Cost-efficiency - Slovenia

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PRB monitoring

▪ The en route 2024 actual unit cost of Slovenia was 49.44€2017, -12% lower than the determined unit cost (56.19€2017). Slovenia does not have a terminal charging zone.

▪ The en route 2024 actual service units of Slovenia (0.7M) were +18% higher than the determined service units (0.6M).

▪ The en route 2024 actual total costs were +1.3M€2017, (+3.9%) higher than determined. This difference is mainly driven by Slovenia Control’s staff costs (+1.3M€2017, or +6.1%). The NSA noted that it is mainly due to entry into force of a new collective agreement.

▪ Slovenia Control costs of investments were 3.8M€2017 in 2024, -17% lower than determined (4.6M€2017), due to “delayed investments”.

▪ The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2024 was 58.00€ (-4.0% lower than the 2024 DUC). This difference was mostly led by higher traffic than planned.

En route charging zone

Unit cost (KPI#1)

Actual and determined data
Total costs - nominal (M€) 2020-2021 2022 2023 2024
Actual costs 61 35 41 43
Determined costs 63 35 36 37
Difference costs -2 0 4 6
Inflation assumptions 2020-2021 2022 2023 2024
Determined inflation rate NA 1.5% 1.6% 1.8%
Determined inflation index NA 106 107.8 109.7
Actual inflation rate NA 9.3% 7.2% 2.0%
Actual inflation index NA 115.5 123.9 126.3
Difference inflation index (p.p.) NA +9.5 +16.1 +16.7

AUC vs. DUC

In 2024, the en route AUC was -12.0% (or -6.74 €2017) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of significantly higher than planned TSUs (+18.1%) and higher than planned en route costs in real terms (+3.9%, or +1.3 M€2017). It should be noted that the actual inflation index in 2024 was +16.7 p.p. higher than planned.

En route service units

The difference between actual and planned TSUs (+18.1%) falls outside 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 +3.9% (+1.3 M€2017) higher than planned. This is the result of higher than planned costs for the main ANSP, Slovenia Control (+4.6%, or +1.4 M€2017) and the MET service provider (+18.1%, or +0.2 M€2017) and lower than planned costs for the NSA/EUROCONTROL (-10.3%, or -0.3 M€2017).

En route costs for the main ANSP at charging zone level

Higher than planned en route costs in real terms for Slovenia Control in 2024 (+4.6%, or +1.4 M€2017) result from:
- Significantly higher than planned staff costs (+6.1%), mainly due to “new collective agreement being signed and inflation adjusted”,
- Significantly higher than planned other operating costs (+10.9%), mainly due to “significantly higher inflation than planned”,
- Significantly lower than planned depreciation (-15.6%), mainly due to “delayed investments”,
- Significantly higher than planned cost of capital (+8.9%) mainly due to “the value of net current assets (…) (regardless of delayed investments)“.

RP3 summary

When considering the whole of RP3 (2020-2024) for Slovenia en route charging zone, actual TSUs are +13.2% higher than planned, while actual costs in real terms are -1.6% lower than the determined costs (some -2.7 M€2017). As a result, the weighted average actual unit cost over RP3 (61.01 €2017) is -13.1% lower than planned in the PP (70.24 €2017).

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

AUCU components (€/SU) – 2024
Components of the AUCU in 2024 €/SU
DUC 60.44
Inflation adjustment 6.22
Cost exempt from cost-sharing -1.52
Traffic risk sharing adjustment -6.23
Traffic adj. (costs not TRS) -1.04
Finantial incentives 0.13
Modulation of charges 0.00
Cross-financing 0.00
Other revenues 0.00
Application of lower unit rate 0.00
Total adjustments -2.44
AUCU 58.00
AUCU vs. DUC -4.0%
Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2024 €'000 €/SU
New and existing investments -806.6 -1.13
Competent authorities and qualified entities costs -250.3 -0.35
Eurocontrol costs -28.3 -0.04
Pension costs 0.0 0.00
Interest on loans 0.0 0.00
Changes in law 0.0 0.00
Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing -1,085.2 -1.52

The actual en route unit cost incurred by airspace users (AUCU) in respect of activities performed in 2024 (58.00 €) is -4.0% lower than the nominal DUC (60.44 €). The difference between these two figures (-2.44 €/SU) is due to:
- the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+6.22 €/SU);
- the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost sharing mechanism (-1.52 €/SU);
- the deduction of the traffic risk sharing adjustments (-6.23 €/SU);
- the deduction of the traffic adjustment (-1.04 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing; and
- the financial incentives (+0.13 €/SU).
The share of the regulatory result (see items 10 to 14) in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is -0.6%.

Regulatory result (RR)

Slovenia Control net gain/loss on activity in the Slovenia en route charging zone in the year 2024

Slovenia Control reported a net loss of -1.1 M€, as a combination of a loss of -2.6 M€ arising from the cost sharing mechanism, with a gain of +1.4 M€ arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism and a gain of +0.1 M€ relating to financial incentives.

Slovenia Control overall regulatory result (RR) for the en route activity

Ex-post, the overall RR taking into account the net loss from the en route activity mentioned above (-1.1 M€) and the actual RoE (+1.2 M€) amounts to +0.1 M€ (0.2% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 0.7%, which is lower than the 10.4% planned in the PP.

RP3 summary

When considering the whole of RP3 (2020-2024), Slovenia Control generated a cumulative gain in respect of cost sharing of +0.1 M€, as actual total costs for RP3 were lower than planned. The traffic risk sharing mechanism generated a gain of +5.8 M€. Adding the gain of +0.4 M€ to be retained by the ATSP in respect of financial incentives and the actual RoE (+4.6 M€ over RP3) leads to an overall regulatory result of +10.9 M€, which corresponds to an average ex-post rate of return on equity of 24.5% (compared to 10.4% initially planned in the PP).

Note 1: The ex-ante and ex-post RoE are calculated based on the notional capital structure (representing the proportion of financing through equity for determined and actual for whole RP3 at the level of 40%). The actual proportion should be reported.