Capacity - Italy

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PRB monitoring

▪ Italy registered 0.74 minutes of average en route ATFM delay per flight during 2024, which has been adjusted to 0.72 during the post-ops adjustment process, thus not achieving the local target value of 0.11. Delays in Italy increased by 0.58 minutes per flight year-on-year.

▪ Delays in Italy were highest between June and August, mostly due to adverse weather conditions and ATC Capacity issues.

▪ The share of delayed flights with delays longer than 15 minutes in Italy increased by 7 percentage points compared to 2023 and was lower than 2019 values.

▪ The average number of IFR movements was 11% above 2019 levels in Italy in 2024.

▪ The number of ATCOs in OPS is 89, being below the 2024 plan in Brindisi by 7 FTEs. The number of ATCOs in OPS is 290, being over the 2024 plan in Milano by 12 FTEs. The number of ATCOs in OPS is 205, being below the 2024 plan in Padova by 6 FTEs. The number of ATCOs in OPS is 337, being over the 2024 plan in Rome by 17 FTEs.

▪ The yearly total of sector opening hours in Rome ACC was 117,286, showing a 0.7% decrease compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 113.3% above 2019 levels. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Milano ACC was 69,074, showing a 8.3% increase compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 20.6% below 2019 levels. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Brindisi ACC was 23,654, showing a 10.0% decrease compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 16.7% above 2019 levels. The yearly total of sector opening hours in Padova ACC was 64,644, showing a 11.3% increase compared to 2023. Sector opening hours are 15.9% above 2019 levels.

▪ Milano ACC registered 14.75 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 40.6% above 2019 levels. Padova ACC registered 13.03 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 4.7% below 2019 levels. Brindisi ACC registered 16.97 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 5.5% below 2019 levels. Rome ACC registered 9.02 IFR movements per one sector opening hour in 2024, being 45.0% below 2019 levels.

▪ 2024 results were above the target value. Italy should work closely with the Network Manager to mitigate the impact of adverse weather on capacity performance. Actual 2025 figures up to August indicate a significant performance improvement compared to 2024.

▪ Italy registered an average airport arrival ATFM delay of 0.28 minutes per flight in 2024, thus achieving the local target of 0.30 minutes.

▪ Compared to 2023, average arrival ATFM delays in Italy were 87% higher in 2024, while the number of IFR arrivals increased by 10%.

▪ The main drivers of delays were weather, accounting for 68% of delays, and other, non-ATC related causes, responsible for 27%.

En route performance

En route ATFM delay (KPI#1)

Summary of capacity performance

Italy experienced an increase in traffic from 1 983k flights with 264k minutes of en route ATFM delay in 2023 (following NM post operations delay attribution process) to 2 164k flights in 2024 with 1 454k minutes of en route ATFM delay.

There were an additional 41k minutes of ATFM delay originating in Italy that were re-attributed to the DFS via the NM post operations delay attribution process, according to the NMB agreement for eNM/S24 measures, to ameliorate the capacity shortfall in Karlsruhe UAC.

Following a request from the Italian NSA, 450k minutes of en route ATFM delay, originally attributed by the ANSP as ATC Capacity and reported by the Network Manager as ‘Staffing Issues’, were re-attributed as ‘Other’ in the post-operations process.

NSA’s assessment of capacity performance

The global ER target (0,11) wasn’t reached by ANSP due to weather; indeed, the delay was almost 0,13min just for weather reason.
ANSP reached the capacity goal for the incentive ER and terminal schemes.

Monitoring process for capacity performance

Monthly monitoring and analysis of the operational performance at Country and single ACC level is carried out by ENAV. Checks are made against the value of ATFM generated delay per month and its exepcted trend across the year.

The post-operations performance adjustment process was conducted by ENAV during the year. At the beginning of summer 2024 lots of delay reallocation processes were initiated by ENAC in respect of NM to acknowledge the erroneous attribution of some enroute ATFM delays to Italy. In addition, some delay adjustment ones were put in place between NM and ENAV.

The outcomes of the reconciliation process confirmed the figure of Capacity KPI #1 as presented by PRB in the current table (0.72 m/f). The reconciliation processes also affected the additional Capacity ENR PI#1 which solely includes the ATM reasons of the ATFM delay. While the final delay value from the reconciliation has to be officially confirmed (PRB/PRU), the final result of capacity, for the sole ATM reasons, is of 0,066 min/flight (rounded is 0,07 min/flight).

Capacity planning

Nothing reported.

Application of Corrective Measures for Capacity (if applicable)

According to the national monitoring report: In 2024 there were six reasons of Enroute ATFM delay: Weather (52.8%), Other (37.9%), ATC Equipment (4.8%), ATC Capacity (4.3%), Special Event (0.1%) and Industrial Action (0.1%) . As such, the “ATM” reasons (ATC Equipment and Capacity) accounted only for a tiny part of the overall delay assignment (9.2%). As represented in several fora, Italy continues experiencing the increase of weather phenomena having impact on traffic flows and capacity. It wasn’t possible to identify further measures to reduce the delay due to meteorological phenomena, that have not already been adopted (e.g. opening new sectors, diversions, etc.).

