Environment - Italy

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PRB monitoring

▪ Italy achieved a KEA performance of 3.09% compared to its target of 2.67% and did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target.

▪ The NSA has not provided an explanation as to why KEA has deteriorated year on year.

▪ Both KEP and SCR deteriorated in comparison with 2022.

▪ The share of CDO flights decreased from 35.05% to 31.45% in 2023.

▪ During 2023, additional time in terminal airspace increased from 1.32 to 1.44 min/flight, while additional taxi out time increased from 3.41 to 3.89 min/flight.

En route performance

Horizontal flight efficiency of the actual trajectory (KEA) (KPI#1), of the last filed flight plan (KEP) (PI#1) & shortest constrained route (SCR) (PI#2)

Terminal performance

Additional taxi-out time (AXOT) (PI#3) & Arrival Sequencing and Metering Area (ASMA) time (PI#4)

AXOT

Additional taxi-out times at Rome Fiumiccino (LIRF; 2019: 7.87 min/dep.; 2020: 3.1 min/dep.; 2021: 3 min/dep.; 2022: 5 min/dep.; 2023: 5,93 min/dep.) increased once again in 2023 resulting in the highest additional taxi-out times in the SES monitored airports.
The rest of Italian airports observed a small increase of their additional taxi-out times in 2023, except for Venice (LIPZ) where there was a small reduction.
According to the Italian monitoring report: *As in previous years of the RP3 and also for the entire RP2, similar as for the PI of the Terminal/ASMA, ENAV and the other ANSPs in ECAC do not have full access to the complete set of data used by PRU to process the output, and therefore they are not able to replicate the data processing and consequently to verify the correct assessment of the information.
As already reported in past years, the ad-hoc WG PRU/EUROCONTROL/ANSPs created for the scope of reviewing the TAXI-OUT Methodology completed the assigned task and released the new Methodology at the end of the 2022.
Then, since March 2023 both the outputs (new output and previous one) are available within the ANS Performance website, accessible at monthly level for the scope of monitoring and comparing any gaps or any inconsistencies between the National yearly counted outputs vs the assigned Performance Targets.
Therefore, the results counted in 2023 encourage the Italian NSA to continue to incentivize ENAV SpA with the flight efficiency policy implemented with the aim of also reducing/optimising performance of TAXI-OUT for the monitored Italian airports and consequently reduce consumption and CO2 emissions.
As can be seen from the data reported below, even Milan Linate airport, which had recorded an increase in both TAXI times and for the ASMA PI due to Safety requirement, has reported the trend towards the reduction of additional TAXI times thanks to the optimizations implemented on the movement area of the airport.
The single value that highlighted an increase in TAXI Additional Time is related to Bergamo airport which, in contrast to the trend, recorded a slight increase in the PI TAXI-OUT value (2019 vs 2023); the cause of that can be attributed to the considerable increase in traffic managed at the airport in 2023 (over 4,500 vs 2019 and 2,500 vs 2022), which for obvious reasons led to an increase in movements on the manoeuvring area and therefore a slight and related increase of TAXI-Out time.**However, mitigation actions have already been planned to improve TAXI procedures with the aim to continue with time optimization and to avoid any future inconsistencies for this PI.
Below the 2023’s output data for the ASMA PI (using the new Methodology) compared with the similar data from 2019 and 2022, albeit with characteristics that are not always the same both for the type of aircraft and/or for the detail of the trajectory:
LIMC (Milan/Malpensa) 2019: 5.11 mins 2022: 4.16 mins 2023: 4.22 mins
LIME (Bergamo/Orio Alserio) 2019: 3.41 mins 2022: 3.22 mins 2023: 3.43 mins
LIML (Milan/Linate) 2019: 3.75 mins 2022: 4.79 mins 2023: 4.75 mins
LIPZ (Venice/Tessera) 2019: 3.98 mins 2022: 3.09 mins 2023: 3.15 mins
LIRF (Rome/Fiumicino) 2019: 7.12 mins 2022: 5.88 mins 2023: 6.51 mins
Here following the output data (using the actual Methodology and the same criteria for the new methodology) referred to 2019, 2022 and 2023:
LIMC (Milan/Malpensa 2019: 4.76 mins 2022: 3.41 mins 2023: 3.56 mins
LIME (Bergamo/Orio Alserio) 2019: 1.81 mins 2022: 1.77 mins 2023: 1.82 mins
LIML (Milan/Linate) 2019: 2.43 mins 2022: 2.89 mins 2023: 3.37 mins
LIPZ (Venice/Tessera) 2019: 2.52 mins 2022: 1.83 mins 2023: 1.69 mins
LIRF (Rome/Fiumicino) 2019: 7.87 mins 2022: 5.00 mins 2023: 5.93 mins

