Annual Monitoring Report 2023 - Portugal
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/767 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Lisbon ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 2
<80’K 8
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1 EUR
2023: 1 EUR
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2023 3.4%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2023 2.4%
Share en route / terminal costs 2023 79% / 21%
En route charging zone(s)
Portugal Continental
Terminal charging zone(s)
Portugal
Main ANSP
• NAV Portugal (Continental)
Other ANSPs
• Estado Maior da Força Aérea
• Estado Maior da Armada
MET Providers
• IPMA
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Portugal recorded 677K actual IFR movements in 2023, +11% compared to 2022 (610K).
▪ Actual 2023 IFR movements were +14% above the plan (593K).
▪ Actual 2023 IFR movements were +4% above the actual 2019 level (651K).
▪ Portugal recorded 4,132K actual en route service units in 2023, +12% compared to 2022 (3,695K).
▪ Actual 2023 service units were +15% above the plan (3,582K).
▪ Actual 2023 service units are +2% above the actual 2019 level (4,060K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ NAV Portugal has already achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in 2020 for all five management objectives, but in 2023 the ANSP failed to maintain its level for safety risk management. NAV Portugal requires to implement specific measure in the area of occurrence analysis and monitoring of functional system underperformance. The NSA has not raised a potential risk of not meeting RP4 target levels.
▪ Portugal recorded stable performance with respect to safety occurrences with lower rates of separation infringement and runway incursion relative to 2022. The NSA was in the process of reviewing the State Safety Plan (SSP) related to monitoring of occurrences and implementation and efficiency of specific measures.
▪ NAV Portugal do not use automated safety data recording systems.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Portugal achieved a KEA performance of 1.50% compared to its target of 1.80% and contributed positively towards achieving the Union-wide target.
▪ KEP and SCR improved compared to 2022 levels.
▪ The share of CDO flights increased from 50.45% to 53.10% in 2023.
▪ During 2023, additional time in terminal airspace increased from 1.32 to 1.51 min/flight, while additional taxi out time increased from 2.34 to 2.70 min/flight.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Portugal registered 0.49 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2023 which has been adjusted to 0.48 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.13. Delays in Portugal decreased by 0.18 minutes per flight year-on-year.
▪ Delays were dispersed during the whole calendar year, being the highest in May, mainly due to ATC capacity.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Portugal decreased by 3 p.p. compared to 2022 and was lower than 2019 values.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 4% above 2019 levels in Portugal in 2023.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is expected to increase by 25% by 2024, with the actual value being below the 2023 plan in Lisbon by 21 FTEs.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Lisbon ACC was 68,150, showing a 2.1% increase compared to 2022. Sector opening hours are 1.4% below 2019 levels.
▪ Lisbon ACC registered 9.12 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2023, being 4.0% above 2019 levels.
▪ Year-on-year traffic growth in Portugal was 11%, with IFR movements being 14% above the STATFOR October 2021 Base forecast. While capacity provision improved and, in some aspects, exceeded 2019 performance, there remains a capacity gap, mainly due to a lack of ATCOs and airspace structure issues, which will have to be resolved to close the gap.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2023 actual unit cost of Portugal was 35.38 €2017, -12% lower than the determined unit cost (40.37 €2017). The terminal 2023 actual unit cost was 121.66 €2017, -19% lower than the determined unit cost (149.81 €2017).
▪ The en route 2023 actual service units (4.1M) were +15% higher than the determined service units (3.6M).
▪ The en route 2023 actual total costs were +1.3 M€2017 (+0.9%) higher than determined. This difference was predominantly due to an overspend in depreciation costs (+1.2 M€2017, or +7.5%), which resulted from the increase of investment in the new ATM system TOPSKY during 2023 after being postponed in the initial years of RP3. The PRB highlights that the actual number of ACC ATCOs in OPS FTEs for NAV Portugal were -12% below plan.
▪ Portugal presented a deviation from the criteria to achieve capacity targets, which was considered justified. Considering that actual number of ATCOs have been lower than planned, and that the 2023 en route capacity targets have not been achieved, the situation raises serious concern.
▪ NAV Portugal spent 23 M€2017 in 2023 related to costs of investments for both en route and terminal charging zones, +3.5% more than determined (22 M€2017).
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2023 was 39.55€ (-5.7% below the 2023 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 143.65€ (-8.1% below the 2023 DUC).
▪ 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 Portugal 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 Portugal to consider the reimbursement to airspace users of excess funds received by ANSPs for measures not implemented during RP3.