Cost-efficiency - Greece

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PRB monitoring

  • The en route 2025 actual unit cost of Greece was 22.91€2022, -0.3% lower than the determined unit cost (22.99€2022). The terminal 2025 actual unit cost was 149.54€2022, +1.0% higher than the determined unit cost (148.00€2022).

  • The en route 2025 actual service units (8.2M) were -0.7% lower than the determined service units (8.3M).

  • The en route 2025 actual total costs were -2.1M€2022 (-1.1%) lower than determined. This is mainly due to lower other operating costs for all entities (-2.7M€2022, or -8.1%). The NSA noted that it is mainly due to payments of HASP that were incurred on a cash basis, lower operational, training and travel expenses for MET, and a more efficient utilization of assets by NSA SAR. This was partially compensated by higher staff costs than planned for the NSA SAR (+1.1M€2022, or +37.0%), due to new laws for Hellenic Air Force Staff and Cost Guard.

  • For the timely implementation of the investment plan, the NSA reports that "a decision at ministerial level was taken in collaboration with the Commission and EASA, in order to map an action plan for monitoring the investment plan with reporting every six weeks." However, HASP spent 1.7M€2022 in 2025 related to costs of investments for both en route and terminal charging zones, -12.9% less than determined (2.0M€2022). According to the NSA, this reduction is due to a delay in the implementation of projects expected to be put into operation in 2026 instead of 2025.

  • The en route actual unit cost incurred by users in 2025 was 25.86€ (+3.5% above the 2025 DUC), while the terminal actual unit cost incurred by users was 160.05€ (-1.1% below the 2025 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for the en route charging zone is mainly driven by the investment costs in cost exempt from cost sharing.

En route charging zone

Unit cost (KPI#1)

Actual and determined data
Total costs - nominal (M€) 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Determined costs 206.7 209.4 213.1 237.9 252.5
Actual costs 205.2 NA NA NA NA
Difference costs -1.5 NA NA NA NA
Inflation assumptions 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Determined inflation rate 2.4% 2.1% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0%
Determined inflation index* 109.9 112.2 114.5 116.8 119.1
Actual inflation rate 2.9% NA NA NA NA
Actual inflation index* 110.4 NA NA NA NA
Difference inflation index (p.p.) +0.5 NA NA NA NA
*100 = 2022

AUC vs. DUC

In 2025, the en route AUC was -0.3% (or -0.08 €2022) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of lower than planned en route costs in real terms (-1.1%, or -2.1 M€2022) and slightly lower than planned TSUs (-0.7%).

En route service units

The difference between actual and planned TSUs (-0.7%) 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 -1.1% (-2.1 M€2022) lower than planned. This is the result of lower costs for the main ANSP, HASP (-0.9%, or -1.4 M€2022) and the MET service provider (-11.3%, or -1.3 M€2022) and higher costs for the NSA/EUROCONTROL (+2.8%, or +0.7 M€2022).

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

The slightly lower than planned en route costs in real terms for HASP in 2025 (-0.9%, or -1.4 M€2022) result from:

  • Staff costs consistent with those planned (-0.1%);

  • Significantly lower than planned other operating costs (-7.0%);

  • Significantly lower than planned depreciation (-12.7%);

  • Significantly lower than planned cost of capital (-52.4%); and,

  • Higher than planned deduction for VFR exempted flights (+4.0%).

No explanations on the differences between the 2025 determined and actual costs are available in the Additional information to the reporting tables or in the NSA Monitoring Report.

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

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

“There is a marginal decrease in actual real en route unit cost compared with the determined one.”

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:

“There is a small decrease in total en route costs in real terms mainly due to lower actual SU and higher actual inflation.”

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

No information was provided in the NSA 2025 Monitoring Report.

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

AUCU components (€/SU) – 2025
€/SU
DUC 24.98
Inflation adjustment 0.10
Cost exempt from cost sharing 1.06
Traffic risk sharing adjustment 0.00
Traffic adjustment (costs not TRS) 0.03
Financial incentives -0.31
Modulation of charges 0.00
Cross-financing 0.00
Other revenues 0.00
Application of lower unit rate 0.00
Total adjustments 0.88
AUCU 25.86
AUCU vs. DUC + 3.5%
Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2025 €'000 €/SU
New and existing investments -192.5 -0.02
Competent authorities and qualified entities costs 741.1 0.09
Eurocontrol costs -90.9 -0.01
Pension costs 8,211.4 1.00
Interest on loans 0.0 0.00
Changes in law 0.0 0.00
Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing 8,669.0 1.06

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 (25.86 €) is +3.5% higher than the nominal DUC (24.98 €) which includes DUC initially charged: 26.59 €, and DUC to be charged retroactively: -1.61 €. The difference between the AUCU and the nominal DUC (+0.88 €/SU) is due to:

  • the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+0.10 €/SU);

  • the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost sharing mechanism (+1.06 €/SU);

  • the addition of the traffic adjustment (+0.03 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing; and,

  • the impact of financial incentives (-0.31 €/SU).

The share of the regulatory result (see next sub-section) in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is 3.5%.

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)

HASP net gain/loss on activity in the Greece en route charging zone in 2025

HASP reported a net gain of +5.7 M€, as a combination of a gain of +9.6 M€ arising from the cost sharing mechanism, with a loss of -1.3 M€ arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism and a loss of -2.6 M€ relating to financial incentives.

HASP 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 (+5.7 M€) and the actual RoE amounts to +5.8 M€ (3.3% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 592.6%, which is much higher than the 4.6% planned in the PP (see also Note 1 below).

Note 1

The ex-post RoE cannot be correctly calculated because of a very low total asset base which results from: 1) the exclusion of net current assets from the calculation of the total asset base, and 2) a very low net book value of existing fixed assets in operation.