Capacity - Czech Republic

PRB monitoring

▪ The Czech Republic registered 0.11 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2023 which has been adjusted to 0.09 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus achieving the local target value of 0.11. Delays in the Czech Republic decreased by 1.24 minutes per flight year-on-year.

▪ Delays were highest between June and October, mostly driven by adverse weather and ATC Capacity issues.

▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in the Czech Republic decreased by 8 p.p. compared to 2022 and was higher than 2019 values.

▪ The average number of IFR movements was 27% below 2019 levels in the Czech Republic in 2023.

▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is expected to increase by 38% by 2024, with the actual value being below the 2023 plan in Prague by 10 FTEs.

▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Prague ACC was 42,409, showing a 3.4% increase compared to 2022. Sector opening hours are 9.5% below 2019 levels.

▪ Prague ACC registered 14.6 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2023, being 17.9% below 2019 levels.

▪ The Czech Republic registered an average airport arrival ATFM delay of 0.07 minutes per flight in 2023, achieving the local target of 0.40 minutes.

▪ Compared to 2022, average arrival ATFM delays in the Czech Republic were 43% lower in 2023, while the number of IFR arrivals increased by 18%.

▪ The main reason for delays was weather, accounting for 95% of delays.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Summary of capacity performance

The Czech Republic experienced a 14% increase in traffic from 616k flights in 2022 to 703k flights in 2023. Despite the significant increase in traffic, ATFM delays decreased from 730k minutes in 2022 to 56k minutes of delay in 2023. (Note: 84% of ATFM delays in 2022 were attributed, either to the war in Ukraine, or, to the implementation of the Top Sky ATM system.)

Traffic levels and ATFM delays are still significantly below 2019 levels (867k flights and 184k minutes of delay).

There were an additional 14k minutes of delay originating in the Czech Republic that were re-attributed to DFS via the NM post operations delay attribution process, according to the NMB agreement for eNM/S23 measures, to ameliorate capacity shortfalls in Karlsruhe UAC.

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

The steady growth of air traffic in the Czech airspace continued during 2023. Compared to the last year of the pre-crisis development, i.e. 2019, which also serves as a basic reference, traffic reached 74% (in IFR movements). In the long term comparison, the volume of traffic in 2023 is thus the same as in 2007. For the full year 2023, 621 496 movements were recorded in the Czech Republic’s airspace compared to 550 194 in 2022. The average daily number of movements reached 1 701. The development of the volume of traffic in Czech airspace was again different from the European average. The reason for this traffic development in the Czech Republic’s airspace is solely due to the impact of the war in Ukraine and the related shift of the main air traffic flows southwards. Sanctions on Russian and Belarusian carriers, including the closure of Ukrainian airspace, are also having the same effect. The absence of carriers from these countries represents a decrease of approximately 200 flights per day.

In 2023, 59,224 minutes of delay were recorded on ACC Prague. The average delay value per flight performed in FIR Prague was 0.10 min/year. Following the delay reattribution process, for the DFS measures applied during Summer 2023, 13.529 minutes of delay were later reattributed from ANS Czech Republic to DFS. The total number of movements (IFR at ACC by NOP) in 2023 was 619 283 (-25.66% compared to 2019 and +16.23% compared to 2022). In 2023, 12,081 minutes of delay were recorded at APP Prague. The average delay due to ATFM for the whole year 2023 was 0.09 min/year.

No capacity issue was recorded during the year 2023. The ANSP systems are well prepared for future capacity requirements.

Monitoring process for capacity performance

The monitoring process is based on quarterly monitoring repotts prepared by ANS CR. These are based on the company Annual plan and cover all KPAs.

Capacity planning

After the deployment of the new main ATM system (2022) and its stabilisation in previous periods, thanks to the continued training of new ATCOs and the gradual implementation of the ATS Optimisation project in the Czech Republic (as outlined in the Czech Performance Plan for RP3), the Czech Republic has built sufficient capacity to adhere to the required level of performance.

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

Corrective measures were introduced in 2022, in response to the capacity performance at the time. Three main actions were taken:
1. Staff usage - Full utilisation of operational staff with maximum use of overtime (up to the legal limit);
2. Optimisation project - Cross licensing and training of ATCO students on layer “L”;
3. External factors - Coordination with the Czech Air Force in order to limit the impact of their activities on civil aviation.

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

It is difficult to distinguish the individual influences on traffic planning by air carriers, but in the Czech Republic there have been major changes in the structure of traffic, particularly on the west-east axis, where flight flows have shifted to the north and south. As a result, according to the latest STATFOR forecasts, the Czech Republic will not reach pre-COVID traffic levels before the end of RP4.

En route Capacity Incentive Scheme

ANS CR: According to the incentive scheme defined in the monitoring report, the ANSP, ANS CR, is due a bonus of 3,758,571 CZK.
In accordance with Article 3(3)(a) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1627: The incentive scheme shall cover only the calendar years 2022 to 2024.

Other indicators

The number of operational ATCOs is 6,5 % below the expected level, this deviation is non-material and is caused mainly by decelerated training due to the COVID impact and a higher number of ATCOs retiring. Intensive training of additional ATCOs is currently underway.

Terminal performance

Arrival ATFM delay (KPI#2)

Czech Republic has included only Prague in their last Performance Plan for RP3 monitoring.
The Airport Operator Data Flow, necessary for the monitoring of the additional times, is correctly established at Prague and the monitoring of all environment indicators can be performed.
Traffic this airport in 2023 was still 25% lower than in 2019, but 18% higher than in 2022.

Average arrival ATFM delays in 2023 was 0.07 min/arr, compared to 0.13 min/arr in 2022. The target was met.
ATFM slot adherence has improved (2023: 97%; 2022: 96.1%).

