Cost-efficiency - Spain

PRB monitoring

The en route 2025 actual unit cost of Spain Continental was 50.92€2022, -7.6% lower than the determined unit cost (55.10€2022). The en route 2025 actual unit cost of Spain Canarias was 48.65€2022, -7.6% lower than the determined unit cost (52.63€2022). The terminal 2025 actual unit cost of Spain was 100.81€2022, -15.1% lower than the determined unit cost (118.70€2022).
The en route 2025 actual service units of Spain Continental (14.2M) were +3.9% higher than the determined service units (13.6M). The en route 2025 actual service units of Spain Canarias (2.3M) were +5.1% higher than the determined service units (2.2M).
The en route 2025 actual total costs of Spain Continental were -29.8M€2022 (-4.0%) lower than determined with all cost categories registering lower-than-planned costs, except cost of capital. This is mainly due to lower staff costs (-22.5M€2022, or -5.1%) and lower other operating costs (-6.2M€2022, or -10.7%) for ENAIRE. According to the NSA, the decrease in staff costs is mainly due to significantly lower-than-planned expenses in “other staff related benefits”. The decrease in other operating costs reflects a more efficient use of resources, resulting in lower spending on services, communications, insurance and energy.
The en route 2025 actual total costs of Spain Canarias were -3.3M€2022 (-2.8%) lower than determined with all cost categories registering lower-than-planned costs. This is mainly due to lower staff costs for ENAIRE (-1.6M€2022, or -2.5%) and lower depreciation for EA (-1.1M€2022, or -41.8%). The NSA explained that the decrease in staff costs of ENAIRE is mainly due to significantly lower-than-planned expenses in “other staff related benefits”. The decrease in depreciation costs of EA is mainly due to lower investments than planned.
ENAIRE spent 169.4M€2022 in 2025 related to costs of investments for both en route and terminal charging zones, in line with the determined (169.3M€2022).
The en route Spain Continental actual unit cost incurred by users in 2025 was 54.76€ (-6.4% below the 2025 DUC), while the en route Spain Canarias actual unit cost incurred by users in 2025 was 45.74€ (-18.3% below the 2025 DUC). The terminal actual unit cost incurred by users in 2025 was 15.77€ (-87.7% below the 2025 DUC). The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for Spain Continental and for the terminal charging zone is mainly driven by other revenues. The difference between the AUCU and the DUC for Spain Canarias is mainly driven by cross-financing.

En route charging zone - Spain Continental

Unit cost (KPI#1)

Total costs - nominal (M€)	2025	2026	2027	2028	2029
Actual and determined data
Determined costs	796.8	836.0	862.5	879.8	884.5
Actual costs	767.7	NA	NA	NA	NA
Difference costs	-29.1	NA	NA	NA	NA

Inflation assumptions	2025	2026	2027	2028	2029
Determined inflation rate	2.4%	1.9%	1.8%	1.8%	1.8%
Determined inflation index*	108.7	110.7	112.7	114.7	116.8
Actual inflation rate	2.7%	NA	NA	NA	NA
Actual inflation index*	109.3	NA	NA	NA	NA
Difference inflation index (p.p.)	+0.6	NA	NA	NA	NA
*100 = 2022

Focus on unit cost

AUC vs. DUC

In 2025, the en route AUC was -7.6% (or -4.18 €2022) lower than the planned DUC. This results from the combination of lower than planned en route costs in real terms (-4.0%, or -29.8 M€2022) and higher than planned TSUs (+3.9%).

En route service units

The difference between actual and planned TSUs (+3.9%) 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 -4.0% (-29.8 M€2022) lower than planned. This is the result of lower costs for the main ANSP, ENAIRE (-4.2%, or -26.8 M€2022), the other ANSP (EA (Continental), -7.1%, or -2.1 M€2022), the NSA/EUROCONTROL (-1.9%, or -0.9 M€2022) and the MET service provider (-0.2%, or -0.1 M€2022).

En route costs for the main ANSP (ENAIRE) 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 ENAIRE in 2025 (-4.2%, or -26.8 M€2022) result from:

Significantly lower than planned staff costs (-5.1%), mainly resulting from a “significant decrease in ”Other Staff Related Benefits”, due to lower-than-expected allocations to provisions related to the Special Active Reserve (RAE, see below for details) and, to a lesser extent, the Active Reserve (RA)” (as of the RP4 these provisions are treated as pension costs). This variation was only partly offset by a higher than expected (+2.5%) salary increase approved by the Government, higher ATCO costs due to the implementation of a new unilateral, non consolidated incentive under the “Summer Plan 2025”, implemented to address higher than expected traffic levels and increased overtime requirements.
Significantly lower than planned other operating costs (-10.7%), reflecting a more efficient resource use and lower-than-expected expenditure across several operating categories, including certain professional services, communications, insurance and energy related items.
Lower than planned depreciation (-2.6%), driven by the later-than-expected entry into service of certain investments.
Significantly higher than planned cost of capital (+11.5%), driven by higher total asset base and higher average interest rate on debt.

