Annual Monitoring Report 2023 - Network Manager
Network performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/785 of 17 May 2022
Safety (Network Manager - SES RP3 area)
▪ In 2023, the NM achieved level D in safety policy and objective and in safety risk management and level C for all other Management Objectives. The maturity levels have been verified by EASA. Consequently, NM has achieved the RP3 targets one year before the end of the reference period.
▪ The NM reported that the over-delivery indicator decreased from 11.5% in 2022 to 9.3% in 2023. This is largely due to improvements seen in certain airspace (Reims, Sarajevo, Madrid, Bordeaux, Munich, and Vienna ACCs). The over-delivery indicator in 2023 is below the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level of 12.4%.
▪ The NM reported the implementation of a number of actions and initiatives to reduce volatility and improve flight planning (e.g. to remove Yo-Yo flights plans and flight plans with sharp turn angles) and keep airborne flights as close as possible to the flight plan to reduce the need for airborne changes, to reduce time deviations from the plan, and to capture all the flights in regulations as early as possible). The expected effect of implemented/to be implemented actions on the percentages of over-deliveries are not provided.
Environment (Network Manager - SES RP3 area)
▪ The KEP target in 2023 was not achieved, with a value of 4.72% compared to a target of 3.94%. This deficit was largely driven by the impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the high level of ATC industrial action.
▪ The inefficiency of the route network design (RTE-DES) improved from 1.88% in 2022 to 1.79% in 2023, achieving much of the reduction in route design efficiency anticipated in the ERNIP by 2030. The NM notes that the SCR remained steady in 2023, following a spike in 2022 due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Capacity (Network Manager - SES RP3 area)
▪ Both the target on en route ATFM delay savings and the target on arrival ATFM delay savings were met.
▪ The total number of en route ATFM delay minutes increased further compared to 2022. This means that the 0.3 percentage point increase in en route delay savings translates to nearly 2.5 million minutes saved. Despite the increase in the total minutes of en route ATFM delay, summer delays were lower in 2023 than in 2022. Conversely, disruptions in the network were at a 10-year high value of 0.39 minutes per flight.
▪ In 2023 the NM focused on flights with significant ATFM delays to mitigate major disruptions as far as possible. As in 2022, the NM prepared a set of measures and guidelines for the summer period of 2023. This helped keep summer delays in 2023 lower than in the previous year.
▪ Despite the actions carried out by the NM, actual values of the network performance indicators show a slight worsening of performance in 2023 compared to 2022, apart from the minor improvement in the share of weekend ATFM delays. The NM also noted that volatility was higher in the network than in 2022, mostly due to ATC industrial action and adverse weather.
▪ The NM noted that to improve network performance adverse weather impacts must be addressed collaboratively on the network level. This includes improving the representation at the weekly meeting of the Enlarged NDOP Coordination Cell in the coming years to enable a closer and more effective cooperation of all stakeholders.
Cost-efficiency (Network Manager - SES RP3 area)
▪ The cost-efficiency performance indicator for monitoring is the actual unit cost for the execution of the NM tasks. The indicator is calculated as the ratio of actual costs to service units at the level of the geographical area where the Network Manager executes its tasks.
▪ The NM’s approved 2023 budget (140M€2017) is -19M€2017 (-12%) lower than the planned costs (160M€2017). The actual en route service units for the Network area in 2023 (170.3M) is +27M (+19%) higher than the planned services units (143.3M) (based on STATFOR May 2021 base forecast). The actual inflation index (124) was +13 percentage points (or +11%) higher than the determined inflation index used in the NM’s performance plan.
▪ As a result, the actual unit cost in 2023 for the NM was 0.82€2017, which is -26% lower than the determined unit cost (1.11€2017).