Cost-efficiency - Slovenia

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PRB monitoring

▪ The en route 2022 actual unit cost of Slovenia was 52.63 €2017, 15% lower than the determined unit cost (62.11 €2017). Slovenia does not have a terminal charging zone.

▪The en route 2022 actual service units (595K) were 11% higher than the determined service units (536K).

▪ The en route 2022 actual total costs were 1.9 M€2017 (-5.9%) lower than determined. However, actual costs in nominal terms were slightly higher than determined, while actual costs in real terms were lower than determined as a result of a significant higher-than-expected inflation.

▪ Slovenia Control spent 4.5 M€2017 in 2022 related to costs of investments, 1.9% less than determined (4.6 M€2017), due to a lower net book value of fixed assets than planned.

▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2022 was 64.31€.

En route charging zone

Unit cost (KPI#1)

Actual and determined data
Total costs - nominal (M€) 2020-2021 2022 2023 2024
Actual costs 61 35 NA NA
Determined costs 63 35 36 37
Difference costs −2 0 NA NA
Inflation assumptions 2020-2021 2022 2023 2024
Determined inflation rate NA 1.5% 1.6% 1.8%
Determined inflation index NA 106 107.8 109.7
Actual inflation rate NA 9.3% NA NA
Actual inflation index NA 115.5 NA NA
Difference inflation index (p.p.) NA +9.5 NA NA

AUC vs. DUC

In 2022, the en route AUC was -15.3% (or -9.47 €2017) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of significantly higher than planned TSUs (+11.1%) and significantly lower than planned en route costs in real terms (-5.9%, or -1.9 M€2017). It should be noted that the actual inflation index in 2022 was +9.5 p.p. higher than planned (115.5 vs. 106.0).

En route service units

The difference between actual and planned TSUs (+11.1%) falls outside the ±10% threshold foreseen in the traffic risk sharing mechanism. The resulting gain of additional en route revenues is therefore shared between the ANSP and the airspace users, with the ANSP (Slovenia Control) retaining an amount of +1.2 M€2017.

En route costs by entity

Actual real en route costs are -5.9% (-1.9 M€2017) lower than planned. This is the result of lower than planned costs for the main ANSP, Slovenia Control (-5.8%, or -1.7 M€2017) and the NSA/EUROCONTROL (-12.0%, or -0.3 M€2017) and higher than planned costs for the MET service provider (+4.8%, or +0.1 M€2017).

En route costs for the main ANSP at charging zone level

Significantly lower than planned en route costs in real terms for Slovenia Control in 2022 (-5.8%, or -1.7 M€2017) resulting from:
- Significantly lower than planned staff costs (-5.5%) in real terms, due to inflation index impact (+9.5 p.p.) since in nominal terms staff costs are higher than planned (+3.0%) due to “negotiations with the social partners reached for Q4 of 2021, when some obligations were pushed from 2021 to 2022” ,
- Significantly lower than planned other operating costs (-11.8%) in real terms, reported to be due to “optimised contracts”,
- Higher than planned depreciation (+2.4%),
- Significantly lower than planned cost of capital (-11.8%), reported to be due to ”lower asset value”.

Actual unit cost incurred by the users (AUCU) (PI#1)

AUCU components (€/SU) – 2022
Components of the AUCU in 2022 €/SU
DUC 65.05
Inflation adjustment 4.19
Cost exempt from cost-sharing −0.66
Traffic risk sharing adjustment −3.46
Traffic adj. (costs not TRS) −0.76
Finantial incentives 0.00
Modulation of charges 0.00
Cross-financing 0.00
Other revenues −1.73
Application of lower unit rate 0.00
Total adjustments −2.43
AUCU 62.62
AUCU vs. DUC −3.7%
Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2022 €'000 €/SU
New and existing investments −103.4 −0.17
Competent authorities and qualified entities costs −282.0 −0.47
Eurocontrol costs −8.8 −0.01
Pension costs 0.0 0.00
Interest on loans 0.0 0.00
Changes in law 0.0 0.00
Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing −394.2 −0.66

The actual en route unit cost incurred by airspace users (AUCU) in respect of activities performed in 2022 (64.31 €) is -1.1% lower than the nominal DUC (65.05 €). The difference between these two figures (-0.74 €/SU) is due to:
- the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+4.19 €/SU);
- the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost-sharing mechanism (-0.70 €/SU);
- the deduction of the traffic risk sharing adjustments (-3.46 €/SU); and
- the deduction of the traffic adjustment (-0.76 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing.
The share of the regulatory result in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is 10.2%.

Regulatory result (RR)

Slovenia Control net gain on activity in the Slovenia en route charging zone in the year 2022

Slovenia Control reported a net gain of +3.2 M€, as a combination of a gain of +1.9 M€ arising from the cost sharing mechanism, with a gain of +1.4 M€ arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism.

Slovenia Control 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 (+3.2M€) and the actual RoE (+0.8 M€) amounts to +4.0 M€ (11.6% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 53.4%, which is higher than the 10.4% planned in the PP.

Note 1: The ex-ante and ex-post RoE are calculated based on the notional capital structure (representing the proportion of financing through equity for determined and actual 2020-2021 and 2022 at the level of 40%). The actual proportion should be reported.