Capacity - Portugal

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PRB monitoring

▪ 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.

▪ Portugal registered an average airport arrival ATFM delay of 2.59 minutes per flight in 2023, thus not achieving the local target of 2.28 minutes.

▪ Compared to 2022, average arrival ATFM delays in Portugal were 12% higher in 2023, while the number of IFR arrivals increased by 11%.

▪ The main reasons for delays were other, non-ATC related causes, accounting for 62% of delays, and weather, responsible for 27%.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Summary of capacity performance

Portugal experienced an increase in traffic from 610k flights in 2022, with 404k minutes of en route ATFM delay, to 677k flights in 2023 with a reduction in ATFM delays to 327k minutes.

There was an addition 2k minutes of en route ATFM delay, originating in Portugal, that were re-attributed to the DSNA in France, in accordance with the NM post operations delay reattribution process, endorsed by the NMB, due to eNM/S23 measures to mitigate the capacity shortfalls in France..

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

After the recovery of traffic in 2022, in 2023 traffic levels already surpassed 2019 figures. Specifically, in Lisbon FIR, traffic increased 11%, when compared to 2022, and is already 4,0% above 2019 levels.

Continued growth in traffic in 2023, when 2019 levels were surpassed (both for en-route and terminal), have taken a toll regarding capacity. Elementary sectors have reached their maximum capacity, which together with a lack of controllers have caused delays above expected. A restructuring of the airspace is ongoing, while the training / recruitment of new ATCOs is advancing, in order to solve the issues underlying the Portuguese underperformance.

Monitoring process for capacity performance

NAV Portugal and ANAC have a capacity monitoring process in place that consists of quarterly reports and follow-up meetings to monitor and present corrective measures whenever necessary.

Capacity planning

The main causes of en route delays are:

276 813 minutes of delay ( 84% of total delay ) on elementary sectors due to an existing limitation to open a maximum of 9 route sectors in the Lisbon ACC. This issue is being addressed through a complete restructuring of the upper airspace that is already being developed with the support of Eurocontrol experts;

A second reason that generated 22 866 minutes of delay (7% of total delay) was due to the lack of ATCOs. This problem is being addressed by NAV’s commitment to recruit 24 new ATCOs each year and to send 5 ATCOs to ACCs for APS qualification and 8 for enroute qualification each year. In an unprecedented move, we are even sending ATCOs directly from Ab initio to the ACC in order not to lose any placements and to speed up these placements.

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

The NSA corroborates the analysis presented by NAV Portugal, included in the “capacity planning” item above, and, moreover, we consider that it is also worth mentioning the sharp recovery in traffic in 2023. In fact, NAV Portugal is in the top ten European providers with a volume of traffic in 2023 already above the registered movements for 2019.

In view of the above, and with regard to the mitigation measures being implemented, NAV Portugal is working on three different axes so that this situation can be reversed or at least mitigated from 2024 onwards:
▪ Recruitment and training of ATCOs;
▪ Airspace Optimisation;
▪ Increasing Sector Capacity.

With regard to the first point, and as already mentioned, NAV Portugal aims to reduce the current gap, which is why it has had 13 ATCOs in qualification at the Lisbon ACC since the beginning of 2023 (8 ACS + 5 APS). A further 13 ATCOs are scheduled to be transferred to the Lisbon ACC for qualification in 2024 (8 ACS + 5 APS). The extension of the operational age limit for ATCOs from 58 to 60 should also have a positive impact on the total number of ATCOs available, compared to the numbers initially planned. However, this impact will only materialise when the relevant Decree-Law is published, which is expected to be soon. Notwithstanding, by the end of RP3 the ATCOs gap it’s not expected to be fully solved.

With regard to the second point, there are two lines of work to be pursued:
▪ One which involves to vertically divide the West sector and make it more flexible, which consists of creating new volumes of airspace with increased efficiency. This issue is already being addressed by NAV Portugal together with the NM. Once validated, these new airspaces volumes will make it possible to choose a more efficient and less penalising sectorisation.
▪ NAV Portugal has developed an airspace restructuring study with the aim of increasing total airspace capacity in the Lisbon FIR and thus mitigating some of the situations described above regarding the West sector and other sectors. The next steps in this study, which has now been finalised, will involve the Network Manager (NM) in its analysis, simulation and validation, not forgetting the need for safety assessments and training.

En route Capacity Incentive Scheme

NAV Portugal (Continental): Portugal uses an incentive scheme based only on delays attributed to C,R,S,T,M & P delay codes. The national target was set at 0.12 minutes per flight and the actual performance is reported as 0.46 minutes per flight (CRSTMP only). This results in a reported penalty of 649,071 €
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

Although the figures show a gap compared to what was planned in DEC 2023, it should be borne in mind that 11 new ATCOs entered service in Q1 2024, making a total of 17. This planning gap is mainly the result of qualification times (on average 8 to 9 months), but due to various circumstances the respective qualifications may take place in the first few weeks of 2024.

