Capacity - Ireland

PRB monitoring

▪ Ireland registered zero minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2022, thus achieving the local target value of 0.03.

▪ The average number of IFR movements was 10% below 2019 levels in Ireland in 2022.

▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is not expected to change in Dublin and Shannon ACCs by the end of RP3. In Dublin ACC, however, the actual number remained below the 2022 plan, due to higher-than-expected attrition.

▪ There were nearly no ATFM delays in Ireland in 2022.

▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Ireland increased by 11.25 p.p. compared to 2021 and was lower than 2019 values.

▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Dublin ACC was 18,615 in 2022, showing no significant change compared to 2021. Sector opening hours are equal to 2019 levels. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Shannon ACC was 45,963 in 2022, showing no significant change compared to 2021. Sector opening hours are 0.6% above 2019 levels.

▪ Dublin ACC registered 11.86 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2022, being 13.6% below 2019 levels. Shannon ACC registered 12.27 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2022, being 8.2% below 2019 levels.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Summary of capacity performance

Ireland experienced an increase in traffic from 300k flights in 2021, to 582k flights in 2022, again with practically zero ATFM delay. Traffic levels were still lower than the 647k flights in 2019.

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

In 2022, there was a sharp recovery in traffic relative to the previous two years, slightly exceeding the Performance Plan Forecasts. Notwithstanding this increase in traffic, capacity performance remained strong relative to the annual targets’

For En-Route Operations, Ireland had 27 minutes delay due ATC Capacity and 576 minutes due ATC staffing.

Monitoring process for capacity performance

The ANSP monitors on a daily basis any ATFM delay ensuring causes are identified, the results of which are reported weekly to Senior Management. The ANSP and NSA meet regularly to discuss the peformance indicators.

Capacity planning

The ANSP provides input to the Network Operations Report. The ANSP sends the capacity plan to NM for the outlook period on a weekly basis. The Network Manager in conjunction with the ANSP provides a traffic expectation at network and ACC level for the outlook period. The Network manager assesses the capacity plans which are then published on the Weekly NOP.

Capacity Planning starts in Q2 for the following period (2024/2028).
The opening schemes are examined in July, and capacity baselines checked and confirmed.
In Q4, Capacity requirements discussed with Eurocontrol resulting in the Capacity Plans published for 2024-2028.

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

No data available

Other indicators

It should be noted that the NSA’s En Route ATCO forecast used for the Performance Plan did not forecast ATCO requirements by ACC, ie we forecast an overall En Route ATCO requirement.

The ACC split provided was thus informed by a historic breakdown, which will be reviewed in 2024 as part of the RP4 process. We noted that the actual staffing by ACC remains at the discretion of the ANSP. ATCOs in 2022 were overall slightly below planned levels due to higher than expected attrition.

Terminal performance

Arrival ATFM delay (KPI#2)

Ireland includes 3 airports under RP3 monitoring. However, in accordance with IR (EU) 2019/317 and the traffic figures, only Dublin must be monitored for pre-departure delays.
The Airport Operator Data Flow is fully established at Dublin 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 Irish airports in 2022 was still 12% lower with respect to 2019, however traffic levels were 1.3 times the levels of 2021.

Average arrival ATFM delays in 2022 was 0.15 min/arr, compared to 0.01 min/arr in 2021.
ATFM slot adherence has deteriorated (2022: 96.2%; 2021: 97.6%).

The national average arrival ATFM delay at Irish airports in 2021 was 0.15 min/arr.
No delays were observed in 2022 at Shannon (EINN) and Cork (EICK)
Dublin (EIDW: 2019: 0.17 min/arr.; 2020: 0.14 min/arr.; 2021: 0.01 min/arr.; 2022: 0.17 min/arr.) registered the highest delays in November and December, which were attributed to weather (91% of the total annual delays)
According to the Irish monitoring report: For Terminal Operations, there were 132,489 departures with ATFM delay of 18,441 mins. Average ATFM arrival delay of 0.14.
This can be categorised as ATC Capacity (81 mins), Aerodrome Capacity (195 mins), ATC Staffing, (1349) and the largest delay due to weather (16,816 minutes).3. Arrival ATFM Delay – National TargetThe national target on arrival ATFM delay in 2022 was met.

All three airports showed adherence above 96% and the national average was 96.2%. With regard to the 3.8% of flights that did not adhere, 2.3% was early and 1.5% was late.
According to the Irish monitoring report: ATFM SLOT adherence is continuously monitored and the ANSP reports to unit management on a weekly basis. ATFM Compliance is discussed regularly with the NSA, all units above 90%.

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
Cork NA 0.01 NA NA 97.9% 96.9% 96.5% NA% NA NA NA NA 15.6 19.5 15.6 NA
Dublin 0.14 0.01 0.17 NA 96.6% 97.7% 96.2% NA% 0.26 NA 0.47 NA 7.1 6.9 23.1 NA
Shannon NA 0.02 NA NA 98.3% 95.7% 96.0% NA% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

ATFM slot adherence

The calculation of the ATC pre-departure delay is based on the data provided by the airport operators through the Airport Operator Data Flow (APDF) which is properly implemented at Dublin (the only Irish airport subject to monitoring of this indicator).
However, there are several quality checks before EUROCONTROL can produce the final value which is established as the average minutes of pre-departure delay (delay in the actual off block time) associated to the IATA delay code 89 (through the APDF, for each delayed flight, the reasons for that delay have to be transmitted and coded according to IATA delay codes.
However, sometimes the airport operator has no information concerning the reasons for the delay in the off block, or they cannot convert the reasons to the IATA delay codes. In those cases, the airport operator might:
- Not report any information about the reasons for the delay for that flight (unreported delay)
- Report a special code to indicate they do not have the information (code ZZZ)
- Report a special code to indicate they do not have the means to collect and/or translate the information (code 999)
To be able to calculate with a minimum of accuracy the PI for a given month, the minutes of delay that are not attributed to any IATA code reason should not exceed 40% of the total minutes of pre-departure delay observed at the airport.
Finally, to be able to produce the annual figure, at least 10 months of valid data is requested by EUROCONTROL.

The share of unidentified delay reported by Dublin was above 40% for most months since April 2020, preventing the calculation of this indicator since then. Dublin had proper reporting before April 2020 and in 2022 the reporting has slightly improved, but still reaching above 40% of unidentified delay most months.

ATC pre-departure delay

The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Dublin slightly increased drastically in 2022 (EIDW: 2020: 7.08 min/dep.; 2021: 6.88 min/dep.; 2022: 23.07 min/dep.) . The highest delays per flight were observed in June, July and December, when they averaged more than 30 min/dep.
According to the Irish monitoring report: There appears to be inconsistencies in the measurement of this metric.

All causes pre-departure delay

No data available: airport operator data flow not established, or more than two months of missing / non-validated data