Cost-efficiency - France

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PRB monitoring

  • The en route 2025 actual unit cost of France was 61.90€2022, -0.9% lower than the determined unit cost (62.46€2022). The terminal zone 1 2025 actual unit cost was 102.08€2022, +3.8% higher than the determined unit cost (98.30€2022), while the terminal zone 2 2025 actual unit cost was 389.76€2022, +2.9% higher than the determined unit cost (378.63€2022).

  • The en route 2025 actual service units (23.6M) were +3.2% higher than the determined service units (22.8M).

  • The en route 2025 actual total costs were +32.5M€2022 (+2.3%) higher than determined. The higher costs are mainly driven by higher other operating costs (+18.2M€2022, or +6.0%) and depreciation (+17.9M€2022, or +11.7%) for DSNA. The NSA explains that these increases reflect higher costs for maintaining legacy systems due to higher inflation, rising costs of investments, and the catch-up of delayed RP3 amortisation.

  • DSNA spent 237.8M€2022 in 2025 related to costs of investments for both en route and terminal charging zones, +4.0% more than determined (228.5M€2022). According to the NSA, this increase is mainly due to the catch-up of delayed RP3 amortisation.

  • The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2025 was 65.74€ (-2.5% below the 2025 DUC). The terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 187.70€ (+76.6% above the 2025 DUC) for the terminal zone 1, and 221.13€ (-46.4% below the 2025 DUC) for the terminal zone 2. The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for the terminal charging zones is mainly driven by cross-financing.

En route charging zone

Unit cost (KPI#1)

Actual and determined data
Total costs - nominal (M€) 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Determined costs 1,539.7 1,609.7 1,664.9 1,683.0 1,703.8
Actual costs 1,561.7 NA NA NA NA
Difference costs 22.0 NA NA NA NA
Inflation assumptions 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Determined inflation rate 1.8% 1.8% 1.8% 1.8% 1.7%
Determined inflation index* 110.2 112.2 114.2 116.3 118.2
Actual inflation rate 0.9% NA NA NA NA
Actual inflation index* 109.1 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 -0.9% (or -0.56 €2022) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of higher than planned TSUs (+3.2%) and higher than planned en route costs in real terms (+2.3%, or +32.5 M€2022).

En route service units

The difference between actual and planned TSUs (+3.2%) 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 +2.3% (+32.5 M€2022) higher than planned. This is the result of higher costs for the main ANSP, DSNA (+2.8%, or +35.4 M€2022) and lower costs for the MET service provider (-1.2%, or -0.8 M€2022) and the NSA/EUROCONTROL (-2.3%, or -2.1 M€2022).

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

Based on the additional information to the en route reporting tables, the higher than planned en route costs in real terms for DSNA in 2025 (+2.8%, or +35.4 M€2022) result from:

  • Slightly higher than planned staff costs (+0.5%), mainly reflecting the impact of lower than planned inflation index (-1.1 p.p.) since costs in nominal terms were slightly below plan (-0.5%).

  • Significantly higher than planned other operating costs (+6.0%), due to higher costs of MCO (costs related to legacy systems maintenance) linked to the operational program of DSNA, impacted (with some delays) by the high inflation of the previous years.

  • Significantly higher than planned depreciation (+11.7%), due to higher cost of investments and catching up with delayed RP3 amortization.

  • Significantly lower than planned cost of capital (-8.9%) due to a lower NBV of fixed assets (-13.0%) combined with a lower than planned weighted average cost of capital rate, mainly resulting from a lower average interest on debt.

  • Significantly higher than planned deduction for VFR exempted flights (+5.2%).

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

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

“2025 en route actual unit cost is lower than the target (-0.9%) due to a combination of actuals costs in line with the determined (slight increase by 2.3% at 2022 prices with a 2025 actual inflation lower than planned) and an increase in traffic (+3.2%)”

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:

“Staff costs are in line with the plan, where opex and capex costs are higher than planned, mainly due to a good implementation of DSNA investments, catching-up with previous year (investments costs used to be lower than planned during RP3, excepted for year 2024), despite a cost of capital lower than planned, due to a lower than planned average interest rate for loans in 2025 and a decrease in the net book value fixed assets base.”

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

The NSA 2025 monitoring report indicates that the NSA did not propose any specific recommendations.

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

AUCU components (€/SU) – 2025
€/SU
DUC 67.45
Inflation adjustment -0.52
Cost exempt from cost sharing 0.32
Traffic risk sharing adjustment -0.49
Traffic adjustment (costs not TRS) -0.22
Financial incentives -0.29
Modulation of charges 0.00
Cross-financing 0.00
Other revenues -0.51
Application of lower unit rate 0.00
Total adjustments -1.71
AUCU 65.74
AUCU vs. DUC -2.5%
Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2025 €'000 €/SU
New and existing investments 10,520.0 0.45
Competent authorities and qualified entities costs -1,277.2 -0.05
Eurocontrol costs -819.6 -0.03
Pension costs 0.0 0.00
Interest on loans -830.5 -0.04
Changes in law 0.0 0.00
Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing 7,592.7 0.32

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 (65.74 €) is -2.5% lower than the nominal DUC (67.45 €). The difference between these two figures (-1.71 €/SU) is due to:

  • the negative inflation adjustment resulting from lower than planned inflation (-0.52 €/SU);

  • the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost sharing mechanism (+0.32 €/SU);

  • the deduction of the traffic risk sharing adjustments (-0.49 €/SU);

  • the deduction of the traffic adjustment (-0.22 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing;

  • the impact of financial incentives (-0.29 €/SU); and,

  • the deduction of other revenues (-0.51 €/SU).

The share of the regulatory result (see next sub-section) in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is 1.9%.

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

The NSA of France provides the following information regarding the initiatives:

"Actual unit cost incurred by users for en route ANS are better than planned for year 2025. The FR NSA will continue to closely monitor this PI during RP4. […]

In addition, it is recalled that the French NSA has opted for a carry-over to RP4 based on an assessment over the whole RP4 iaw Art 28(4) & (6)."

Regulatory result (RR)

DSNA net gain/loss on activity in the France en route charging zone in 2025

DSNA reported a net loss of -2.7 M€, as a combination of a loss of -28.3 M€ arising from the cost sharing mechanism, with a gain of +32.5 M€ arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism and a loss of -6.9 M€ relating to financial incentives.

DSNA 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 (-2.7 M€) and the actual RoE (+30.8 M€), amounts to +28.1 M€ (2.0% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 12.1%, which is higher than the 10.5% planned in the PP.