ASMA

Similar as for additional taxi-out time, additional ASMA times at most of Italian airports increased in 2023 (except for Milan Linate). Milan Malpensa (LIMC: 2019: 2.59 min/arr.; 2020: 0.85 min/arr.; 2021: 1.25 min/arr.; 2022: 1.64 min/arr.; 2023: 1.95 min/arr.) showed the longest additional ASMA time in Italy and the 4th highest in the SES monitored airports (SES average additional ASMA time= 1.16 min/arr.)
According to the Italian monitoring report: *As in previous years of this RP3 and also for the entire RP2, similar as for the PI of the TAXI-OUT, ENAV SpA and the other ANSPs in ECAC do not have full access to the complete set of data used by PRU to process the output, and therefore they are not able to replicate the data processing and consequently to verify the correct assessment of the information.
As already reported last years within the comments of the 2022 and 2023 Reports, the ad-hoc WG PRU/EUROCONTROL/ANSPs created for the scope of reviewing the ASMA Methodology completed the assigned task and released the new Methodology at the end of the 2022.
Then, since March 2023 both the outputs (new output and previous one) are available within the ANS Performance website, accessible at monthly level for the scope of monitoring and comparing any gaps or any inconsistencies between the National yearly counted outputs vs the assigned Performance Targets.
As already considered for the PI TAXI-Out that the complete detail of the trajectory data (flight trajectory on the Terminal Area/ASMA) is not available to Users (except in the case following a specific request addressed directly to the PRU) and that only the consolidated value at a monthly level it is available, for the purposes of the post analysis and for the comments to be provided to this Report, an ad hoc analysis was conducted comparing both the 2 outputs.
The conclusions are available at the bottom of this paragraph.
As already demonstrated and also considering the notes to the TAXI-OUT PI at the PI #3 sheet, the same considerations can also be taken into account for the ASMA PI, both for the presentation of the data and for the analysis’ method, without the necessity to report and therefore repeat them also in this section.
Therefore, as for the PI TAXI_Out, also the results counted in 2023 encourage the Italian NSA to continue to incentivize ENAV SpA with the flight efficiency policy implemented with the aim of also reducing/optimising performance of the PI ASMA for the monitored Italian airports and consequently reduce consumption and CO2 emissions.
**As can be seen from the data reported below, even Milan Linate airport (which had recorded an increase in both TAXI times and for the ASMA PI due to Safety requirement in 2022) has reported the trend towards the reduction of additional ASMA times thanks to the ATC optimization procedures implemented in the Terminal airspace around the arrival airport.
Below the 2023’s output data for the ASMA PI (using the new Methodology) compared with the similar data from 2019 and 2022, albeit with characteristics that are not always the same both for the type of aircraft and/or for the detail of the trajectory:
LIMC (Milan/Malpensa) 2019: 4.48 mins 2022: 3.33 mins 2023: 3.47 mins
LIME (Bergamo/Orio Alserio) 2019: 3.05 mins 2022: 2.30 mins 2023: 2.55 mins
LIML (Milan/Linate) 2019: 2.46 mins 2022: 2.49 mins 2023: 2.36 mins
LIPZ (Venice/Tessera) 2019: 3.49 mins 2022: 2.70 mins 2023: 2.81 mins
LIRF (Rome/Fiumicino) 2019: 3.81 mins 2022: 2.88 mins 2023: 3.22 mins
Here following the output data (using the actual Methodology and the same criteria for the new methodology) referred to 2019, 2022 and 2023:
LIMC (Milan/Malpensa 2019: 2.59 mins 2022: 1.64 mins 2023: 1.95 mins
LIME (Bergamo/Orio Alserio) 2019: 0.94 mins 2022: 0.81 mins 2023: 1.20 mins
LIML (Milan/Linate) 2019: 0.96 mins 2022: 1.16 mins 2023: 0.85 mins
LIPZ (Venice/Tessera) 2019: 1.95 mins 2022: 1.15 mins 2023: 1.26 mins
LIRF (Rome/Fiumicino) 2019: 2.08 mins 2022: 1.40 mins 2023: 1.44 mins

Share of arrivals applying continuous descent operations (CDOs) (PI#5)

The share of CDO flights decreased at all airports with the biggest decrease at Bergamo (-7.3 percentage points). Rome and Venice had shares of CDO flights above the overall RP3 value in 2023 - 28.8% - (LIRF: 30.2%; LIPZ: 29.2%).
All airports had the lowest monthly values during the summer months.According to the Italian monitoring report: The current methodology used by PRU to measure the performances of ANSPs in the management of Continuous Descent Operations (PI CDO) has been questioned several times and by several representatives (STATES/ANSPs) both in the method and in the metrics used by PRU for the performance analysis of the proposed output.

