Environment - Hungary

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PRB monitoring

▪ 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.

En route performance

Horizontal flight efficiency of the actual trajectory (KEA) (KPI#1), of the last filed flight plan (KEP) (PI#1) & shortest constrained route (SCR) (PI#2)

Terminal performance

Additional taxi-out time (AXOT) (PI#3) & Arrival Sequencing and Metering Area (ASMA) time (PI#4)

AXOT

Additional taxi-out times at Budapest increased by 20% in 2024 (LHBP; 2019: 1.63 min/dep.; 2020: 0.87 min/dep.; 2021: 1.06 min/dep.; 2022: 1.4 min/dep.; 2023: 1.09 min/dep.; 2024: 1.31 min/dep.) but remained considerably lower than the SES average of 2.91 min/dep.

According to the Hungarian monitoring report: The en-route capacity problems have also had a significant impact on LHBP traffic and therefore PI has deteriorated somewhat compared to the previous year.

Plans for 2025 include a significant reduction in en-route delays, especially for LHBP first rotation, which will also have an impact on all-day delays.

ASMA

The additional times in the terminal airspace at Budapest increased by 33% in 2024 (LHBP; 2019: 0.85 min/arr.; 2020: 0.66 min/arr.; 2021: 0.67 min/arr.; 2022: 0.34 min/arr.; 2023: 0.58 min/arr.; 2024: 0.77 min/arr.) but remained well below the SES average for 2024 of 1.28 min/arr.

According to the Hungarian monitoring report: Budapest APP handles the bulk of LHBP arriving traffic according to CDO principles, so the slight deterioration in this indicator is the result of increased traffic.Since the actual value of this PI is still acceptable, no additional initiatives are needed.

Share of arrivals applying continuous descent operations (CDOs) (PI#5)

The share of CDO flights for Budapest (LHBP) has decreased from 26.8% in 2023 to 25.7% in 2024. This value is below the overall RP3 value in 2024 (29.3%). From May to October, the monthly values were below 26%.

According to the Hungarian monitoring report: Despite the fact that traffic at LHBP has been increased in 2024 the value of this performance indicator in 2024 is practically the same as in the previous year, therefore no further initiatives are identified.

Airport level
Airport
Additional taxi-out time (PI#3)
Additional ASMA time (PI#4)
Share of arrivals applying CDO (PI#5)
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Budapest 0.87 1.06 1.40 1.09 1.31 0.66 0.67 0.34 0.58 0.77 33% 34% 26% 27% 26%

Civil-Military dimension

Update on Military dimension of the plan

The impact of military operations on civil traffic continued to be very high in 2024. The war in Ukraine forced the Hungarian air defence and air force to use special training areas which were activated on an ad-hoc basis. Apart from those, special air corridors were also established and used in order to allow the crossing of the allied forces UAVs.

Due to the ongoing war in the neighbouring country, the Hungarian Air Force has raised its readiness level. In parallel, pilots have been required to undergo training for a new form of aerial combat. As part of these efforts, extensive so-called BVR (Beyond Visual Range) airspaces have been established.

Military - related measures implemented or planned to improve capacity

To mitigate these negative impacts, improvements were made in civil-military cooperation, resulting in a reduction in the total reservation time of AMC-manageable TRAs.

Initiatives implemented or planned to improve PI#6

Compared to the previous year, there were about 1000 hours less airspace bookings overall, but the actual utilisation of the TRAs increased by about 700 hours, resulting in an efficiency improvement of almost 10%. Unfortunately due to the ongoing war in neighbouring Ukraine the special military airspaces, created to better respond to threats are still in use and continued to be activated on an ad hoc basis.

Initiatives implemented or planned to improve PI#7

With the implementation of free route airspace in Hungary in 2015 all the ATS routes have been eliminated. Since that the entire CDR route concept has no meaning anymore in Hungary

Initiatives implemented or planned to improve PI#8

With the implementation of free route airspace in Hungary in 2015 all the ATS routes have been eliminated. Since that the entire CDR route concept has no meaning anymore in Hungary.