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.