ENAV SpA has strongly contested (see the notes to last year’s 2022 Report and previous ones) the methodology with which the “interruptions” of the CDO trajectory are identified as negative input, disagreeing with the value presented in the Performance Reports starting from 2020. A methodology that does not take into consideration the real ATC constraints in managing the flight itself, nor, obviously, the needs and priorities of the Safety of Operations.

Given the above, it is absolutely unacceptable that only 30% of flights landing at LIRF, or only 16% landing at LIMC in 2023, were consistent with a continuous descent from TOD to landing!
It is not possible for such a low percentage of flights to be compliant with Continuous Descent Operations using an efficient EnRoute and Terminal NTW and other implementations introduced in the airspace in order to increase the efficiency of flight operations at national airports.
Just as it is unacceptable that the presence of the AMAN TOOL in operation for Rome Fiumicino airport since last spring 2023 and that the CDO measures applied during real-time operations by the ATCOs do not impact and indeed reduce the performance for the PI CDO compared to the previous year (2022).

Hence the need to consider a revision of the methodology used by the PRU; but at the same time, as already proposed in previous years and following coordination with the PRU which shared the data in order to detect a different metric, it is required to be able to re-count the value of the proposed output by excluding from the calculation the flights not compliant with the CDO flight segment below FL75.
The numbers are available within the ANS Performance website and easily manageable by PRU.

And yet, without repeating once again what has already been observed and presented in recent years in terms of comments and objections to the output proposed by PRU in the Report, an update/revision was also requested with a recalculation of the output proposed for the PI CDO since the beginning of RP3 (2020).

Giving simply that, that it is almost clear particularly during the rush hours when it is impossible for an aircraft in sequence for landing to maintain the continuous descent glide path due to preceding aircraft, the recalculated numbers will reflect what it really happens in the Italian airspace relatively to the VFE PI.

Airport level
Airport Name
Additional taxi-out time (PI#3)
Additional ASMA time (PI#4)
Share of arrivals applying CDO (PI#5)
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Orio Al Serio 1.02 1.11 1.77 1.82 NA 0.45 0.70 0.81 1.20 NA 39% 40% 33% 26% NA
Linate 1.93 2.18 2.89 3.37 NA 0.78 0.84 1.16 0.85 NA 28% 28% 24% 18% NA
Malpensa 2.66 2.86 3.41 3.56 NA 0.85 1.25 1.64 1.95 NA 24% 23% 20% 16% NA
Fiumicino 3.10 3.00 5.00 5.93 NA 1.25 0.96 1.40 1.44 NA 43% 40% 36% 30% NA
Venice Tessera 1.38 1.10 1.83 1.69 NA 1.06 0.53 1.15 1.26 NA 34% 34% 29% 29% NA

Civil-Military dimension

Update on Military dimension of the plan

The Military invests efforts and resources for a well-functioning FUA and free-route airspace procedures that provide additional airspace and flight efficiency to civil aviation to the maximum extent possible, which, at the same time, could also contribute reducing CO2 emissions. The interoperability of systems is pursued at every level and in every area of civil.military cooperation (ASM, ATS, AIS); the stuatus of implementation of common information exchange systems or the development of solution (i.e. interface between civil-military systems) to ensure full interoperability is constantly followed within cooperation committees and technical boards. Within airspace and airports where ANS are provided by military collaborative decision-making process is very effective and there are no critical issues attributable to specific ANS and airport restrictions with reference to ATFM measures

Military - related measures implemented or planned to improve capacity

Measures already in place:
• Full advantage of FUA application at pre-tactical and tactical level in the most of military ARES and free-route
• Collocation of civ mil ATCO in the same ACC Ops Room (they use the same technology and data);
• Collaborative Decision Making Process (CDM) in Airspace design and AIS
• Full interoperability Systems implementation and optimization is pursued
• Dynamic CDM in airspace design;
• Continuing promotion of the procedures used in airspace reservation;
• Evolution in the interoperability of systems, information management.*

Initiatives implemented or planned to improve PI#6

No data available.

Initiatives implemented or planned to improve PI#7

No data available.

Initiatives implemented or planned to improve PI#8

No data available.