Annual Monitoring Report 2024 - Bulgaria
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/778 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Sofia ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 0
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1.95543 BGN
2024: 1.95543 BGN
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2024 3.8%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2024 1.8%
Share en route / terminal costs 2024 100% / 0%
En route charging zone(s)
Bulgaria
Terminal charging zone(s)
Main ANSP
• BULATSA
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Bulgaria recorded 1,050K actual IFR movements in 2024, +7.8% compared to 2023 (974K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements were +14.8% above the plan (915K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements were +19.5% above the actual 2019 level (879K).
▪ Bulgaria recorded 5,015K actual service units in 2024, +7.4% compared to 2023 (4,671K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units were +21.5% above the plan (4,127K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units are +24.4% above the actual 2019 level (4,032K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ BULATSA achieved the RP3 targets for the EoSM in 2023 and remained on or above the targets in 2024.
▪ Bulgaria did not provide monitoring data for runway incursions (RIs) or separation minima infringements (SMIs) in 2023 and 2024.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Bulgaria achieved a KEA performance of 3.52% compared to its target of 2.25% and did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target.
▪ The NSA states the reasons for not meeting the environmental targets are related to the geopolitical situation and airspace restrictions resulting from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, continuous shifts in traffic flows, airspace user preferences, and a lack of sufficient capacity in neighbouring ACCs resulting in additional traffic in Sofia FIR.
▪ Both KEP and SCR remained stable in comparison to 2023.
▪ Bulgaria has no airports regulated under the performance and charging scheme.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Bulgaria registered 0.18 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2024, which has been adjusted to 0.10 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.08. Delays in Bulgaria increased by 0.04 minutes per flight year-on-year.
▪ Delays were highest between May and July, mostly related to adverse weather conditions.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Bulgaria increased by 23 percentage points compared to 2023 and was higher than 2019 values.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 19% above 2019 levels in Bulgaria in 2024.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is 154, being below the 2024 plan in Sofia by 4 FTEs.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Sofia ACC was 41,844, showing a 5.9% increase compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 15.7% above 2019 levels.
▪ Sofia ACC registered 24.44 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 3.5% above 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2024 actual unit cost of Bulgaria was 22.54€2017, -21% lower than the determined unit cost (28.44€2017). Bulgaria does not have a terminal charging zone.
▪ The en route 2024 actual service units (5.0M) were +22% higher than the determined service units (4.1M).
▪ The en route 2024 actual total costs were -4.3M€2017 (-3.7%) lower than determined. This is mainly due to lower other operating costs (-1.6M€2017, or -14%) for BULATSA. However, in nominal terms, actual costs are +14M€ (or +11%) higher than determined. The difference is mainly attributable to the impact of inflation.
▪ BULATSA costs of investments were 21M€2017 in 2024, -8.7% less than determined (23M€2017). According to the NSA, this reduction is due to revenue from liquidated damages on investment projects, which is being deducted from the depreciation costs, and slight delay of one of the major projects due to unforeseen administrative issues.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2024 was 29.45€ (-5.7% below the 2024 DUC).
▪ The en route regulatory result for BULATSA amounted to +18M€, representing 13% of the 2024 revenue.
▪ Bulgaria should ensure that any excessive regulatory result, including excess funds received by the ANSP due to the inflation mechanism, is either reinvested to improve the quality of services delivered to airspace users or reimbursed to them.