Annual Monitoring Report 2024 - Czech Republic
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/772 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Prague ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 0
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 26.3115 CZK
2024: 25.0782 CZK
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2024 1.8%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2024 1.8%
Share en route / terminal costs 2024 86% / 14%
En route charging zone(s)
Czech Republic
Terminal charging zone(s)
Czech Republic
Main ANSP
• ANS CR
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• CHMI
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Czech Republic recorded 784K actual IFR movements in 2024, +11.5% compared to 2023 (703K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements were +0.3% above the plan (782K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements represent 90% of the actual 2019 level (867K).
▪ Czech Republic recorded 2,360K actual service units in 2024, +17.8% compared to 2023 (2,004K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units were -6.1% below the plan (2,514K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units represent 80% of the actual 2019 level (2,936K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ ANS CR exceeded the RP3 EoSM targets as early as 2020 and remained at this maturity level throughout RP3.
▪ The Czech Republic has recorded a stable level of runway incursions (RIs) over RP3, while a marked reduction of the rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs) over RP3 going from above the Union-wide average to go well below.
Environment (Member State)
▪ The Czech Republic achieved a KEA performance of 2.48% compared to its target of 2.05% and did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target.
▪ The NSA states the main reason for not meeting the target is the severe impact of flight trajectories caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, airspace user preferences and changes in the traffic pattern over LKAA FIR (decrease of long-haul flights).
▪ Both KEP and SCR improved in comparison with 2023. Despite the KEA target being missed, the improvement in SCR shows that the Czech Republic has improved environmental efficiency of its airspace when accounting for impacts outside of its control.
▪ The share of CDO flights remained stable in 2024.
▪ Additional taxi out time decreased from 2.30 to 2.17 min/flight, while additional time in terminal airspace increased from 0.69 to 0.93 min/flight in 2024 compared to 2023.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Czech Republic registered 0.14 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2024, which has been adjusted to 0.13 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.11. Delays in Czech Republic increased by 0.04 minutes per flight year-on-year.
▪ Delays were highest between June and August, mainly driven by adverse weather conditions and ATC capacity issues.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in the Czech Republic increased by 3 percentage points compared to 2023 and was higher than 2019 values.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 16% below 2019 levels in the Czech Republic in 2024.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is 144, being below the 2024 plan in Prague by 16 FTEs.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Prague ACC was 45,209, showing a 6.6% increase compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 3.6% below 2019 levels.
▪ Prague ACC registered 15.71 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 11.6% below 2019 levels.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2024 actual unit cost of Czech Republic was 46.06€2017, which was equal to the determined unit cost (46.06€2017). The terminal 2024 actual unit cost of Czech Republic was 208.62€2017, +3.2% higher than the determined unit cost (202.20€2017).
▪ The en route 2024 actual service units (2.4M) were -6.2% lower than the determined service units (2.5M), mainly due to the ongoing effects of the shifted traffic flows caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ The en route 2024 actual total costs were -7.1M€2017 (-6.2%) lower than determined. The gap was mainly a result of the underspend in other operating costs (-3.4M€2017, or -22%) for ANS CR, which the NSA attributed to “cost containment measures”.
▪ ANS CR costs of investments were 30M€2017 in 2024 for both en route and terminal charging zones, -14% less than determined (35M€2017), as the NSA indicated that “some of the system upgrades were postponed”.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2024 was 59.21€ (+11% above the 2024 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 257.26€ (+8.4% above the 2024 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC is mainly driven by the difference between the determined and actual SUs for both the en route and terminal charging zones, as well as the positive inflation adjustment.
▪ Czech Republic’s RP3 performance plan included justifications for a deviation to achieve the RP3 capacity targets. The main measures included the recruitment and training of new ATCOs and a number of investments to increase capacity. Czech Republic has not submitted a detailed report of the capacity-related measures implemented. However, the number of ATCOs in operation at the end of RP3 is below the plan, and costs for new major investments are lower than determined. Czech Republic should reimburse to airspace users the excess funds received by ANSPs for measures not implemented.