En route ATFM delay
Bulgaria had 1,129k flights in 2025, up from 1,050k flights in 2024.
BULATSA applied en route ATFM regulations resulting in 60k minutes of delay, a reduction from the 190k minutes in 2024.
As part of the strategic traffic re-orientation programme (S25/NTDM) operated by the Network Manager, there were <1k minutes of en route ATFM delay reattributed to BULATSA; 3k minutes of delay originating in Bulgaria were re-attributed to other ANSPs.
Under the auspices of the Route Network (RN) Scenarios during Capacity & Weather Based Operations between June and September 2025, <1k minutes of delay originating in Bulgaria, were re-attributed to other ANSPs.
When the above post-operations re-attributions are factored in, the total en route delay for BULATSA in 2025 was 57k minutes in 2025 down from 102k minutes in 2024.
Regarding the reasons and circumstances resulting in the achieved level of actual performance of the en route ATFM delay per flight KPI, the NSA reports: “BULATSA deals with the increasing complexity and the high traffic levels using flexible sectorization and sector saturation avoidance procedures, optimized and flexible human resources management in terms of existing ATCOs and recruitment of the new ones, and strict ATFM adverse weather procedures.”
En route capacity incentive scheme
The Bulgarian NSA reports a financial bonus of BGN 1,478,190 for the ANSP because of the 2025 performance. The local incentive target for en route ATFM delays, due to CRSTMP causes only, was set at 0.12 mins/flight.
The NSA reports an achieved performance of 0.0 mins/flight but although it does refer to the method for setting the pivot value, it does not state how the attribution of the ATFM delay causes were verified.