Capacity - Germany

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PRB monitoring

▪ Germany registered 1.41 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2024, which has been adjusted to 1.56 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.27. Delays in Germany decreased by 0.35 minutes per flight year-on-year.

▪ Delays were highest between May and September, mostly driven by ATC Capacity issues and adverse weather conditions.

▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Germany increased by 3 percentage points compared to 2023 and was higher than 2019 values.

▪ The average number of IFR movements was 10% below 2019 levels in Germany in 2024.

▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is 205, being below the 2024 plan in Bremen by 63 FTEs. The number of ATCOs in OPS is 372, being below the 2024 plan in Langen by 75 FTEs. The number of ATCOs in OPS is 416, being below the 2024 plan in Karlsruhe by 69 FTEs. The number of ATCOs in OPS is 228, being below the 2024 plan in Munich by 58 FTEs.

▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Munich ACC was 100,442, showing a 2.9% decrease compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 3.4% above 2019 levels. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Bremen ACC was 82,760, showing a 0.3% decrease compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 20.3% below 2019 levels. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Langen ACC was 120,451, showing a 1.4% decrease compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 9.0% below 2019 levels. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Karlsruhe ACC was 141,204, showing a 0.2% decrease compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 2.5% below 2019 levels.

▪ Karlsruhe ACC registered 13.11 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 3.7% above 2019 levels. Bremen ACC registered 6.09 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 3.8% below 2019 levels. Langen ACC registered 9.28 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 8.1% below 2019 levels. Munich ACC registered 9.79 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 20.8% below 2019 levels.

▪ Despite the significant improvement in 2024 compared to 2023, Germany still has a capacity gap. Germany should further expedite the re-cruitment and training of controllers. Actual 2025 values up to August show a further im-provement.

▪ Germany registered an average airport arrival ATFM delay of 0.46 minutes per flight in 2024, thus not achieving the local target of 0.45 minutes.

▪ Compared to 2023, average arrival ATFM delays in Germany were 15% lower in 2024, while the number of IFR arrivals increased by 4%.

▪ The main drivers of delays were weather, accounting for 73% of total delays, and other, non-ATC related causes, responsible for 22%.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Summary of capacity performance

Germany experienced an increase in traffic from 2 928k flights with 5.2 million minutes of en route ATFM delay in 2023, to 3 052k flights in 2024 with a lower level of en route ATFM delay - 4.5 million minutes- handled by DFS & EUROCONTROL MUAC.

The total of en route ATFM delays includes 399k minutes of en route ATFM delay that were re-attributed to DFS according to the eNM/S24 measures, but which originated elsewhere. The eNM/S24 measures were developed to mitigate the capacity shortfall in Karlsruhe UAC by re-routing traffic to adjacent ANSPs.

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

The GER 2024 en route capacity target of 0,27 min/flight was not met. The actual value for 2024 was 1,57 min/flight which is 1,30 min/flight above the target. It should however be emphasized, that despite more traffic in 2024 compared to 2023, there is an improvement of en route delay in comparison to the value of the previous year.

As stated in the national PP, the targets remain challenging/unachievable for DFS. The traffic increase during summer 2024 combined with a significantly higher airspace complexity, emphasised by increased military activities linked with the war in the Ukraine and staff shortages especially in Karlsruhe UAC Sector family South, were contributing factors for the achieved performance level.

In addition, there were some events or framework conditions that led to further bottlenecks such as iCAS system implementation in Munich (the implementation did not proceed as planned and this led to further capacity reduction in 2024) and as ever, high traffic volatility and poor predictability (intensive work is being done with all system partners and with NM to improve flight plan adherence).

To address the challenges at staff level, DFS training for new ATCOs has been at a maximum level in 2024 for EDUU, EDWW and EDMM.

Monitoring process for capacity performance

Data received from DFS was checked, consolidated and in terms of unclarities further information was requested. Besides this there is a well established monitoring process during the past years where the NSA requested regularly information on the Capacity performance, remedial actions and their progress as well as on outlooks.

MUAC reports its en-route capacity performance to the states through the MUAC Finance and Performance committee. The performance data is also monitored on a monthly basis through the AFG/PMG (ANSP FABEC Group / Performance Management Group) capacity report. This report is based on MUAC data and available PRU data, which is consolidated and analysed and the results compared to the reference and indicative values.

Value shown above for 2024 is in line with the SES Dashboard
(https://www.eurocontrol.int/prudata/dashboard/vis/2024/). It has to be considered that the ansperformance Dashboard (https://ansperformance.eu/data/) shows a value of 1,46 for 2024 1,79 for 2023 and 2,04 for 2022.