Terminal performance

Arrival ATFM delay (KPI#2)

The scope of RP3 monitoring for Portugal comprises 10 airports in 2020, However, in accordance with IR (EU) 2019/317 and the traffic figures, only two of these airports (Lisbon (LPPT) and Porto (LPPR)) must be monitored for pre-departure delays.
The Airport Operator Data Flow, necessary for the monitoring of these pre-departure delays, is correctly established where required and the monitoring of all capacity indicators can be performed.
Traffic at these 10 airports in 2023, with an increase of 11% versus 2022, was 7% higher than in 2019.

Average arrival ATFM delays in 2023 was 2.59 min/arr, compared to 2.31 min/arr in 2022. The national target was not met.
ATFM slot adherence increased reaching 97.2% in 2023.

The national average arrival ATFM delay at Portuguese airports in 2023 was 2.59 min/arr, again higher than the previous year. This is driven by further deterioration of performance at Lisbon (LPPT; 2019: 4.13 min/arr; 2020: 1.72 min/arr; 2021: 0.28 min/arr; 2023: 4.88 min/arr). With this performance, Lisbon showed the highest arrival ATFM delay across the SES monitored airports. Cascais also shows one of the highest arrival ATFM delays in the SES area (LPCS: 2023: 3.48 min/arr.)
56% of the arrival Portuguese delays were attributed to Aerodrome Capacity issues, followed by 27% due to Weather.

According to the Portuguese monitoring report: ATFM arrival delay followed the same behaviour as the ATFM en Route delay , with several affecting causes at airport level. With almost 90% of total ATFM arrival delay, LPPT generates the majority of delays, mainly due to airport infrastructure limitations to accommodate traffic demand (57% of total), while weather is responsible for 26%.
Other airports in general performed better than what had been targeted, except for Cascais, that is influenced by the available capacity at the terminal control area (which is shared with LPPT).
NSA recommendation to the ANSP: The NSA corroborates the analysis presented by the ANSP, namely the paramount impact of airport capacity in the terminal delays.
As measures put in place, the Portuguese NSA reports, for Lisbon: Cooperate with the APO, in order to look for solutions that could contribute to reduce the current level of delays. Ongoing. Target: 2026

Portugal’s performance plan sets a national target on arrival ATFM delay for 2023 of 2.28 min/arr. This target, with an actual performance of 2.59 min/arr, was not met. The incentive scheme uses modulated pivot values limited to CRSTMP delay causes. According to the Portuguese monitoring report, this pivot value for CRSTMP is 0.87 min/arr in 2023 and based on the attribution of the regulation reason, the actual CRSTMP value for 2023 was 0.436 min/arr.
The NSA calculates a bonus of € 200 720.

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
Cascais NA NA 0.36 3.48 82.6% 88.9% 94.6% 97.5% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Faro 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 95.8% 94.3% 95.3% 96.1% 0.09 0.58 0.57 0.50 8.2 8.5 19.6 19.4
Horta NA NA NA NA 93.8% 90.9% 96.1% 97.3% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Lisbon 1.72 0.28 3.96 4.88 96.5% 98.8% 98.7% 98.8% 2.14 1.22 3.22 5.66 12.0 11.0 25.2 26.4
Madeira NA 0.03 0.11 0.10 93.2% 93.7% 92.9% 97.4% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Montijo NA NA NA NA 0.0% 50.0% 37.5% 61.1% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Ponta Delgada NA NA NA 0.00 98.2% 97.6% 97.1% 95.0% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Porto 0.77 2.14 1.89 0.88 93.4% 93.5% 94.1% 95.6% 0.26 0.25 0.44 0.44 9.2 10.7 18.4 17.8
Porto Santo NA NA NA NA 92.9% 97.4% 90.5% 96.7% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Santa Maria NA NA NA NA 100.0% 100.0% 92.0% 86.7% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

ATFM slot adherence

All Portuguese airports showed adherence around or above 90%.
The national average was 97.2%. With regard to the 2.8% of flights that did not adhere, 2.1% was early and 0.7% was late.

ATC pre-departure delay

The performance at Lisbon deteriorated again in 2023 and exceeded the delays of 2019 (LPPT; 2019: 4.16 min/dep.; 2020: 2.13 min/dep.; 2021: 1.22 min/dep.; 2022: 3.22 min/dep.; 2023: 5.66 min/dep.) Like in previous years this delay is the highest in the SES area.

All causes pre-departure delay

The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time in 2023 increased at Lisbon (LPPT: 2020: 12.02 min/dep.; 2021: 11.03 min/dep.; 2022: 25.21 min/dep.; 2023: 26.37 min/dep.) and decreased at Porto (LPPR: 2020: 9.15 min/dep.; 2021: 10.70 min/dep.; 2022: 18,40 min/dep.; 2023: 17.77 min/dep.)
These average delays at Lisbon are the highest amongst the SES monitored airports.