Annual Monitoring Report 2024 - Estonia
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/771 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Tallinn ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 2
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 1 EUR
2024: 1 EUR
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2024 0.4%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2024 0.4%
Share en route / terminal costs 2024 87% / 13%
En route charging zone(s)
Estonia
Terminal charging zone(s)
Estonia
Main ANSP
• EANS
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Estonia recorded 171K actual IFR movements in 2024, +14.8% compared to 2023 (149K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements were -23.7% below the plan (224K).
▪Actual 2024 IFR movements represent 75% of the actual 2019 level (229K).
▪ Estonia recorded 555K actual service units in 2024, +24.4% compared to 2023 (446K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units were -39.1% below the plan (912K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units represent 62% of the actual 2019 level (901K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ EANS already achieved the RP3 EoSM targets at the start of the reference period and continued to improve the SMS throughout RP3.
▪ Estonia recorded a significantly higher rate of runway incursions (RIs) in 2024 compared to 2023, while lowering the rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs).
Environment (Member State)
▪ Estonia achieved a KEA performance of 6.14% compared to its target of 1.22% and did not contribute positively to achieving the Union-wide target.
▪ The NSA states that the target was not achieved because of the traffic to and from Kaliningrad which does not follow the optimal routes due to the restrictive measures resulting from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ Both KEP and SCR improved in comparison to 2023. The value of these two indicators is similar, meaning airspace users plan close to the shortest route available.
▪ The share of CDO flights increased from 65.15% to 70.04% in 2024.
▪ Additional taxi out time increased from 1.01 to 1.20 min/flight, while additional time in terminal airspace remained stable in 2024 compared to 2023.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Estonia registered 0.01 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2024, which remained 0.01 after the post-ops adjustment process, thus achieving the local target value of 0.03. Delays in Estonia increased by 0.01 minutes per flight year-on-year.
▪ Delays were highest between July and September, mostly driven by the lack of ATC Capacity.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Estonia increased by 21 percentage points compared to 2023 and was higher than 2019 values.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 25% below 2019 levels in Estonia in 2024.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is 21, being below the 2024 plan in Tallinn by 6 FTEs.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Tallinn ACC was 10,470, showing a 2.5% increase compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 17.5% below 2019 levels.
▪ Tallinn ACC registered 15.3 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 12.1% below 2019 levels.
▪ Estonia registered zero minutes of average airport arrival ATFM delay per flight, thus achieving its local target of zero minutes in 2024.
▪ Compared to 2023, the number of IFR arrivals in Estonia increased by 15%, while the average airport arrival ATFM delay remained zero minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2024 actual unit cost of Estonia was 42.59€2017, +42% higher than the determined unit cost (29.97€2017). The terminal 2024 actual unit cost was 169.01€2017, +38% higher than the determined unit cost (122.71€2017).
▪ The en route 2024 actual service units (0.6M) were -39% lower than the determined service units (0.9M) mainly due to shifted traffic flows caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ The en route 2024 actual total costs were -3.7M€2017 (-14%) lower than determined, with all cost categories registering lower-than-planned costs. The difference is mainly due to lower staff costs (-2.5M€2017, or -21%) for EANS. However, in nominal terms, the actual staff costs show an increase of +2.4% compared to the determined figures.
▪ EANS costs of investments were 4.9M€2017 in 2024 for both en route and terminal charging zones, -9.7% less than determined (5.4M€2017). According to the NSA, this reduction is due a decrease in depreciation costs following the postponement of new investments.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2024 was 60.57€ (+87% above the 2024 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 130.40€ (-2.1% below the 2024 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for the en route charging zone is primarily attributed to lower than planned service units.
▪ The en route regulatory result for EANS amounted to +4.9M€, or 19% of the 2024 revenue.
▪ Estonia 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.