Capacity planning

As stated in the national PP, the targets remain challenging/unachievable for DFS. The traffic increase during summer 2024 combined with a significantly higher airspace complexity, emphasised by increased military activities linked with the war in the Ukraine and staff shortages especially in Karlsruhe UAC Sector family South, were contributing factors for the achieved performance level.

In addition, there were some events or framework conditions that led to further bottlenecks such as iCAS system implementation in Munich (the implementation did not proceed as planned and this led to further capacity reduction in 2024) and as ever, high traffic volatility and poor predictability (intensive work is being done with all system partners and with NM to improve flight plan adherence).

To meet the challenges DFS training for new ATCOs has been on maximum level in 2024 for EDUU [Karlsruhe UAC], EDWW [Bremen ACC] and EDMM [Munich ACC].

MUAC sector capacities are regularly reviewed and updated if technological or other developments allow to do so, leading to increased sector productivity. Staff planning is performed using STATFOR forecasts for traffic growth and taking into account an extrapolated increase of sector productivity for the planning horizon. MUAC has not experienced any structural staffing issues during 2024.

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

Traffic increase during summer 2024; significantly higher airspace complexity with increased military activities; iCAS system implementation in Munich (the implementation did not proceed as planned and this led to further capacity reduction in 2024); high traffic volatility and poor predictability.

As the given reasons for the capacity situation are various, the NSA was and will still be in regular contact with the ANSPs to evaluate the situation in the course of the year, the outcome of the previous years remedial actions and the implementation of further remedial actions.

Remedial measures include:
- Cooperation with NM - eNM24 - Network Measures Summer 2024 - RAD package to relieve Karlsruhe UAC. (This initiative will also be continued in 2025) - implemented;
- More extensive use of extra shifts - the labour agreement provides flexibility to make more extensive use of incentivised extra ATCO shifts, as needed - labour agreement implemented since 2018;
- ATCO training capacity - DFS training for new ATCOs has been at maximum level in 2024 for Bremen ACC, Munich ACC and Karlsruhe UAC, and will be further increased from 2026;
- Flight plan adherence - Due to the poor predictability, traffic flow measures are sometimes carried out below the standard capacity values in order to avoid congestion situations. this results in wasted capacity. Intensive work is being done with all system partners and with NM to improve flight plan adherence - ongoing;
- Airspace - continuous development and implementation of airspace redesign and adaptation of procedures - continuous;
- Weather management - Support of network weather procedures and implementationof additional local weather related activities - ongoing;
- Complexity tools - Operational use of the Complexity Tool ‘AirMagic’ and iFMP (new releases; 4 releases have been implemented) - implemented and further development planned.

Additional Information Related to Russia’s War of Aggression Against Ukraine

There was an concentration of traffic due to the war in Ukraine on the European south-east axis. This exacerbated the capacity bottlenecks. Furthermore, there are increased airspace requirements from the military, which led to higher airspace complexity.

The shift of traffic patterns (especially for the Hannover sectors) as a result of the continuing Russian war against Ukraine continued in 2024. At this time, MUAC is not experiencing structural staffing or capacity issues in the Hannover sectors as a result of this shift. However, it should be noted that any traffic increase also takes places according to these shifted patterns, which on-load mainly the Ruhr/Muenster/Solling sectors, potentially creating a bottleneck.

Since 2023, the implementation of military corridors has been suspended. Unlike in 2022, no delays were therefore generated in 2024 in connection with the corridors. The concentration of traffic on the south/east axis and thereby in the saturated family south of Karlsruhe UAC can at the time of submission of this monitoring report not be quantified. Minor delays occurred in the Hannover sectors over 2024, but this cannot be exclusively attributed to Russia’s war of agression against Ukraine.

War in Ukraine with increased military traffic still leads to significantly higher airspace complexity. These extraordinary circumstances led to a significant increase in workload in numerous sector families, which had the effect of reducing capacity for civil traffic. The military traffic volume remains above average (+11% compared to 2019). DFS is in cooperation with the German Armed Forces to minimise the military impact on civil aviation.

Unpredictability about the continuation of the situation leads to the necessity for higher planning margins for especially the DECO sectors of MUAC, in case traffic patterns shift back due to changes in the geo-political situation or (partial) relief of sanctions against Russia.

En route Capacity Incentive Scheme

DFS: The incentive scheme is based only on delays attributed to C,R,S,T,M & P delay codes. The DFS target was set at 0.162 minutes per flight and the actual performance is reported as 0.87 minutes per flight (CRSTMP only). This results in a reported malus of €4 235 376. Note: The National monitoring report states that the PRU dashboard was used to verify actual delay calculations. The PRU dashboard does not verify the consistency of delay codes and the PRC/PRU have frequently raised issues about the lack of transparency in attribution of delay codes.
MUAC: The incentive scheme is based only on delays attributed to C,R,S,T,M & P delay codes. The MUAC target was set at 0.092 minutes per flight and the actual performance is reported as 0.11 minutes per flight (CRSTMP only). This falls within the deadband resulting in neither bonus nor malus.

