Cost-efficiency - Austria

Download Report

PRB monitoring

  • The en route 2025 actual unit cost of Austria was 47.70€2022, -12.3% lower than the determined unit cost (54.40€2022). The terminal 2025 actual unit cost was 252.77€2022, +3.7% higher than the determined unit cost (243.83€2022).

  • The en route 2025 actual service units (4.5M) were +9.2% higher than the determined service units (4.2M).

  • The en route 2025 actual total costs were -9.5M€2022 (-4.2%) lower than determined. This is mainly due to lower other operating costs for Austro Control (-7.4M€2022, or -30.4%), partially compensated by higher staff costs than planned (+5.3M€2022, or 3.7%). The NSA explained that the decrease in other operating costs is attributable to renegotiation of contracts, lower energy and external support costs, and delays in the investment plan.

  • Austro Control spent 26.1M€2022 in 2025 related to costs of investments for both en route and terminal charging zones, -14.5% less than determined (30.5M€2022). According to the NSA, this reduction is due to delayed investments resulting from the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as supplier issues affecting some projects, which led to a later than planned operational readiness.

  • The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2025 was 60.56€ (in line with the 2025 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 297.62€ (+9.2% above the 2025 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for the terminal charging zone is mainly driven by pension costs in cost exempt from cost sharing.

  • The en route regulatory result for Austro Control amounted to +33.1M€, or 13.3% of the 2025 revenue. This may indicate that the airspace users are charged for costs which have not materialised in 2025.

En route charging zone

Unit cost (KPI#1)

Actual and determined data
Total costs - nominal (M€) 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Determined costs 252.0 257.4 265.8 277.7 280.3
Actual costs 243.7 NA NA NA NA
Difference costs -8.4 NA NA NA NA
Inflation assumptions 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Determined inflation rate 2.5% 2.3% 2.1% 2.1% 2.1%
Determined inflation index* 113.7 116.4 118.8 121.3 123.8
Actual inflation rate 3.6% NA NA NA NA
Actual inflation index* 114.8 NA NA NA NA
Difference inflation index (p.p.) +1.1 NA NA NA NA
*100 = 2022

AUC vs. DUC

In 2025, the en route AUC was -12.3% (or -6.70 €2022) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of significantly higher than planned TSUs (+9.2%) and lower than planned en route costs in real terms (-4.2%, or -9.5 M€2022).

En route service units

The difference between actual and planned TSUs (+9.2%) 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 regulatory result).

En route costs by entity

Actual real en route costs are -4.2% (-9.5 M€2022) lower than planned. This is the result of lower costs for the main ANSP, Austro Control (-2.8%, or -5.7 M€2022) and the MET service provider (-30.7%, or -3.8 M€2022), while the cost for NSA/EUROCONTROL are in line with the plan (+0.01%).

En route costs for the main ANSP (Austro Control) at charging zone level

Based on the additional information to the en route reporting tables, the lower than planned en route costs in real terms for Austro Control in 2025 (-2.8%, or -5.7 M€2022) result from:

  • Higher than planned staff costs (+3.7%), mainly reflecting higher than foreseen inflation and its effects on pension costs. Additional traffic also increased overtime charges, while later than foreseen hiring of staff in support roles partly mitigated the increase.

  • Significantly lower than planned other operating costs (-30.4%), mainly due to one-off effects from previous years, renegotiated contracts, lower energy costs and delays in the investment plan as well as lower than planned external support costs.

  • Significantly lower than planned depreciation (-17.6%), reflecting the delayed operational readiness of major investments, notably the new Voice Communication System and ATC One.

  • Slightly lower than planned cost of capital (-0.3%), mainly due to lower than planned investment-related cost of capital, reflecting delays in the investment programme. This was partly offset by higher than planned cost of capital for net current assets.

  • Slightly lower than planned exceptional costs (-0.9%) due to the effect of higher than planned inflation index (+1.1 p.p.) since in nominal terms the actual costs were in line with those planned.

  • Significantly lower than planned deduction for VFR exempted flights (-13.8%).

Assessment of the actual performance in the charging zone reported by the NSA

The NSA of Austria provides the following overall assessment of the actual performance in 2025 at charging zone level:

“Lower costs together with a higher inflation and more traffic than determined led to lower real en route unit costs”.

Explanation of the differences between actual and determined costs at charging zone level reported by the NSA

The NSA provides the following explanation for the differences between actual and determined costs in the charging zone:

“Total personnel costs are above plan due to higher pension costs, but can be partially offset by lower headcount levels, particularly among non-ops employees. Within other operating expenses, the highly volatile energy costs play a significant role. Lower depreciation due to later than determined operational readiness of some investments.”

Recommendations formulated by the NSA to the ANSP (Austro Control) to rectify the situation and actions taken by the ANSP

The NSA 2025 monitoring report indicates the following recommendations formulated by the NSA:

“The investment monitoring by the ANSP will be impacted by a directive from the NSA.”

Austro Control reports the implementation of the following actions:

“Currently a different investment monitoring and reporting is being implemented by the ANSP.”

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

AUCU components (€/SU) – 2025
€/SU
DUC 60.54
Inflation adjustment 0.44
Cost exempt from cost sharing 2.89
Traffic risk sharing adjustment -2.50
Traffic adjustment (costs not TRS) -0.57
Financial incentives -0.25
Modulation of charges 0.00
Cross-financing 0.00
Other revenues 0.00
Application of lower unit rate 0.00
Total adjustments 0.02
AUCU 60.56
AUCU vs. DUC + 0.0%
Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2025 €'000 €/SU
New and existing investments -4,304.1 -0.95
Competent authorities and qualified entities costs 131.4 0.03
Eurocontrol costs -129.6 -0.03
Pension costs 17,455.0 3.84
Interest on loans 0.0 0.00
Changes in law 0.0 0.00
Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing 13,152.8 2.89

En route AUCU monitoring at charging zone level

The actual en route unit cost incurred by airspace users (AUCU) in respect of activities performed in 2025 (60.56 €) is in line with the nominal DUC (60.54 €). This is due to:

  • the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+0.44 €/SU);

  • the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost sharing mechanism (+2.89 €/SU);

  • the deduction of the traffic risk sharing adjustments (-2.50 €/SU);

  • the deduction of the traffic adjustment (-0.57 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing; and,

  • the impact of financial incentives (-0.25 €/SU).

The share of the regulatory result (see next sub-section) in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is 13.3%.

Initiatives implemented or planned that will improve this PI reported by the NSA

No information on such initiatives was provided in the NSA 2025 Monitoring Report.

Regulatory result (RR)

Austro Control net gain/loss on activity in the Austria en route charging zone in 2025

Austro Control reported a net gain of +28.4 M€, as a combination of a gain of +20.2 M€ arising from the cost sharing mechanism, with a gain of +9.4 M€ arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism and a loss of -1.1 M€ relating to financial incentives. See also Note 1 below.

Austro Control 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 (+28.4 M€) and the actual RoE (+4.7 M€), amounts to +33.1 M€ (13.3% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 28.3%, which is higher than the 4.0% planned in the PP. See also Note 1 below.

Note 1

The analysis presented above excludes the costs of meteorological services provided by Austro Control since MET figures are disclosed separately in en route reporting tables.