Annual Monitoring Report 2024 - Austria
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/774 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Vienna ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 5
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1 EUR
2024: 1 EUR
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2024 3.0%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2024 3.0%
Share en route / terminal costs 2024 81% / 19%
En route charging zone(s)
Austria
Terminal charging zone(s)
Austria
Main ANSP
• Austro Control
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Austria recorded 1,507K actual IFR movements in 2024, +4.7% compared to 2023 (1,439K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements were -+9.2% above the plan (1,380K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements were +10.4% above the actual 2019 level (1,365K).
▪ Austria recorded 4,010K actual service units in 2024, +4.2% compared to 2023 (3,847K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units were +14.4% above the plan (3,505K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units are +20.1% above the actual 2019 level (3,338K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ Austro Control achieved the RP3 target maturity for all Management Objectives in 2024.
▪ The overall safety performance of the organisation was stable, with a single occurrence of runway incursion (RIs) and a marginally lower rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs) compared with 2023 at the Member State level.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Austria achieved a KEA performance of 2.11% compared to its target of 1.96% and did not contribute positively to the Union-wide target.
▪ The NSA states that the target was missed mainly due to increased traffic demand that exceeded the forecasts, shifted traffic flows caused by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine (see below), frequent thunderstorms and cumulonimbus (CBs) during the summer and the individually optimised trajectories of flights not necessarily following the great circle.
▪ Both KEP and SCR remained stable in comparison to 2023.
▪ Only one out of six Austrian airports that are regulated reported terminal environment data.
▪ The share of CDO flights remained stable in 2024.
▪ Additional taxi out time decreased from 2.84 to 2.70 min/flight, while additional time in terminal airspace increased marginally from 1.08 to 1.17 min/flight.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Austria registered 0.51 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2024, which has been adjusted to 0.48 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.16. Delays in Austria increased by 0.36 minutes per flight year-on-year.
▪ Delays were highest in July and August, mostly driven by adverse weather conditions.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Austria increased by 11 percentage points compared to 2023 and was higher than 2019 values.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 13% above 2019 levels in Austria in 2024.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is 139, being below the 2024 plan in Vienna by 1 FTE.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Vienna ACC was 62,024, showing a 2.4% increase compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 11.8% above 2019 levels.
▪ Vienna ACC registered 17.77 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 5.8% above 2019 levels.
▪ Austria registered an average airport arrival ATFM delay of 0.74 minutes per flight in 2024, thus achieving the local target of 0.82 minutes.
▪ Compared to 2023, average arrival ATFM delays in Austria were 146% higher in 2024, while the number of IFR arrivals increased by 4%.
▪ The main drivers of delays were weather, accounting for 74% of total delays, and ATC staffing, responsible for 20%.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2024 actual unit cost of Austria was 45.41€2017, -9.3% lower than the determined unit cost (50.07€2017). The terminal 2024 actual unit cost was 223.51€2017, +25% higher than the determined unit cost (179.02€2017).
▪ The en route 2024 actual service units (4.0M) were +14% higher than the determined service units (3.5M).
▪ The en route 2024 actual total costs were +6.6M€2017 (+3.8%) higher than determined. This is mainly due to higher staff costs for Austro Control (+14M€2017, or+13%), partially compensated by lower costs in the other cost categories. The NSA attributed the impact on staff costs to higher traffic leading to higher overtime, and higher pension costs than determined.
▪ Austro Control costs of investments were 26M€2017 in 2024 for both en route and terminal charging zones, -19% less than determined (32M€2017). According to the NSA, this reduction is due to delayed investments resulting from the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through RP3, Austria has not provided an annual breakdown of the average net book value, depreciation, or leasing costs for any investment of Austro Control. There is therefore a lack of adequate and detailed information on investments to ensure transparency and compliance with reporting requirements.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2024 was 57.28€ (+2.6% above the 2024 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 257.67€ (+29% above the 2024 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for the terminal charging zone is mainly due to the inflation adjustment and cost risk sharing adjustment.
▪ Austria should provide all the required information regarding investments in RP4, in the con-text of the annual monitoring process and the cost-exempt reporting, to enhance transparency for airspace users.
▪ Austria should take additional measures to manage the cost-risk associated with pensions for RP4 in view of the difference between actual and determined pension costs observed during RP3.
▪ Austria did not report funding from Union assistance programmes in RP3, while SESAR Deployment Manager data indicates payments for 11M€ during the reference period. Austria should review the facts and ensure that all appropriate reimbursements as other revenues are made as soon as practicable.