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

Terminal performance

Arrival ATFM delay (KPI#2)

Germany identifies a total of 15 airports as subject to RP3 monitoring (Flight Operation at Berlin-Tegel were suspended on 08/11/2020 and the airport was finally decommissioned on 05/05/2021.). However, in accordance with IR (EU) 2019/317 and the traffic figures, only 7 of those airports must be monitored for pre-departure delays. The Airport Operator Data Flow, necessary for the monitoring of these pre-departure delays, is established for the 7 airports required. Nevertheless, the quality of the reporting does not allow for the calculation of the ATC pre-departure delay at Cologne (EDDK) , with more than 60% of the reported delay not allocated to any cause.

In 2024, traffic at the ensemble of German airports under monitoring was still 22% lower with respect to 2019, and 4% higher than in 2023. The traffic recovery at Stuttgart (EDDS), Dusseldorf (EDDL) and Munich (EDDM) is worse than at most European airports, with traffic still at 65 to 78% of 2019 levels.

Average arrival ATFM delays in 2023 was 0.46 min/arr, compared to 0.54 min/arr in 2022. The national target (0.45 min/arr) was not met.
ATFM slot adherence has slightly deteriorated but remains high (2023: 97.1%; 2024: 97.6%).

Average arrival ATFM delays in 2023 at German airports was 0.46 min/arr. The most important delays were observed at Frankfurt (EDDF: 2019: 0.69 min/arr.; 2020: 0.19 min/arr.; 2021: 0.19 min/arr.; 2022: 0.38 min/arr.; 2023: 1.33 min/arr.; 2024: 1.15 min/arr.). 73% of the delays at these airports were attributed to weather, followed by 16% attributed to Aerodrome Capacity.

According to the German monitoring report: Values shown above for 2024 are in line with the SES Dashboard (https://www.eurocontrol.int/prudata/dashboard/vis/2024/) as well as with the PRUs an performance DB (https://ansperformance.eu/data/). Adverse weather conditions during summer (CB/TS) and winter (FG, FZFG, FZRN and SN), failure of network connections with temp. ATM data loss, frequency issues + temp. radar problems at EDDF and ILS-outage at EDDP caused most of the delay during the year. The largest delay-causing factor by far was adverse weather. Anyways, the deviation from the actual value to the target value is very minor and the performance has improved significantly in 2024.
The NSA recommends to improve the handling of weather delays, which, as shown below, is already in progress.

The German performance plan sets a national target on arrival ATFM delay for 2024 of 0.45 min/arr. This target was not met, with an actual performance of 0.46 min/arr. The incentive scheme uses modulated pivot values limited to CRSTMP delay causes. According to the German monitoring report, this pivot value for CRSTMP is 0.026 min/arr in 2024 and based on the attribution of the regulation reason, the actual CRSTMP value for 2023 was 0.022 min/arr. This actual value falls within the dead band for the incentive scheme, so no bonus nor penalty applies.

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 2024 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Berlin Schönefeld NA 0.94 0.04 0.01 0.05 97.7% 98.3% 99.3% 99.4% 99.5% 0.04 0.32 0.27 0.46 0.39 8.2 12.3 20.1 19.9 17.8
Berlin-Tegel 0.05 NA NA NA NA 94.2% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 6.7 NA NA NA NA
Bremen 0.01 0.02 0.01 NA NA 94.9% 92.5% 95.6% 96.6% 96.3% 0.01 0.10 0.14 0.17 0.13 3.4 4.9 11.1 11.7 10.8
Dresden NA 0.00 0.06 0.02 NA 99.7% 98.8% 98.8% 98.8% 97.9% 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7.9 9.0 12.0 15.3 14.6
Düsseldorf 0.26 0.03 0.12 0.15 0.12 95.8% 98.2% 98.0% 98.3% 98.4% 0.11 0.03 0.10 0.16 0.11 8.2 11.6 20.6 18.1 16.7
Erfurt NA NA 0.22 NA NA 96.0% 97.4% 98.4% 97.1% 97.9% 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.8 7.8 14.4 18.0 11.9
Frankfurt 0.19 0.19 0.38 1.33 1.15 92.3% 96.4% 96.4% 96.3% 97.1% 0.28 0.14 0.18 0.33 0.11 16.5 20.4 27.9 25.8 23.2
Hamburg 0.03 0.01 0.05 0.04 0.04 97.5% 97.6% 97.8% 97.8% 97.6% 0.08 0.12 0.34 0.50 0.42 7.4 10.2 19.0 20.0 18.5
Hannover NA 0.07 0.03 0.00 NA 95.9% 94.4% 94.2% 95.7% 97.6% 0.01 0.08 0.26 0.27 0.19 11.6 16.1 20.8 17.9 17.5
Köln-Bonn 0.03 0.80 1.31 1.04 0.53 97.2% 97.0% 97.8% 98.0% 98.5% NA NA NA NA NA 10.8 16.7 25.7 20.4 22.0
Leipzig 0.14 0.31 0.20 0.53 0.29 98.9% 96.9% 99.0% 97.6% 98.6% 0.16 0.12 0.12 0.15 0.59 15.2 21.9 19.2 18.5 17.1
München 0.08 0.13 0.22 0.29 0.38 94.3% 96.9% 97.6% 95.1% 95.6% 0.01 0.07 0.02 0.00 0.00 7.3 9.0 16.7 18.4 19.7
Münster-Osnabrück NA NA NA NA 0.00 97.1% 97.1% 96.8% 97.8% 98.4% 0.00 NA 0.01 0.01 0.04 8.6 9.9 10.6 10.4 14.1
Nürnberg NA 0.01 NA 0.01 0.00 97.6% 97.7% 98.2% 97.6% 98.3% 0.03 NA 0.17 0.17 0.07 13.4 15.9 22.7 21.6 21.5
Saarbrücken NA 0.00 NA NA NA 98.4% 98.7% 97.2% 97.9% 97.2% 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 3.3 6.3 14.4 12.1 12.8
Stuttgart NA 0.02 0.08 0.05 0.12 98.9% 98.9% 98.9% 98.9% 98.7% 0.05 0.01 0.05 0.06 0.10 6.9 9.0 13.7 14.4 15.6

