Annual Monitoring Report 2023 - Austria
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/774 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Vienna ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 5
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1 EUR
2023: 1 EUR
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2023 3.1%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2023 3.0%
Share en route / terminal costs 2023 81% / 19%
En route charging zone(s)
Austria
Terminal charging zone(s)
Austria
Main ANSP
• Austro Control
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Austria recorded 1,439K actual IFR movements in 2023, +14% compared to 2022 (1,267K).
▪ Actual 2023 IFR movements were +10% above the plan (1,306K).
▪ Actual 2023 IFR movements are +5% above the actual 2019 level (1,365K).
▪ Austria recorded 3,847K actual en route service units in 2023, +19% compared to 2022 (3,248K).
▪ Actual 2023 service units were +18% above the plan (3,269K).
▪ Actual 2023 service units are +15% above the actual 2019 level (3,338K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ Austria (Austro Control) has significantly improved in safety policy and objectives and safety promotion in 2023, achieving the RP3 targets. Austro Control still requires improvements in five areas out of 28 by the end of RP3. This is in line with the performance plan.
▪ Austro Control developed an improvement plan including specific measures required to reach the expected maturity levels. These measures have been incorporated into the strategic planning of the organisation.
▪ The NSA cautions that the ANSP might not be able to achieve the RP3 targets, but the ANSP is considered on track in particular due to the strategic focus on safety. No further measures required.
▪ The overall safety performance of the organisation was stable, with no occurrences of runway incursions (RIs) and lower rate of separation minima infringements compared with 2022.
▪ Austro Control does not use automated safety data recording systems.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Austria achieved a KEA performance of 2.11% compared to its target of 1.96% and did not contribute positively to the Union-wide target.
▪ The NSA states that the target was missed mainly due to increased traffic demand exceeding the forecasts, shifted traffic flows caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, weather phenomena during summer and non-optimised trajectories.
▪ Both KEP and SCR deteriorated in comparison to 2022.
▪ Only one out of six Austrian airports that are regulated reported terminal environment data.
▪ The share of CDO flights marginally decreased from 27.94% to 27.27% in 2023.
▪ During 2023, additional time in terminal airspace increased from 0.82 to 1.08 min/flight, while additional taxi out time increased from 2.09 to 2.84 min/flight.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Austria registered 0.14 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2023 which has been adjusted to 0.12 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus achieving the local target value of 0.17. Delays in Austria increased by 0.05 minutes per flight year-on-year.
▪ Delays were highest between June and October, mostly driven by ATC capacity reasons and adverse weather.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Austria decreased by 8 percentage points compared to 2022 and was lower than 2019 values.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 8% above 2019 levels in Austria in 2023.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 13% below 2019 levels in Belgium-Luxembourg in 2023.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is expected to increase by 7% by 2024, with the actual value being over the 2023 plan in Vienna by 8 FTEs.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Vienna ACC was 60,556, showing a 5.8% increase compared to 2022. Sector opening hours are 9.7% above 2019 levels.
▪ Vienna ACC registered 17.33 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2023, being 3.2% above 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2023 actual unit cost of Austria was 47.44€2017, -13% lower than the determined unit cost (54.65€2017). The terminal 2023 actual unit cost of Austria was 224.54€2017, +15% higher than the determined unit cost (195.09€2017).
▪ The en route 2023 actual service units (3.8M) were +18% higher than the determined service units (3.3M).
▪ The en route 2023 actual total costs were +3.9M€2017 (+2.2%) higher than determined. The actual staff costs contributed to this difference, rising by +7.9M€2017 (+6.7%) compared to the determined costs. Within staff costs, Austria registered a significant gap in pension costs (+11.9M€2017, or +67%), which are claimed as cost exempt from cost-sharing to be recovered from airspace users. On the other hand, difference were observed in all the other cost categories when comparing the determined and actual costs. The main gaps were attributable to depreciation costs (-3.1M€2017, or -14%) and cost of capital (-1.4M€2017, or -27%). These are included in the cost exempt from cost-sharing to be reimbursed to airspace users.
▪ Austro Control spent 27M€2017 in 2023 related to costs of investments for both en route and terminal charging zones, -17% less than determined (33M€2017) According to the NSA, this reduction is due to delayed investments as a result of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2023 was 61.33€ (+2.2% above the 2023 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 268.75€ (+25% above the 2023 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for the terminal charging zone is mainly driven by the inflation adjustment and cost risk sharing adjustment (+4.3M€ and +3.7M€, respectively).