Annual Monitoring Report 2023 - Hungary
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/775 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Budapest ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 0
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 308.993 HUF
2023: 381.193 HUF
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2023 3.0%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2023 1.6%
Share en route / terminal costs 2023 84% / 16%
En route charging zone(s)
Hungary
Terminal charging zone(s)
Hungary
Main ANSP
• HungaroControl (EC)
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• Hungarian Meteorological Service (Országos Meteorológiai Szolgálat)
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Hungary recorded 1,034K actual IFR movements in 2023, +15% compared to 2022 (897K).
▪ Actual 2023 IFR movements were +21% above the plan (855K).
▪ Actual 2023 IFR movements are +16% above the actual 2019 level (892K).
▪ Hungary recorded 3,726K actual en route service units in 2023, +17% compared to 2022 (3,184K).
▪ Actual 2023 service units were +29% above the plan (2,881K).
▪ Actual 2023 service units are +18% above the actual 2019 level (3,162K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ HungaroControl had already achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in 2020 and has continued to further improve its performance. In 2023 HungaroControl maintained D in all five management objectives, exceeding all its planned maturity levels.
▪ Hungary recorded a stable number of safety occurrences with no runway incursions and similar rate of separation minima infringements compared with 2022.
▪ HungaroControl use STCA data for monitoring of SMIs, but do not use automated safety data recording systems for monitoring runway incursions.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Hungary achieved a KEA performance of 2.11% compared to its target of 1.49% and did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target.
▪ The NSA states that the performance deteriorated due to the extra distance flown as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ Both KEP and SCR improved in comparison with 2022. The value of these two indicators was similar, meaning airspace users planned close to the shortest route available. Despite the KEA target being missed, the improvement in SCR shows that Hungary has improved the environmental efficiency of its airspace when accounting for impacts outside of its control.
▪ The share of CDO flights increased from 26.14% to 27.25% in 2023.
▪ During 2023, additional time in terminal airspace increased from 0.34 to 0.58 min/flight, while additional taxi out time decreased from 1.40 to 1.09 min/flight.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Hungary registered 0.99 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2023 which has been adjusted to 0.81 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.11. Delays in Hungary increased by 0.27 minutes per flight year-on-year.
▪ Most of the delays were accumulated between May and December, driven by adverse weather conditions and the additional complexity due to the Ukrainian crisis.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Hungary decreased by 1 percentage point compared to 2022 and was higher than 2019 values.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 16% above 2019 levels in Hungary in 2023.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is expected to increase by 12% by 2024, with the actual value being below the 2023 plan in Budapest by 3 FTEs.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Budapest ACC was 35,265, showing a 4.5% decrease compared to 2022. Sector opening hours are 3.2% above 2019 levels.
▪ Budapest ACC registered 28.3 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2023, being 13.3% above 2019 levels.
▪ Year-on-year traffic growth in Hungary was 15% with IFR movements being 23% above the STATFOR 2021 October Base forecast, with the growth affecting already saturated sectors. The ongoing war in Ukraine increased traffic complexity in the Eastern part of the Hungarian airspace. These factors, combined with a lack of ATCOs, resulted in a significant capacity gap. Unless ATCO recruitment and training issues are resolved, the capacity gap will increase even further during the coming years.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2023 actual unit cost of Hungary was 26.93 €2017, -30% lower than the determined unit cost (38.32 €2017). The terminal 2023 actual unit cost was 274.94 €2017, -24% lower than the determined unit cost (362.91 €2017).
▪ The en route 2023 actual service units (3.7M) were +29% higher than the determined service units (2.9M).
▪ In 2023, the en route actual total costs were -10 M€2017 lower (-9.1%) compared to determined. The underspend in actual costs was mainly attributable to staff costs (-7.4 M€2017, or -15%), which resulted from lower-than-expected headcount. Additionally, the underspend of other operating costs (-3.9 M€2017, or -11%) was mainly due to savings arising from various rising expenses, such as energy prices and external service charges, that increased at a rate below inflation. The cost of capital was the only cost category to register an increase (+2.6 M€2017, or +35%), mainly due to a significant growth in net current assets (+38 M€2017, or +168%). The NSA attributed the higher-than-planned net current assets to the inclusion of pension-related obligations, a situation that was also reported in 2022.
▪ Hungary presented a deviation from the criteria to achieve capacity targets, which was considered justified. As was the case in 2022, costs have stayed significantly below the determined, while the capacity targets have not been met.
▪ HungaroControl spent 29 M€2017 in 2023 related to costs of investments for both en route and terminal charging zones, -21% less than determined (36 M€2017), mainly due to some investments being scheduled later than determined.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2023 was 32.94€ (-7.8% below the 2023 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 335.29€ (+0.4% above the 2023 DUC).
▪ The en route regulatory result for HungaroControl amounted to +21 M€, or 19% of the 2023 revenue. This may indicate that the airspace users are charged for costs which have not materialised in 2023.
▪ The PRB will take into consideration the implementation of the RP3 performance plans when assessing the RP4 cost-efficiency targets and recommends that the NSA of Hungary submits a detailed report of the capacity-related measures implemented during 2024. Should the RP3 planned measures not be implemented by the end of RP3, the PRB recommends Hungary to consider the reimbursement to airspace users of excess funds received by ANSPs for measures not implemented.