*According to ENAIRE, the reduction in staff costs associated with the RAE should not be interpreted as an efficiency gain, a cost-saving measure, or a positive deviation from ENAIRE’s 2025 planning. It results from the annual actuarial valuation of a long-term employment obligation, performed by an independent external actuarial firm, which led to a reduction in the estimated liability and, consequently, to a reversal of provisions recognised in previous years. Therefore, this decrease does not reflect any operational improvement, management decision, productivity gain, or cost-efficiency measure implemented by ENAIRE during 2025. It is a non-operational accounting adjustment arising from the reassessment of obligations generated in prior years and outside the scope of ENAIRE’s annual planning and performance.

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

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

“The reduction in costs is mainly due to widespread savings across the majority of the entities. In general, there have been decreases across all actual cost categories compared to the determined costs for the year 2025. For further details, please refer to the Additional Information file. The aforementioned savings result in a lower actual unit cost compared to the determined unit cost (DUC) for the year 2025.”

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:

“A broad-based cost reduction is observed across all categories, including staff costs. This occurs even though the RP4 National Performance Plan assumed a 2.0% salary increase, and the most recent salary increase approved by the Government amounts to a 2.5% rise for public employees in 2025. However, the overall outcome shows a reduction driven by a significant decrease in other staff-related benefits at the ANSP ENAIRE. This is mainly due to lower-than-planned allocations to provisions related to the Special Active Reserve (RAE), introduced by National Law 26/2022 of 19 December.”

Recommendations formulated by the NSA to the ANSP (ENAIRE) 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)

	€/SU
AUCU components (€/SU) – 2025
DUC	58.50
Inflation adjustment	0.23
Cost exempt from cost sharing	-1.63
Traffic risk sharing adjustment	-0.64
Traffic adjustment (costs not TRS)	-0.31
Financial incentives	-0.48
Modulation of charges	0.00
Cross-financing	1.00
Other revenues	-1.91
Application of lower unit rate	0.00
Total adjustments	-3.75
AUCU	54.76
AUCU vs. DUC	-6.4%

Cost exempt from cost sharing by item - 2025	€'000	€/SU
New and existing investments	-4,556.1	-0.32
Competent authorities and qualified entities costs	-227.6	-0.02
Eurocontrol costs	-626.5	-0.04
Pension costs	-17,638.2	-1.25
Interest on loans	0.0	0.00
Changes in law	0.0	0.00
Total cost exempt from cost risk sharing	-23,048.4	-1.63

Focus on AUCU

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 (54.76 €) is -6.4% lower than the nominal DUC (58.50 €). The difference between these two figures (-3.75 €/SU) is due to:

the positive inflation adjustment resulting from higher than planned inflation (+0.23 €/SU);
the impact of adjustments resulting from the costs exempted from cost sharing mechanism (-1.63 €/SU);
the deduction of the traffic risk sharing adjustments (-0.64 €/SU);
the deduction of the traffic adjustment (-0.31 €/SU) for the costs not subject to traffic risk sharing;
the impact of financial incentives (-0.48 €/SU);
cross-financing between Spain Canarias and Spain Continental en route charging zones (+1.00 €/SU); and,
the deduction of other revenues (-1.91 €/SU).

The share of the regulatory result (see next sub-section) in the AUCU (before the deduction of other revenues) is 7.3%.

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

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

“An annual cost verification is carried out.”

Regulatory result (RR)

Focus on regulatory result

ENAIRE net gain/loss on activity in the Spain Continental en route charging zone in 2025

ENAIRE reported a net gain of +22.2 M€, as a combination of a gain of +11.4 M€ arising from the cost sharing mechanism, with a gain of +17.6 M€ arising from the traffic risk sharing mechanism and a loss of -6.9 M€ relating to financial incentives.

ENAIRE 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 (+22.2 M€) and the actual RoE (+35.0 M€), amounts to +57.2 M€ (8.4% of the en route revenues). The resulting ex-post rate of return on equity is 13.4%, which is higher than the 8.2% planned in the PP.