Annual Monitoring Report 2021 - Slovakia
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/768 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Bratislava ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 0
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1 EUR
2021: 1 EUR
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2021 0.9%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2021 0.7%
Share en route / terminal costs 2021 100% / 0%
En route charging zone(s)
Slovakia
Terminal charging zone(s)
Main ANSP
• LPS SR
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• SHMU
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Slovakia recorded 271K actual IFR movements in 2021, +35% compared to 2020 (201K).
▪ Actual 2021 IFR movements were +4.5% above the plan (259K).
▪ Actual 2021 IFR movements represent 48% of the actual 2019 level (562K).
▪ Slovakia recorded 612K actual en route service units in 2021, +29% compared to 2020 (475K).
▪ Actual 2021 service units were +0.5% above the plan (609K).
▪ Actual 2021 service units represent 47% of the actual 2019 level (1,292K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ LPS SR successfully improved in the area of policy and objectives, promotion and culture management objectives achieving the targets in advance of the plan.
▪ Slovakia recorded stable performance with respect to safety occurrences, with no occurrences recorded for runway incursions and increase in separation minima infringements relative to 2020. The NSA closely monitors the separation minima infringements throughout the year and has established acceptable and tolerable levels of safety.
▪ LPS SR should improve its safety management by implementing automated safety data recording systems for runway incursions.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Slovakia achieved a KEA performance of 2.29% compared to its target of 2.15% and did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target. KEA worsened by 0.07 percentage points compared to 2020.
▪ The NSA states that, despite FRA operations above FL245, there has not been a significant improvement of KEA. The NSA suggests a lack of airspace user capability or willingness to make use of FRA within the South East and Central European region.
▪ However, cross border FRA in 2021 only enabled cross border operations with one out of five of Slovakia’s neighbours and airspace restrictions/reservations may also have impeded performance.
▪ Both KEP and SCR improved in 2021 and are at their lowest values in five years.
▪ Slovakia has no airports that are regulated under the RP3 performance and charging scheme.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Slovakia registered near zero minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2021, thus meeting the local breakdown value of 0.05.
▪ En route ATFM delays in Slovakia were also zero on average during the past years.
▪ Traffic is expected to grow, with 2019 levels likely being reached in 2024 in the high growth scenario but not in the base growth scenarios. A slight increase in the number of ATCOs in OPS is planned at Bratislava ACC during RP3.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Bratislava ACC was 18,790, showing a 10.5% increase compared to 2020. Sector opening hours are 23.4% below 2019 levels.
▪ Bratislava ACC registered 14.00 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2021, being 37.1% below 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2020/2021 actual unit cost of Slovakia was 73.90€2017, -8.2% lower than the determined unit cost (80.51€2017). Slovakia does not have a terminal charging zone.
▪ The en route 2021 actual service units (612K) were in line with the determined service units (609K).
▪ In 2021, Slovakia decreased total costs by -6.9M€2017 (-16%) compared to determined costs. Slovakia decreased costs in all cost categories, except for depreciation costs. The decrease in total costs was mainly driven by a significant decrease in staff costs (-6.5M€2017, or -24%) due to the non-payment of the variable salaries, a COVID-19 measure taken in 2020 (for cashflow reasons). The NSA should provide an analysis of the impact on future performance caused by the significantly lower than determined staff costs.
▪ The discrepancies regarding total costs are significant, especially as the performance plan has been submitted at the end of 2021. The PRB invites the NSA to analyse the discrepancies and identify their reasons, including potential inaccurate planning and possi-ble misusing of the regulatory framework to finance the liquidity.
▪ LPS SR spent 7.1M€2017 in 2021 related to costs of investments, +22% more than determined (5.8M€2017), due to higher depreciation costs (+1.3M€2017, or +31%). The NSA explains that the increase is due to the fact that determined costs of investments have been lowered in the plan by the amount underspent in RP2.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2020/2021 was 80.67€.