Capacity - Netherlands

PRB monitoring

▪ The Netherlands registered 0.04 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2021, thus meeting the local breakdown value of 0.06.

▪ Delays should be considered in the context of lower traffic: in the Netherlands, IFR movements in 2021 were 51% lower than in 2019.

▪ Amsterdam ACC accumulated 0.08 minutes of en route delay which exceeded the ACC reference value of 0.06. The NSA reported that this has been caused by changing traffic patterns around Amsterdam-Schipol airport.

▪ Traffic is expected to grow, with 2019 levels likely being reached in 2023 in high growth scenario while expected to remain below 2019 levels in base growth scenario. A slight decrease in the number of ATCOs in OPS is planned by the end of RP3.

▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in the Netherlands increased by 9.27 p.p. compared to 2020 and was lower than 2019 values.

▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Amsterdam ACC was 40,028, showing a 0.3% decrease compared to 2020. Sector opening hours are equal to 2019 levels.

▪ Amsterdam ACC registered 7.84 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2021, being 47.5% below 2019 levels.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Summary of capacity performance

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

Monitoring process for capacity performance

Capacity planning

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

Other indicators

Terminal performance

Arrival ATFM delay (KPI#2)

For the Netherlands, the scope of the performance monitoring of terminal services under RP3 comprises a total of 4 airports. In accordance with IR (EU) 2019/317 and the traffic figures at these 4 airports, only Amsterdam must be monitored for pre-departure delays.
The Airport Operator Data Flow is fully established at Amsterdam and the monitoring of pre-departure delays can be performed. Nevertheless, the quality of the reporting does not allow for the calculation of the ATC pre-departure delay, with more than 60% of the reported delay not allocated to any cause.

Traffic at these 4 airports decreased in 2021 was still 44% lower than in 2019 regardless the increase of 18% with respect to 2020.

Average arrival ATFM delays in 2021 was 0.54 min/arr, compared to 1.26 min/arr in 2020.
ATFM slot adherence has improved (2021: 98.1%; 2020: 97.6%).

Amsterdam (EHAM: 2019: 4.23 min/arr.; 2020: 1.41 min/arr.; 2021: 0.60 min/arr.) further decreased the arrival ATFM delays compared to previous years. 93% of the registered delays were attributed to weather.
The rest of Dutch airports registered zero or nearly zero arrival ATFM delays in 2021.
According to FABEC’s monitoring report: The terminal capacity target has been met, with actual performance in 2021 being significantly better than 2020. However, it is recognised that this is partly due to a shift of ATFM delay from the terminal zone to the en route zone, as described in more detail in response to the minor underperformance of LVNL with respect its contribution to the FABEC en route capacity target.
In 2022 planned runway maintenance at Schiphol may cause additional delays.

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
Beek NA 0.01 NA NA 96.0% 97.4% NA% NA% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Eelde 0.01 0.00 NA NA 88.0% 91.9% NA% NA% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Rotterdam NA 0.00 NA NA 100.0% 98.8% NA% NA% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Schiphol 1.41 0.60 NA NA 97.6% 98.1% NA% NA% NA NA NA NA 15.5 20.4 NA NA

ATFM slot adherence

With the drastic drop in traffic, the share of regulated departures from Dutch airports virtually disappeared until July 2021.
All four airports showed adherence above 91% and the national average was 98.1%, an improvement with respect to 2020 (97.6%).With regard to the 1.9% of flights that did not adhere, 0.6% was early and 1.3% was late.

ATC pre-departure delay

The share of unidentified delay reported by Amsterdam (the only Dutch airport subject to monitoring of this indicator) in 2021 has been well above 40% for more than 2 months in the year, preventing the calculation of this indicator.
The insufficient data quality provided by Amsterdam is a long standing issue prior to April 2020, but the situation worsened since April 2020. The unidentified delay after April 2020 was around 80% of all delays and with the traffic recovery as of June 2021 the reporting has slightly improved but the unidentified delays still account for more than 60% of the total delays.

All causes pre-departure delay

Amsterdam is the only Dutch airport subject to the monitoring of this indicator.
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Amsterdam in 2021 was 20.40 min/dep. (almost 5 minutes higher than in 2020) which is the highest among the RP3 monitored airports. The highest delays per flight were observed in February, averaging almost 45 min/dep.