Cost-efficiency - Romania

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PRB monitoring

▪ The en route 2024 actual unit cost of Romania was 32.50€2017, -7.5% lower than the determined unit cost (35.13€2017). The terminal 2024 actual unit cost was 270.72€2017, +5.6% higher than the determined unit cost (256.40€2017).

▪ The en route 2024 actual service units of Romania (6.4M) were +9.3% higher than the determined service units (5.8M).

▪ The en route 2024 actual total costs were slightly higher than determined (+2.4M€2017, or +1.2%). Higher staff costs for ROMATSA (+4.8M€2017, or +3.1%) was partially compensated by lower than planned other operating costs (-3.4M€2017, or -17%). The NSA noted that staff costs are above planned due to higher pension costs, inflation, and wage compensations awarded due to higher traffic than planned and the achievement of capacity targets.

▪ ROMATSA costs of investments were 18M€2017 in 2024 for both en route and terminal charging zones, -3.9% lower than determined (19M€2017).

▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2024 was 44.15€ (+5.8% higher than the 2024 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users in 2024 was 338.04€ (+9.6% higher than the 2024 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC is mainly driven by the positive inflation adjustment for both the en route and terminal charging zones.

En route charging zone

Unit cost (KPI#1)

Actual and determined data
Total costs - nominal (M€) 2020-2021 2022 2023 2024
Actual costs 373 227 271 293
Determined costs 370 219 249 265
Difference costs 2 8 22 29
Inflation assumptions 2020-2021 2022 2023 2024
Determined inflation rate NA 9.3% 4.0% 3.0%
Determined inflation index NA 125.9 130.9 134.8
Actual inflation rate NA 12.0% 9.7% 5.8%
Actual inflation index NA 129 141.5 149.7
Difference inflation index (p.p.) NA +3.1 +10.6 +14.9

AUC vs. DUC

In 2024, the en route AUC was -7.5% (or -11.98 RON2017, -2.62 €2017) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of significantly higher than planned TSUs (+9.3%) and higher than planned en route costs in real terms (+1.2%, or +11.0 MRON2017, +2.4 M€2017). It should be noted that the actual inflation index in 2024 was +14.9 p.p. higher than planned.

En route service units

The difference between actual and planned TSUs (+9.3%) falls outside the ±2% dead-band, but does not exceed the +10% threshold foreseen in the traffic risk sharing mechanism. The resulting gain of additional en route revenues is therefore shared between the ANSP and the airspace users (see the main ANSP gain in Box 11).

En route costs by entity

The 2024 actual real en route costs are +1.2% (+2.4 M€2017) higher than planned. This is the result of higher costs for the main ANSP, ROMATSA (+0.7%, or +1.3 M€2017) and the NSA/EUROCONTROL (+9.2%, or +1.1 M€2017).

En route costs for the main ANSP at charging zone level

Slightly higher than planned en route costs in real terms for ROMATSA in 2024 (+0.7%, or +1.3 M€2017) result from:
- Higher than planned staff costs (+3.2%), due to “an increase of pension costs, compensation of personnel with inflation and non-recurring amounts for the higher than planned traffic and achievement of capacity targets”.
- Significantly lower than planned other operating costs (-16.7%), due to a decrease in electricity costs, as well as delays in the training programme and procurement for contracts with third parties.
- Lower than planned depreciation costs (-4.5%), mainly due to under-realisation of depreciation costs for investments with commissioning deadlines.
- Higher than planned cost of capital (+2.9%), due to delays accumulated in previous years, which led to the investments planned for 2024 being carried out at a higher level than that provided for in the RP3 plan.

RP3 summary

When considering the whole of RP3 (2020-2024) for Romania en route charging zone, actual TSUs are +5.2% higher than planned, while actual costs in real terms are +0.9% higher than the determined costs (some +37.9 MRON2017 or +8.3 M€2017). As a result, the weighted average actual unit cost over RP3 (191.05 RON2017 or 41.84 €2017) is -4.1% lower than planned in the PP (199.15 RON2017 or 43.61 €2017).

Actual unit cost incurred by the users (AUCU) (PI#1)

AUCU components (€/SU) – 2024
Components of the AUCU in 2024 €/SU
DUC 41.73
Inflation adjustment 3.70
Cost exempt from cost-sharing 0.29
Traffic risk sharing adjustment -1.77
Traffic adj. (costs not TRS) -0.34
Finantial incentives 0.55
Modulation of charges 0.00
Cross-financing 0.00
Other revenues 0.00
Application of lower unit rate 0.00
Total adjustments 2.42
AUCU 44.15
AUCU vs. DUC + 5.8%
Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2024 €'000 €/SU
New and existing investments -401.2 -0.06
Competent authorities and qualified entities costs -709.8 -0.11
Eurocontrol costs 1,750.9 0.27
Pension costs 1,078.9 0.17
Interest on loans 112.8 0.02
Changes in law 0.0 0.00
Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing 1,831.5 0.29

The actual en route unit cost incurred by airspace users (AUCU) in respect of activities performed in 2024 (219.51 RON or 44.15 €) is +5.8% higher than the nominal DUC (207.47 RON or 41.73 €). The difference between these two figures (+12.04 RON/SU or +2.42 €/SU) is due to:
- the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+18.40 RON/SU or +3.70 €/SU);
- the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost sharing mechanism (+1.43 RON/SU or +0.29 €/SU);
- the deduction of the traffic risk sharing adjustments (-8.82 RON/SU or -1.77 €/SU);
- the deduction of the traffic adjustment (-1.68 RON/SU or -0.34 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing; and
- the financial incentives (+2.71 RON/SU or +0.55 €/SU).
The share of the regulatory result (see items 10 to 13) in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is 6.2%.

Regulatory result (RR)

ROMATSA net gain on activity in the Romania en route charging zone in the year 2024

ROMATSA reported a net gain of +58.1 MRON, as a combination of a loss of -5.1 MRON arising from the cost sharing mechanism, with a gain of +46.0 MRON arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism and a gain of +17.3 MRON relating to financial incentives.

ROMATSA overall regulatory result (RR) for the en route activity

Ex-post, the overall RR taking into account the net gain from the en route activity mentioned above (+58.1 MRON) and the actual RoE (+28.8 MRON) amounts to +86.9 MRON (6.5% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 22.4%, which is higher than the 7.4% planned in the PP.

RP3 summary

When considering the whole of RP3 (2020-2024), ROMATSA generated a cumulative loss in respect of cost sharing of -4.9 MRON, as actual total costs for RP3 were higher than planned. The traffic risk sharing mechanism generated gain of +97.4 MRON. Adding the gain of +33.5 MRON to be retained by the ATSP in respect of financial incentives and the actual RoE (+157.7 MRON over RP3) leads to an overall regulatory result of +283.7 MRON, which corresponds to an average ex-post rate of return on equity of 15.8% (compared to 8.8% initially planned in the PP).