Cost-efficiency - Czech Republic

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PRB monitoring

  • The en route 2025 actual unit cost of Czech Republic was 57.71€2022, -0.8% lower than the determined unit cost (58.16€2022). The terminal 2025 actual unit cost was 244.93€2022, -5.7% lower than the determined unit cost (259.65€2022).

  • The en route 2025 actual service units (2.5M) were in line with the determined service units (2.5M).

  • The en route 2025 actual total costs were -1.2M€2022 (-0.8%) lower than determined. This is mainly due to lower depreciation for ANS CR (-2.8M€2022, or -11.7%). The NSA explained that this decrease is due to the postponement of some of the system upgrades. This was partially compensated by higher staff costs than planned for ANS CR (+1.0M€2022, or +1.3%), due to compensation for inflation.

  • ANS CR spent 32.7M€2022 in 2025 related to costs of investments for both en route and terminal charging zones, -8.8% less than determined (35.9M€2022). According to the NSA, it is mainly due to the postponement of some investments and reprioritisation of the investment plan after deciding to join other ANSPs for the procurement of an up-to-date ATM system.

  • The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2025 was 64.07€ (-0.6% below the 2025 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 174.73€ (-39.8% below the 2025 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for the terminal charging zone is mainly driven by the application of lower unit rate.

En route charging zone

Unit cost (KPI#1)

Actual and determined data
Total costs - nominal (M€) 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Determined costs 160.2 165.4 168.5 173.7 173.1
Actual costs 160.2 NA NA NA NA
Difference costs -0.1 NA NA NA NA
Inflation assumptions 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Determined inflation rate 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0%
Determined inflation index* 116.7 119 121.4 123.9 126.3
Actual inflation rate 2.3% NA NA NA NA
Actual inflation index* 117.7 NA NA NA NA
Difference inflation index (p.p.) +1 NA NA NA NA
*100 = 2022

AUC vs. DUC

In 2025, the en route AUC was -0.8% (or -10.94 CZK2022, -0.45 €2022) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of slightly lower than planned en route costs in real terms (-0.8%, or -28.3 MCZK2022, -1.2 M€2022) and TSUs that are in line with the plan.

En route service units

The difference between actual and planned TSUs (-0.04%) falls inside the ±2% dead-band. Hence, the loss of en route revenues is borne by the ANSPs.

En route costs by entity

Actual real en route costs are -0.8% (-1.2 M€2022) lower than planned. This is the result of lower costs for the main ANSP, ANS CR (-1.0%, or -1.3 M€2022) and slightly higher costs for the NSA/EUROCONTROL (+0.3%) and the MET service provider (+2.8%, or +0.1 M€2022).

En route costs for the main ANSP (ANS CR) at charging zone level

Based on the additional information to the en route reporting tables, the slightly lower than planned en route costs in real terms for ANS CR in 2025 (-1.0%, or -1.3 M€2022) result from:

  • Higher than planned staff costs (+1.3%), mainly due to the high inflation experienced in 2022 and 2023 feeding through into employee compensation.

  • Other operating costs consistent with the plan.

  • Significantly lower than planned depreciation (-11.7%), mainly because some planned system upgrades were postponed.

  • Significantly higher than planned cost of capital (+8.6%), mainly due to a higher proportion of equity financing, with equity being much more expensive than debt.

  • Significantly higher than planned deduction for VFR exempted flights (+23.6%).

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

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

“The actual DUC was slightly lower than determined and the target was met.”

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:

“The lower actual DUC is result of situation where lower depreciation (cca 11 %) was not offset by an increase in personnel (cca 1,9 %) or other costs. On the top of that the inflation was higher than predicted.”

Recommendations formulated by the NSA to the ANSP (ANS CR) to rectify the situation and actions taken by the ANSP

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

“To maintain the efforts keeping ANSP in healthy financial condition being able to cope the current challenges (not restoring traffic as expected and the war in Ukraine). ANSPs should continue its cost-cutting measures while not undermining future capacity and keep the achieved level of Safety.”

ANS CR reports the implementation of the following actions:

“ANS CR continues to cut costs while maintaining its ability to serve a larger volume of traffic. It is focusing on the scalability of its operations, which we consider essential in the current geopolitical situation. CHMI is a state-funded organization whose ability to respond flexibly is limited and its cost development depends mainly on government decision.”

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

AUCU components (€/SU) – 2025
€/SU
DUC 64.44
Inflation adjustment 0.38
Cost exempt from cost sharing -0.90
Traffic risk sharing adjustment 0.00
Traffic adjustment (costs not TRS) 0.00
Financial incentives 0.29
Modulation of charges 0.00
Cross-financing 0.00
Other revenues -0.14
Application of lower unit rate -0.01
Total adjustments -0.37
AUCU 64.07
AUCU vs. DUC -0.6%
Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2025 €'000 €/SU
New and existing investments -2,244.4 -0.91
Competent authorities and qualified entities costs -35.2 -0.01
Eurocontrol costs 72.2 0.03
Pension costs -16.2 -0.01
Interest on loans -1.4 0.00
Changes in law 0.0 0.00
Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing -2,225.1 -0.90

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 (1 579.89 CZK or 64.07 €) is -0.6% lower than the nominal DUC (1 589.13 CZK or 64.44 €) which includes DUC initially charged: 1 590.60 CZK (or 64.50 € ), and DUC to be charged retroactively: -1.47 CZK (or -0.06 € ). The difference between the AUCU and the nominal DUC (-9.24 CZK/SU or -0.37 €/SU) is due to:

  • the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+9.33 CZK/SU or +0.38 €/SU);

  • the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost sharing mechanism (-22.19 CZK/SU or -0.90 €/SU). It should be noted that the NSA of the Czech Republic decided not to charge the difference in pension costs for 2025 to the airspace users (some +1.2 MCZK, corresponding to -0.48 CZK/SU or -0.02 €/SU).

  • the addition of the traffic adjustment (+0.06 CZK/SU or +0.002 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing;

  • the impact of financial incentives (+7.16 CZK/SU or +0.29 €/SU);

  • the deduction of other revenues (-3.39 CZK/SU or -0.14 €/SU); and,

  • the application of a lower unit rate as foreseen in Art. 29(6) in year 2025 (-0.21 CZK/SU or -0.01 €/SU).

The share of the regulatory result (see next sub-section) in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is 5.5%.

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)

ANS CR net gain/loss on activity in the Czech Republic en route charging zone in 2025

ANS CR reported a net loss of -0.6 M€, as a combination of a loss of -1.2 M€ arising from the cost sharing mechanism, with a loss of -0.1 M€ arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism and a gain of +0.7 M€ relating to financial incentives.

ANS CR 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 (-0.6 M€) and the actual RoE (+9.2 M€), amounts to +8.6 M€ (6.1% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 7.7%, which is lower than the 8.2% planned in the PP (see also Note 1 below).

Note 1

The ex-post RR does not take into account the application of the lower unit rate as per Art. 29.6 (loss in revenues amounts to -0.5 MCZK or less than -0.1 M€ for 2025).