PRB monitoring
▪ The en route 2020/2021 actual unit cost of Sweden was 136.64 €2017, -3.4% lower than the determined unit cost (141.38 €2017). The terminal 2020/2021 actual unit cost was 395.08 €2017, -4.1% lower than the determined unit cost (411.99 €2017).
▪ The en route 2021 actual service units (1,795K) were +3.6% higher than determined (1,732K).
▪ In 2021, Sweden decreased total costs by -7.6 M€2017 (-3.6%) compared to determined costs. Sweden decreased all cost categories except cost of capital (+0.9 M€2017, or +23%) due to higher inflation rates than planned increasing the value of the pension debt.
▪ The decrease in total costs was mainly driven by lower other operating costs (-4.7 M€2017, or -7.7%) due to lower maintenance costs and travels, and lower pension costs than planned (-3.4 M€2017, or -8.3%). The NSA did not provide an explanation for the lower pension costs.
▪ LFV spent 16.8 M€2017 in 2021 related to costs of investments, -2.3% less than determined (17.2 M€2017), due to a delay in the investment plan (induced by the COVID-19 pandemic).
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2020/2021 was 133.35€, while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 394.68€.
En route charging zone
| Actual and determined data |
| Total costs - nominal (M€) |
2020-2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
| Actual costs |
496 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Determined costs |
502 |
240 |
245 |
232 |
| Difference costs |
-6 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Inflation assumptions |
2020-2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
| Determined inflation rate |
NA |
4.8% |
2.2% |
1.7% |
| Determined inflation index |
NA |
112.4 |
114.9 |
116.9 |
| 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 -3.4% (or -45.65 SEK2017, -4.74 €2017) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of higher than planned TSUs (+1.8%) and lower than planned en route costs in real terms (-1.6%, or
-72.8 MSEK2017, -7.6 M€2017).
En route service units
The difference between actual and planned TSUs (+1.8%) falls within the ±2% dead band. Hence the resulting additional en route revenue is kept by the ANSPs.
En route costs by entity
Actual real en route costs are -1.6% (-7.6 M€2017) lower than planned. This is driven by the main ANSP, LFV (-1.0%, or -3.8 M€2017), other ANSPs (-5.4%, or -2.3 M€2017) and NSA/EUROCONTROL (-3.0%, or -1.6 M€2017), while the actual costs of the MET service provider are close to the determined costs (+0.6%, or +0.1 M€2017).
En route costs for the main ANSP at charging zone level
The lower than planned en route costs in real terms for LFV in 2020-2021 reflect a combination of:
- slightly lower staff costs (-0.6%); due to lower than planned pension costs. In addition, “staff costs were reduced by the revenues for staff participating in projects or other parts not financed by en route charges”;
- lower other operating costs (-3.9%); “mainly due to lower costs for maintaining the systems and pandemic effects of less travelling and consultants”;
- lower depreciation costs (-2.6%); reflecting “delayed investments as a result of the pandemic and lack of staff”; and,
- significantly higher cost of capital (+16.7%); linked with a higher interest rate on debt used to compute the cost of capital.
Actual unit cost incurred by the users (AUCU) (PI#1)
| AUCU components (€/SU) – 2020-2021 |
| Components of the AUCU in 2020-2021 |
€/SU |
| DUC |
137.43 |
| Inflation adjustment |
0.57 |
| Cost exempt from cost-sharing |
-1.45 |
| Traffic risk sharing adjustment |
0.00 |
| Traffic adj. (costs not TRS) |
-0.33 |
| Finantial incentives |
0.00 |
| Modulation of charges |
0.00 |
| Cross-financing |
0.00 |
| Other revenues |
-2.87 |
| Application of lower unit rate |
0.00 |
| Total adjustments |
-4.08 |
| AUCU |
133.35 |
| AUCU vs. DUC |
-3.0% |
| Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2020-2021 |
€'000 |
€/SU |
| New and existing investments |
-748.9 |
-0.22 |
| Competent authorities and qualified entities costs |
-128.6 |
-0.04 |
| Eurocontrol costs |
-1,359.2 |
-0.39 |
| Pension costs |
-2,791.9 |
-0.80 |
| Interest on loans |
0.0 |
0.00 |
| Changes in law |
0.0 |
0.00 |
| Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing |
-5,028.7 |
-1.45 |
The actual en route unit cost incurred by airspace users (AUCU) in respect of activities performed in the combined year 2020-2021 (1,376.92 SEK or 133.35 €) is
-2.9% lower than the nominal DUC (1,418.75 SEK or 137.43 €) which includes DUC initially charged: 588.37 SEK or 57.13 €; and to be charged: 830.38 SEK or 80.29 €. The difference between these two figures (-41.83 SEK/SU or -4.08 €/SU) is due to:
- the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+5.79 SEK/SU or +0.57 €/SU);
- the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost-sharing mechanism (-14.68 SEK/SU or -1.45 €/SU);
- the deduction of the traffic adjustment (-3.39 SEK/SU or -0.33 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing to be reimbursed in future years; and,
- the deduction of the other revenues (-29.55 SEK/SU or -2.87 €/SU).
The share of regulatory result in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is 2.3%.
LFV net gain on en route activity in the Sweden charging zone in the combined year 2020-2021
LFV generated a net gain of +76.5 MSEK, as a combination of a gain of +6.9 MSEK arising from the cost sharing mechanism and a gain of +69.6 MSEK arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism.
LFV 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 (+76.5 MSEK) and the actual RoE (+5.1 MSEK) amounts to +81.6 MSEK (2.1% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 7.6%, which is higher than the 0.5% planned in the PP.