Capacity - Romania

PRB monitoring

▪ Romania registered zero minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2022, thus achieving the local target value of 0.04.

▪ The average number of IFR movements was 12% below 2019 levels in Romania in 2022.

▪ A 12% increase in the number of ATCOs in OPS is expected by the end of RP3 with the actual value being in line with the 2022 plan in Bucharest ACC.

▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Bucharest ACC was 42,459 in 2022, showing a 24.5% increase compared to 2021. Sector opening hours are 0.9% below 2019 levels.

▪ Bucharest ACC registered 18.35 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2022, being 10.1% below 2019 levels.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Summary of capacity performance

Romania experienced an increase in traffic from 454k flights in 2021, to 656k flights in 2022, again with zero ATFM delay. Annual traffic levels were still below the 747k flights in 2019.

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

The year 2022 has been deeply impacted, both economically and operationally, by the war in Ukraine. The Russian invasion and the subsequent restrictions and sanctions imposed have determined traffic flows that were already circumnavigating the conflict area following the events in 2014 to be pushed further to Romania’s south-western part.

Furthermore, new traffic flows prefer to cross atypically the Romanian airspace in this geopolitical context. Average distance/flight has increased compared to 2019 and this is visible also in the service units evolution that has outpaced the IFR movements trend in comparison with 2019. These, combined with the increased military activity, including ad-hoc activity focused not only in the NE part of Romania, but in the entirety of the airspace, have generated an increase in complexity.

Romania/ANSP ROMATSA has achieved the Capacity targets in 2022. Although traffic has rebounded swiftly in Romanian airspace, coming close to pre-pandemic levels (88% of 2019 IFR movements with average around 95% for August-December 2022) and complexity has increased due to re-routings and higher military activity due to the war in Ukraine, ROMATSA has achieved 0 delay due to ATC.

Monitoring process for capacity performance

ROMATSA provided regularly inputs on capacity availability in the context of NOP Rolling Seasonal Plan implemented by the Network manager at European network level.

The expected en-route performance was and is regularly evaluated by the NM for each ACC, including Bucuresti ACC, in terms of planned/maximum sector openings in relation with the estimated traffic demand.

Capacity planning

The capacity as previously planned and published within an annual NOP (Network Operations Plan) has been adapted accordingly by adoption of capacity plans under a NOP Rolling Seasonal Plan format, including periods of 6 weeks, based on the expected traffic demand regularly provided by the Network Manager. These plans refer to:
- sector openings;
- maximum possible sector openings;
- availability of support of operational staff;
- special events and projects, etc.
Bucuresti ACC ensured a stable sector opening plan with no sector capacity reduction, with the possibility to increase the number of sectors when traffic increased.

Traffic values have increased in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and due to the re-routings caused by the war in Ukraine and the restrictions imposed. Traffic flows that were already circumnavigating the conflict area following the events in 2014 have been pushed further to Romania’s south-western part.

Furthermore, new traffic flows prefer to cross atypically the Romanian airspace in this geopolitical context. Average distance/flight has increased compared to 2019 and this is visible also in the service units evolution. From April 2023, the number of daily IFR movements in Romanian airspace has surpassed 2019 levels. These, combined with the increased military activity have generated an increase in complexity.

Another risk is generated by ROMATSA’s ageing ATCO personnel, especially in ACC Bucharest, where more than 1/3 of ATCOs are over 50 years old and will be over age 55 at the end of RP3. It takes between 3 to 5 years to fully train and authorize an ATCO for ACC, therefore a recruitment process was started in 2017 to guarantee proper staffing levels to ensure safety and capacity.

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

Additional Information Related to Russia’s War of Aggression Against Ukraine

Traffic flows that were already circumnavigating the conflict area following the events in 2014 have been pushed further to Romania’s south-western part (Examples of traffic flows: Russian Federation – Turkey, Turkey - Sweden, Poland - Israel, Lithuania - Turkey, Romania - Poland, Turkey - Finland, Russian Federation - Egypt, Poland - Qatar, United Kingdom - Romania; Turkey - Norway).

Furthermore, new traffic flows prefer to cross atypically the Romanian airspace in this geopolitical context (Examples of the most affected flows : Russia-Turkey, United Kingdom – India, Republic of Korea – Germany, Australia - United Kingdom, Kazakhstan – Hungary, Qatar – Sweden, Pakistan - United Kingdom). These, combined with the increased military activity, scheduled or ad-hoc, focused not only in the NE part of Romania, but in the entirety of the airspace, have generated an increase in complexity.

In 2022, as traffic values were still below the pre-pandemic level, ROMATSA managed to maintain a high-level of performance for en route capacity. However, the 2023 summer season, with traffic values forecasted well above the 2019 level and the reduction of available airspace due to military activity can prove more challenging for accommodating civilian air traffic at the required performance.

Through application of FUA principles, civil-military coordination helped mitigate any possible impacts on en-route capacity performance.