Delays at Prague (LKPR: 2019: 0.18 min/arr.; 2020: 0.09 min/arr.; 2021: 0.01 min/arr.; 2022: 0.13 min/arr.; 2023: 0.07 min/arr.) decreased in 2023. 95% of the delays were attributed to weather, and 5% attributed to ATC Capacity.

According to the Czech monitoring report: In line with long-term trend in the terminal capacity and with contribution of the low traffic the target was met.
There were no significant ATFM delay at Prague/Ruzyne airport.
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has major impact on LKPR OPS. Because of ban on flights to/from Russia and Belarus and no flight zone in Ukraine LKPR suffers from significant traffic reduction.

The Czech performance plan sets a national target on arrival ATFM delay for all RP3 of 0.4 min/arr. This target was met in 2023 with an actual performance of 0.07 min/arr.
According to the Czech monitoring report, this performance corresponds to the maximum bonus (0.50%), computed by the NSA as CZK2717741,44 .

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
Brno Turany NA NA NA NA 100.0% 98.2% 99.2% 99.6% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Karlovy Vary NA NA NA NA 100.0% 100.0% 97.3% 98.3% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Ostrava NA NA NA NA 100.0% 98.0% 99.4% 98.9% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Prague/Ruzyne 0.09 0.01 0.13 0.07 94.7% 95.3% 96.1% 97.0% 0.22 NA 0.04 NA 8.3 8.3 17.9 16.1

ATFM slot adherence

The slot adherence in 2023 was 97%, a slight improvement with respect to 2022 (96.1%). With regard to the 3% of flights that did not adhere, 1.1% was early and 1.9% was late.
According to the Czech monitoring report: The ATFM slot adherence was within the required range and was even better than in the previous year. In order to keep these levels, ANS CR monitors the value on a monthly basis and continuously educates ATCOs.
The ATFM slot adherence is part of the regular reporting on the implementation of the ANSP, which is sent quarterly to NSA.

ATC pre-departure delay

The quality of the airport data reported by Prague (the only Czech airport subject to monitoring of this indicator) is too low, preventing the calculation of this indicator.

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 Prague.
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 Prague was above 40% for 10 months in 2022, preventing the calculation of this indicator.

All causes pre-departure delay

Prague is the only Czech airport subject to the monitoring of this indicator.
The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Prague in 2023 improved with respect to 2022 (LKPR: 2020: 8.30 min/dep.; 2021: 8.32 min/dep.; 2022: 17.92 min/dep.; 2023: 16.12 min/dep.).

According to the Czech monitoring report:
The main causes of the delay are: En-route delay - 19,55%; Airline delay - 15, 42%; Airport delay - 5,75%; Weather - 5,4%; Security & Immigration - 1,39% and Other - 52,41%. The variety of the measures has been made by the airport operator during the 2023 for increasing the capacity in the operational and safety areas. There is list of the main operational measures:
- Regular operational coordination meetings,
- Automation of TOBT time entry for General and Business Aviation flights ,
- Storm scenario - synchronized MET information sharing and automated sending of storm activity alerts via email to all stakeholders,
- in PAXMAN - prediction of passenger arrival curves for terminal hubs and sharing with LP and ICP operations
- Throughput simulation on T1 pass filters,
- Verification of airport fixed resource capacity through a model scenario,
- Adjustment of check-in counter charging as an incentive to use resources more efficiently,
- Plan to reinforce GAV control room staffing during special events (e.g. EU Summit),
- Increase of 9 FTEs of boarding bridge driver-operators compared to S22,
- Reinforcement of the PCL team by using 10 drivers to maintain the airfields in winter,
- Ongoing recruitment of FTE/DPP drivers with the aim of scheduling these primarily to cover operational peaks,
- Shifting some aircraft/carriers previously using remote stands to contact stands during peak periods (FR 10%, W6 30%),
- Inspection of specific parts and systems of Cobus buses beyond regular maintenance.
The following measures were taken in the area of Safety:
- Accurate and effective strategic, pre-tactical planning of operational needs and operational management of BEK staff. Automated planning of BEK staffing needs according to accurate operational forecasts. Pre-tactical verification of the provision of operational needs.
- Rapid extension of the Digital Employee project for fast and secure communication with BEK staff (HPP and FTE). Creation of a free shift exchange.
- Verification of BEK’s technology resource capacity, contingency plan for technology use in case of failure/shortage to minimize impact on capacity and passenger satisfaction.
- Managed cutting of operational peaks, increasing the probability of breaching waiting time as per SLA.
- Verification of BEK staffing capacity against model flight schedule.
- Plan to staff VIP lounges and T3 in case of increased traffic/excursions.
- Increasing BEK’s HPP staffing levels to 100%, part-time and FTE staff. Active recruitment and training of staff is ongoing.
- Expansion of use of FTE staff, up-skilling.
- Revision of BEK’s operational procedures.
- Individual approach to new staff - reducing turnover and increasing satisfaction.
- Revision of control system, support for system solutions, fair treatment of workers.
- Planned upgrade of dispatch phones.
- Ensuring all necessary.
- Providing all necessary training during the winter season, cancelling planned training and skills development activities during the summer season.
- Individual interviews with all BEK staff - motivation to cope with the summer season.
- Design of performance and stabilization bonuses for BEK staff.
- Coordination meeting with OLE - taking over BEK workplaces.
And many other operational measures such as:
- Change in allocation of standing flights (remote vs. boarding bridges) in favor of boarding bridges.
- adjusting the composition of operations teams and their shifts evaluating the model week forecast demand for airport resources
- inclusion of the PRM team in the model week evaluation