En route Capacity Incentive Scheme

ENAV: The incentive scheme is based only on delays attributed to C,R,S,T,M & P delay codes. The ENAV target was set at 0.07 minutes per flight and, following the re-attribution of 450k minutes of delay (or 0.2 min/flt) from ‘C’ to ‘O’, the actual performance is reported as 0.07 minutes per flight (CRSTMP only); which results in neither penalty nor bonus for the ANSP.
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)

Italy identified five airports as subject to RP3 monitoring. All of them have a fully implemented data flow that allows the proper monitoring of pre-departure delays. The quality of the reporting has improved, allowing since 2023 the calculation of the ATC pre-departure delay at the five airports. Traffic at the ensemble of these Italian airports in 2024 increased 10% with respect to 2023 and surpassed 2019 levels by 3%.

Average arrival ATFM delay in 2024 was 0.28 min/arr, compared to 0.15 min/arr in 2023. National target was met. ATFM slot adherence has slightly deteriorated (2023: 95.8%; 2024: 95.2%).

The national average arrival ATFM delay at Italian airports in 2024 was 0.28 min/arr. 68% of all delays at Italian airports were attributed to weather followed by 10% to Aerodrome Capacity (mainly at Rome Fiumicino).

According to the Italian monitoring report: This indicator includes all the reasons of ATFM delay. Nevertheless, as done in 2.3.1.A KPI#1, it is important to show the figures that really contributed to the achievement of the ATM performance. Below there are the figures for the ““Terminal ATM-only arrival delay per flight”” indicator which is limited to C,R,S,T,M,P causes for the following airports:
LIMC: 0.00 m/f
LIME: 0.00 m/f
LIML: 0.00 m/f
LIPZ: 0.00 m/f
LIRF: 0.02 m/f

The Italian performance plan sets a national target on arrival ATFM delay for 2024 of 0.30 min/arr. This target was met in 2024 with an actual performance of 0.28 min/arr.

The incentive scheme uses modulated pivot values limited CRSTMP delay causes. This pivot value for CRSTMP is 0.04 min/arr in 2024. According to the attribution of the regulation reason, the actual CRSTMP value for 2024 is 0.000 min/arr. although the NSA reports 0.001 min/arr. The NSA calculates a maximum bonus (1%) of EUR995540.

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
Fiumicino 0.02 0.00 0.04 0.06 0.19 98.0% 98.1% 96.5% 95.5% 93.1% 0.64 0.89 1.55 1.93 2.12 6.4 9.2 14.9 17.3 18.9
Linate 0.06 0.03 0.13 0.06 0.26 96.1% 96.9% 98.0% 98.2% 98.3% 0.05 0.06 0.38 0.63 0.60 5.1 7.8 11.2 13.0 11.5
Malpensa 0.02 0.05 0.09 0.38 0.40 97.3% 97.2% 97.7% 97.7% 98.1% 0.36 0.64 1.18 1.23 1.16 17.8 20.1 23.5 23.9 23.5
Orio Al Serio 0.04 0.07 0.08 0.07 0.29 94.8% 96.1% 93.9% 92.5% 94.0% 0.52 0.77 1.14 1.06 1.21 8.0 12.5 21.4 20.7 23.1
Venice Tessera 0.16 0.04 0.04 0.07 0.29 90.0% 94.2% 92.8% 93.8% 93.2% 0.85 0.68 1.15 1.15 1.00 9.8 12.0 20.1 20.3 20.2

ATFM slot adherence

All Italian airports showed adherence above 90% and the national average was 95.2%. With regard to the 4.8% of flights that did not adhere, 1.9% were early and 2.9% were late.

According to the Italian monitoring report: Slightly difference in adherence values exists between the prefilled tables and what has been elaborated by Italy (ENAV) for the same year. ENAV data source is NM/NMIR, the difference is around one decimal percentage point and can be explained by the use of different/updated flight samples that eventually respected the ATFM slot time window

ATC pre-departure delay

The performance at all four Italian airports in 2024 was similar to the observed in 2023 with different variations. The ATC pre-departure delays at Rome deteriorated in 2024 surpassing 2 min/dep (LIRF: 2024: 2.13 min/dep), the second highest ATC pre-departure delay in the SES monitored airports.

The Italian NSA reports that ENAV has no visibility/control over the data submitted by Airport Operators and Airlines. Therefore, ENAV cannot provide any additional data in this respect

All causes pre-departure delay

The total (all causes) delay in the actual off block time at Italian airports in 2024 showed a deterioration at Bergamo (LIME: 2024: 23.11 min/dep), that together with Malpensa (LIMC: 2024: 23.54 min/dep) resulted in the 5th and 2nd highest pre-departure delays amongst the SES monitored airports, respectively.

The Italian NSA reports that: Originators of data are the Airport Operators and delay codes are IATA codes, as such ENAV cannot provide any information in this respect.