Other indicators

ROMATSA has continued its recruitment process as planned to replace ageing ATCOs from ACC Bucharest. 24 ATCOs entered the OPS room, initially recruited in 2019 and who completed their training and authorization process during 2022. Another ATCO who had previously taken a management position, returned to the OPS room at a normal shift program. In the same time there were 6 ATCOs leaving the OPS room, of which 3 retired and 3 lost their licence due to medical conditions.

Terminal performance

Arrival ATFM delay (KPI#2)

Romania includes 2 airports under RP3 monitoring. However, in accordance with IR (EU) 2019/317 and the traffic figures, only Bucharest/Otopeni (LROP) must be monitored for the pre-departure delay indicators. The Airport Operator Data Flow, necessary for the monitoring of these delays, is correctly implemented where required and the monitoring of all capacity indicators can be performed. Nevertheless, the quality of the reporting from Bucharest 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 2 airports in 2022 was still 16% lower than in 2019, regardless of a 39% increase with respect to 2021.

Average arrival ATFM delay in 2022 was 0.01 min/arr, compared to 0 min/arr in 2021.
ATFM slot adherence has improved (2022: 99.4%; 2021: 98.2%).

ROMATSA did not observe any airport ATFM delays at any of the Romanian airports under monitoring in 2020 and 2021.
In 2022, 294 min of delay in total were observed at Bucharest Otopeni (LROP: 2019: 0.01 min/arr; 2020: 0 min/arr.;2021: 0 min/arr; 2022: 0.01 min/arr.) related to Aerodrome Capacity.
According to the Romanian monitoring report: ROMATSA and Bucharest Airports National Company continue to work together to ensure optimum capacity level at terminal level as this impacts the entire network. On one hand ROMATSA has implemented at Otopeni TWR a different ATM system with A-SMGCS Level 1 component, composed of a surveillance subsystem (operational for over three years) and an electronic flight strips subsystem (transferred into operations on April 8th 2019 ), interfaced via OLDI with the System covering the rest of the ATS units.
There is in place also a common procedure between Bucharest Airports National Company and TWR Otopeni for repairing works periods on the manoeuvring area, i.e. pre-established alternative standard taxi routes.
According to EU Reg 255/2010, a common procedure regarding ATFM for the regulation of traffic in situations that may influence the airport’s capacity is in place.
Implementation of AMAN at Bucharest TMA is foreseen also during RP3 and also the upgrade of A-SMGCS Level 1 to include Advance Tower Messaging is ongoing.
Regarding the impact of the war in Ukraine, the monitoring report mentions: In the first weeks of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, there were a large number of repatriation flights to/from Romanian Airports.3. Arrival ATFM Delay – National TargetThe national target on arrival ATFM delay in 2022 was met.

The national average, driven by Bucharest/Otopeni, was 99.4%, an improvement with respect to 2021’s performance (98.2%). With regard to the 0.6% of flights that did not adhere, 0.4% was early and 0.1% was late.
The Romanian NSA reports: Performance improved compared to 2021. According to EU Reg 255/2010 a common procedure regarding ATFM for the regulation of traffic in situations that may influence the airport’s capacity is in place between Bucharest Airports National Company and ROMATSA.

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
Bucharest AUREL VLAICU NA NA NA NA 100.0% 100.0% 99.2% NA% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Bucharest HENRI COANDA 0.00 NA 0.01 NA 96.6% 98.1% 99.4% NA% 0.10 0.21 0.16 NA 10.2 12.4 22.7 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 Bucharest/Otopeni (the only Romanian 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.

Bucharest/Otopeni (LROP) had proper reporting before March 2020, but the share of unidentified delay rose well above 40% since the pandemic (preventing the calculation of this indicator) due to the special traffic composition. In 2022 the share of unidentified delay was above the 40% threshold for 5 months in the year.

ATC pre-departure delay

The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Bucharest/Otopeni increased in 2022 (LROP: 2020: 10.22 min/dep.; 2021: 12.45 min/dep.; 2022: 22.67 min/dep.), with the highest delays observed in Summer.
According to the Romanian monitoring report: In 2022 departure delays at LROP were due to aerodrome capacity. ROMATSA and Bucharest Airports National Company continue to work together to ensure optimum capacity level at terminal level as this impacts the entire network. On one hand ROMATSA has implemented at Otopeni TWR a different ATM system with ASMGCS component, composed of a surveillance subsystem (operational for over three years) and an electronic flight strips subsystem (transferred into operations on April 8th 2019 ), interfaced via OLDI with the System covering the rest of the ATS units. An upgrade to the system will be finalised in 2023 to include Advance Tower Messaging.
There is in place also a common procedure between Bucharest Airports National Company and TWR Otopeni for repairing works periods on the manoeuvring area, i.e. pre-established alternative standard taxi routes.
According to EU Reg 255/2010, a common procedure regarding ATFM for the regulation of traffic in situations that may influence the airport’s capacity is in place.
Implementation of AMAN at Bucuresti TMA is foreseen also during RP3.

All causes pre-departure delay

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