -3.1 M€2017).
En route costs for the main ANSP at charging zone level
The lower than planed en route costs in real terms for ENAV in 2020-2021 reflects a combination of:
- slightly lower staff costs (-0.1%);
- lower other operating costs (-3.1%), which are understood to reflect costs savings for utilities and communications, external services and maintenance of non-operational equipment;
- lower depreciation costs (-1.5%); and,
- higher cost of capital (+2.2%), resulting from the use of higher than planned average interest rate on debts (from 1.9% to 3.04%) to compute the WACC.
Actual unit cost incurred by the users (AUCU) (PI#1)
| AUCU components (€/SU) – 2020-2021 |
| Components of the AUCU in 2020-2021 |
€/SU |
| DUC |
125.99 |
| Inflation adjustment |
0.10 |
| Cost exempt from cost-sharing |
−0.79 |
| Traffic risk sharing adjustment |
−0.59 |
| Traffic adj. (costs not TRS) |
−0.61 |
| Finantial incentives |
0.00 |
| Modulation of charges |
0.00 |
| Cross-financing |
0.00 |
| Other revenues |
−0.46 |
| Application of lower unit rate |
0.00 |
| Total adjustments |
−2.34 |
| AUCU |
123.65 |
| AUCU vs. DUC |
−1.9% |
| Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2020-2021 |
€'000 |
€/SU |
| New and existing investments |
−4,376.8 |
−0.45 |
| Competent authorities and qualified entities costs |
−718.0 |
−0.07 |
| Eurocontrol costs |
−3,075.2 |
−0.31 |
| Pension costs |
0.0 |
0.00 |
| Interest on loans |
456.4 |
0.05 |
| Changes in law |
0.0 |
0.00 |
| Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing |
−7,713.6 |
−0.79 |
The actual en route unit cost incurred by airspace users (AUCU) in respect of activities performed in combined year 2020-2021 (123.86€) is -1.7% lower than the nominal DUC (125.99€) which includes DUC initially charged: 65.81€; and to be charged: 60.18€. The difference between these two figures is due to:
- the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+0.10€/SU), to be charged to the airspace users in future years.
- the deduction of the other revenues (-0.46€/SU);
- the deduction of the traffic risk sharing adjustments (-0.59€) and the traffic adjustment (-0.61€/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing to be reimbursed in future years;
- and the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost-sharing mechanism (-0.58€/SU).
The share of regulatory result in the AUCU is 9.1%.
ENAV net gain on en route activity in the Italian charging zone in the combined year 2020-2021
ENAV’s net gain amounts to +25.3 M€, as a combination of a gain of +3.1 M€ arising from the cost sharing mechanism and a gain of +22.2 M€ arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism.
ENAV overall regulatory results (RR) for the en route activity
Ex-post, the overall RR taking into account the net gain from the en route activity mentioned above (+25.3 M€) and the actual RoE (+85.0 M€) amounts to +110.3 M€ (10.7% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 7.4%, which is higher than the 5.7% planned in the PP.