Annual Monitoring Report 2022 - Hungary
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/775 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Budapest ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 0
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 308.993 HUF
2022: 390.405 HUF
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2022 2.9%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2022 1.6%
Share en route / terminal costs 2022 83% / 17%
En route charging zone(s)
Hungary
Terminal charging zone(s)
Hungary
Main ANSP
• HungaroControl (EC)
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• Hungarian Meteorological Service (Országos Meteorológiai Szolgálat)
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Hungary recorded 897K actual IFR movements in 2022, +83% compared to 2021 (491K).
▪ Actual 2022 IFR movements were +26% above the plan (713K).
▪ Actual 2022 IFR movements are +0.5% above the actual 2019 level (892K).
▪ Hungary recorded 3,184K actual en route service units in 2022, +84% compared to 2021 (1,727K).
▪ Actual 2022 service units were +32% above the plan (2,419K).
▪ Actual 2022 service units are +0.7% above the actual 2019 level (3,162K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ HungaroControl had already achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in 2020 and has continued to further improve its performance. In 2022 HungaroControl achieved level D in all five management objectives, exceeding all its planned maturity levels.
▪ Hungary recorded a stable number of safety occurrences with an increase in the rate of runway incursions in 2022, but a lower rate of separation minima infringements relative to 2021. Both rates are below the Union-wide average.
▪ HungaroControl could improve its safety management by implementing automated safety data recording systems for runway incursions.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Hungary achieved a KEA performance of 2.17% compared to its target of 1.49% and did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target. KEA increased in comparison to 2021.
▪ The NSA states that the performance deteriorated due to the extra distance flown as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ Both KEP and SCR deteriorated in comparison with 2021. The value of these two indicators was similar, meaning airspace users planned close to the shortest route available.
▪ The share of CDO flights decreased by 24.12% compared to 2021.
▪ During 2022, additional time in terminal airspace decreased from 0.67 to 0.34 min/flight, while additional taxi out time increased from 1.06 to 1.40 min/flight.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Hungary registered 0.89 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2022 which has been adjusted to 0.54 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.11.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 1% above 2019 levels in Hungary in 2022.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is expected to increase by 12% by the end of RP3, with the actual value being below the 2022 plan in Budapest ACC.
▪ The impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine had a detrimental effect on capacity performance in Hungary in 2022.
▪ Delays were highest between May and September, mostly due to ATC Capacity issues.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Hungary increased by 19.4 p.p. compared to 2021 and was higher than 2019 values.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Budapest ACC was 36,864 in 2022, showing a 32.1% increase compared to 2021. Sector opening hours are 8.4% above 2019 levels.
▪ Budapest ACC registered 23.49 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2022, being 6.0% below 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2022 actual unit cost of Hungary was 30.25 €2017, 34% lower than the determined unit cost (45.72 €2017). The terminal 2022 actual unit cost was 306.58 €2017, 19% lower than the determined unit cost (378.72 €2017).
▪ The en route 2022 actual service units (3,184K) were 32% higher than the determined service units (2,419K).
▪ In 2022, the en route actual total costs were 14 M€2017 lower (-13%) compared to determined. Hungary had significant decreases in all cost categories except for cost of capital (+2.5 M€2017, or +36%). The NSA explained that the net current assets increased due to the inclusion of pension related obligations towards ATCOs.
▪ The key driver of the decrease was the reduction in staff cost (-7.1 M€2017, or -14%), mainly due to lower headcounts than planned and postponed salary increases, and other operating costs (-8.2 M€2017, or -22%), mainly due to lower procurements costs due to COVID-19.
▪ Hungary presented a deviation from the criteria to achieve capacity targets, which was considered justified. Considering that costs are significantly lower and that the 2022 en route capacity targets have not been achieved, the situation raises serious concern. The PRB invites the NSA to analyse the discrepancies and identify their reasons and the Member State to rectify the situation to ensure that the additional means granted through the capacity deviation are used to address the capacity issues.
▪ HungaroControl spent 29 M€2017 in 2022 related to costs of investments, 7.5% less than determined (31 M€2017), mainly due to some investments being scheduled later than planned.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2022 was 33.58€, while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 331.37€.