Contacts
| Contact organisation | EUROCONTROL: The European organisation for the safety of air navigation |
| Contact organisation unit | European Green Sky Directorate - Aviation Intelligence Unit (EGSD/AIU) |
| Contact name | Performance Review Unit - EUROCONTROL |
| Contact mail address | 96 Rue de la Fusée 1130 Brussels Belgium |
| Contact e-mail address | [email protected] |
Metadata update
| Metadata last certified | not applicable |
| Metadata last update | 27 March 2025 |
Indicator definition
The percentage of the total en route ATFM delay minutes that occurred on days when the daily throughput was above the expected daily traffic, calculated as follows:
- en route ATFM delays calculated in accordance with point 3.1 of Section 1 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3128 ;
- expected daily traffic refers to the daily traffic profile (guideline traffic) calculated by the Network Manager in January of each year;
- airspace throughput and traffic demand are measured as daily IFR flight entries in the airspace;
- the airspace is the area of responsibility defined for the calculation of en route ATFM delays.
Unit of Measure
% of en route ATFM delay on days when daily throughput was above the expected daily traffic.
Statistical concepts and definitions
- ATFM delay
- ATFM delay is defined as the duration between the last Estimated Take-Off Time (ETOT) and the Calculated Take-Off Time (CTOT) allocated by the Network Manager. ATFM delay comprises both Airport ATFM delay] and En route ATFM delay. This indicator is solely concerned with En route ATFM delay.
- The delay is truncated to minutes.
- Flights
- All the IFR flights which have filed a flight plan and have entered the area of responsibility of the relevant ACC(s) are taken into account.
- Each flight is only counted once, regardless of its trajectory.
Attribution of Delay
ATFM delay to which a flight is subjected is defined to have as cause the most penalizing ATFM regulation which affects it. Depending of the type and the entity responsible for the reference location protected by the ATFM regulation the ATFM delay is classified as either an airport or an en route ATFM delay and attributed to airport or en route facilities.
Each ATFM regulation also comprises a designator referring to the cause of delay which can be used in further analysis.
Statistical unit
The statistical unit is the ACC to which the ATFM delays are attributed.
Statistical population
The statistical population comprises the ACC in the Single European Sky Area.
Reference area
The reference area is the Single European Sky Area.
Time coverage
2025 is the first year for which data is presented.
Reference period
- The first reference period (RP1) covers the calendar years 2012 to 2014 inclusive.
- The second reference period (RP2) covers the calendar years 2015 to 2019 inclusive.
- The third reference period (RP3) covers the calendar years 2020 to 2024 inclusive.
- The fourth reference period (RP4) covers the calendar years 2025 to 2029 inclusive.
Unless decided otherwise, the following reference periods shall be of five calendar years.
Institutional Mandate
Legal acts and agreements are established in the EU IR691/2010|Performance Regulation (691 / 2010), Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 390 / 2013, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/317 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3128.
Release policy
Release calendar
The indicator is calculated by the Network Manager in January of each year. For information sharing purposes, the data is released 12 times per year, once per month.
User access
Information is disseminated to the general public via the SES Data Portal.
Frequency of dissemination
The data is published monthly with the annual performance aggregate being available in January of the following year.
Dissemination format
Information is disseminated to the general public via the SES Data Portal.
Accessibility of documentation
Documentation on methodology
As per the pertaining regulations (see Institutional Mandate).
For technical questions not addressed in Statistical processing
please contact: [email protected].
Additional definitions of the terms used in the frame of the this KPI
are available in the Metadata page.
Quality documentation
There is no specific documentation on procedures applied for quality management and quality assessment.
Quality Management
Quality assurance
The data is provided by the Network Manager and as such it is their responsibility to perform any quality assurance activities.
Quality assessment
Data is validated by random quality checks, e.g. missing data for given a day, adherent data, etc. Any issues are reported to the Network manager who works with the EUROCONTROL Performance Review Unit to resolve them.
Relevance
The information is published for performance monitoring purposes in accordance with the relevant EU legislation.
Completeness
The data is collected for the entire Single European Sky Area.
Accuracy and reliability
Overall accuracy
The en route ATFM delay is the delay calculated by the Network Manager. This calculation is based on a well established methodology, which has been in place since 1999.
It is assumed that the data provided is accurate, given the caveats mentioned in sections Quality assurance and Quality assessment.
Sampling error
There is no sampling and therefore no sampling error.
Timeliness and punctuality
Timeliness
The data is published each month - in general between 14 and 16 days after the end of the month in question.
Punctuality
The internal databases are updated daily. The statistical processing is performed once per month.
Comparability
Comparability — geographical
The data is collected centrally by the Network Manager and computed consistently throughout the entire Single European Sky Area which allows comparisons across different units.
Comparability over time
Comparisons over time are valid.
Cost and burden
Not available.
Data revision
The data revision policy has not yet been defined.
Statistical processing
Source data
Actual en route ATFM delay
- Data provided by the Network Manager.
Actual Number of IFR flights
- Data provided by the Network Manager.
Data collection
Data is collected and compiled by the Network Manager.
Data validation
Data validation is the responsibility of the Network Manager.
Adjustment
Corrections may be made when issues are discovered as described in the Quality Assessment section of this document.
Comment
No comments.
Disclaimer
This data is published by the Performance Review Body (PRB) of the Single European Sky. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information and analysis contained on this website are as accurate and complete as possible. Despite these precautions, should you find any errors or inconsistencies we would be grateful if you could please bring them to the Performance Review Unit’s attention.
The information may be copied in whole or in part providing that the copyright notice and disclaimer are included. The information may not be modified without prior written permission from the PRB. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views or policy of EUROCONTROL or of the European Commission, which make no warranty, either implied or express, for the information contained on this website, neither do they assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of this information. The PRB reserves the right to change or amend the information provided at any time and without prior notice.