ATFM slot adherence

All German airports showed adherence above 95% and the national average was 97.6%, an improvement with respect to 2023 (97.1%). With regard to the 2.4% of flights that did not adhere, 1.7% were early and 0.7% were late.

According to the German monitoring report: The consistently high proportion of well over 95% of regulated flights that departed within the Slot Tolerance Window demonstrates that the established procedures and processes at the airports are excellent.

ATC pre-departure delay

The share of unidentified delay reported by Cologne (EDDK) during the entire RP3 has been above 40% for more than 2 months in the year, preventing the calculation of this indicator.

The German monitoring report adds:
This data is not collected by DFS.
No initiatives are planned by DFS.
The calculation of the ATC pre-departure delay is based on the data provided by the airport operators through the Airport Operator Data Flow (APDF), which is implemented at all the airports above 80 000 movements.

However, there are several quality checks before EUROCONTROL can produce the final value which is established as the average minutes of pre-departure delay (delay in the actual off block time) associated to the IATA delay code 89 (through the APDF, for each delayed flight, the reasons for that delay have to be transmitted and coded according to IATA delay codes.

However, sometimes the airport operator has no information concerning the reasons for the delay in the off block, or they cannot convert the reasons to the IATA delay codes. In those cases, the airport operator might:
- Not report any information about the reasons for the delay for that flight (unreported delay)
- Report a special code to indicate they do not have the information (code ZZZ)
- Report a special code to indicate they do not have the means to collect or translate the information (code 999)

To be able to calculate with a minimum of accuracy the PI for a given month, the minutes of delay that are not attributed to any IATA code reason should not exceed 40% of the total minutes of pre-departure delay observed at the airport. In 2024, out of those airports above 80 000 movements, only EDDK still has a very high share of unexplained delay.

Finally, to be able to produce the annual figure, at least 10 months of valid data is requested by EUROCONTROL which has been the case for EDDF, EDDB, EDDL, EDDH, EDDM, EDDS. In order to provide information for remaining German airports, data provided by the airlines through the Aircraft Operator Data Flow (AODF) published by PRU has been used by the NSA for other airports for this reporting even if it covers only about 70% of the flights, while the airport operator data flow covers all flights at the airport. In order to improve the situation EUROCONTROL contacts regularly the airports to check on the status of the reporting and provide support in the final correct implementation of the APDF. EUROCONTROL is also part of an ACI sub-group (APN) that includes several airports and informs them regularly on data provision issues.

All causes pre-departure delay

The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at German airports in 2024 decreased on average at the monitored airports. The highest pre-departure delays were observed at Frankfurt (EDDF: 2023: 25.75 min/dep; 2024: 23.17 min/dep) that even with the reduction compared to 2023, results in the 4th highest pre-departure delay in the SES area.

According to the German monitoring report there are no initiatives planned by DFS in this area. The German monitoring report also mentions:
All cause departure delay is very generic and ATFM delay is only a small contributor. Departure delay can be generated by ATFM en-route delay (not only local airport, but the complete Network) but also reactionary and turnaround delay, technical issues with the aircraft, airport operations, problems with passengers and or luggage, etc. In other words, it is not always possible to address a specific reason as this delay is quite generic.