Annual Monitoring Report 2024 - Hungary
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/775 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Budapest ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 0
Exchange rate (1 EUR=)
2017: 308.993 HUF
2024: 395.113 HUF
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) 2024 3.0%
Share of Union-wide en route costs 2024 1.9%
Share en route / terminal costs 2024 82% / 18%
En route charging zone(s)
Hungary
Terminal charging zone(s)
Hungary
Main ANSP
• HungaroControl (EC)
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• Hungarian Meteorological Service (Országos Meteorológiai Szolgálat)
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Hungary recorded 1,100K actual IFR movements in 2024, +6.4% compared to 2023 (1,034K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements were +16.4% above the plan (945K).
▪ Actual 2024 IFR movements are +23.3% above the actual 2019 level (892K).
▪ Hungary recorded 3,892K actual service units in 2024, +4.5% compared to 2023 (3,726K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units were +22.3% above the plan (3,182K).
▪ Actual 2024 service units are +23.1% above the actual 2019 level (3,162K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ HungaroControl achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in 2020 and continued to improve its performance. In 2024 HungaroControl maintained Level D for all five management objectives.
▪ Hungary recorded no runway incursions (RIs) in 2024, and a similar rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs) compared with 2023.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Hungary achieved a KEA performance of 2.23% compared to its target of 1.49% and did not contribute positively towards achieving the Union-wide target.
▪ The NSA states the deterioration in performance resulted from the extra distance flown caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ Both KEP and SCR improved in comparison with 2023. The value of these two indicators was similar, meaning airspace users planned close to the shortest route available. Despite the KEA target being missed, the improvement in SCR shows that Hungary has improved the environmental efficiency of its airspace when accounting for impacts outside of its control.
▪ The share of CDO flights decreased from 27.26% to 26.14% in 2024.
▪ Additional taxi out time increased from 1.09 to 1.31 min/flight, while additional time in terminal airspace increased from 0.58 to 0.77 min/flight in 2024 compared to 2023.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Hungary registered 2.64 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2024, which has been adjusted to 2.75 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.11. Delays in Hungary increased by 1.94 minutes per flight year-on-year.
▪ Delays were highest between May and September, mostly related to the lack of ATC Capacity, adverse weather conditions and the additional complexity due to the Ukranian crisis.
▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Hungary increased by 2 percentage points compared to 2023 and was higher than 2019 values.
▪ The average number of IFR movements was 23% above 2019 levels in Hungary in 2024.
▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is 114, being below the 2024 plan in Budapest by 5 FTEs.
▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Budapest ACC was 34,903, showing a 1.0% decrease compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 3.0% above 2019 levels.
▪ Budapest ACC registered 30.36 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 21.6% above 2019 levels.
▪ Delays in Hungary increased dramatically in 2024 compared to 2023, due to the efforts to mitigate the additional complexity and traffic growth resulting from the impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine not being sufficient. Hungary should continue to work closely with the Network Manager and all stakeholders to mitigate the impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and ensure that all measures within the remit of the ANSP are implemented as planned. Actual 2025 values up to August show an improvement.
▪ Hungary registered zero minutes of average airport arrival ATFM delay per flight in 2024, thus achieving its local target of 0.05 minutes.
▪ Compared to 2023, the number of IFR arrivals in Hungary increased by 17%, while the average airport arrival ATFM delay decreased from 0.02 to zero minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ The en route 2024 actual unit cost of Hungary was 29.55€2017, -17% lower than the determined unit cost (35.42€2017). The terminal 2024 actual unit cost was 281.17€2017, -16% lower than the determined unit cost (335.29€2017).
▪ The en route 2024 actual service units (3.9M) were +22% higher than the determined service units (3.2M).
▪ The en route 2024 actual total costs were 2.3M€2017 (+2.0%) higher than determined. The largest difference was a higher than determined staff costs for HungaroControl (+3.5M €2017, or +7.2%), due to salary increases for both ATCO and non-ATCO positions resulting from high inflation, partly offset by lower than planned staff numbers . This difference is partially compensated by lower other operating costs in real terms (-3.1M€2017, or -12%), due to the effect of inflation.
▪ HungaroControl costs of investments were 32M€2017 in 2024 for both en route and terminal charging zones, -21% less than determined (40M€2017). The difference is mainly due to underspend of -23% (-5.8M €2017) in depreciation. The NSA explained that the lower than planned depreciation is due to delays in the implementation of the investment plan accumulated during RP3.
▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2024 was 32.04€ (-1.5% below the 2024 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 288.25€ (-4.2% below the 2024 DUC).
▪ Hungary’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. Hungary 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 significantly lower than determined. Hungary should reimburse to airspace users the excess funds received by the ANSP for measures not implemented.