Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Belgium
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2024/350 of 13 December 2023
List of ACCs 1
Brussels ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 0
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 1.9%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 3.5%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 87% / 13%
En route charging zone(s)
Belgium-Luxembourg
Terminal charging zone(s)
Belgium
Main ANSP
• skeyes
Other ANSPs
• MUAC
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Belgium-Luxembourg fell on average by -0.8% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan IFR movements were forecasted to remain stable (-0.1% per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR March 2023 base forecast.
▪ Over RP3, IFR movements for Belgium-Luxembourg remained below the 2019 pre-pandemic level.
▪ Belgium-Luxembourg actual en route service units fell on average by -0.8% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual service units fell faster than in the RP3 revised performance plan (-0.5% per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR March 2023 base forecast.
▪ A total of 9,305K actual service units were recorded over RP3, in line with the aggregated planned value (9,308K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ In 2024, skeyes did not achieve its planned maturity level for Safety Risk Management and Safety Assurance. Consequently, skeyes did not achieve the RP3 target.
▪ The overall safety performance of skeyes was stable. The rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs) and runway incursion (RIs) were lower than in 2023 and remained below the Union-wide average.
▪ Belgium should ensure that the ANSP implements, in a timely and cost-efficient manner, the necessary additional measures such as enhanced processes, improved allocation of resources, targeted training, and systematic reviews. Without such actions, the achievement of the RP4 targets could be jeopardised.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Environmental performance in Belgium deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 3.37% in 2020 to 3.48% in 2024 with a peak of 3.59% in 2023.
▪ Belgium didn´t achieve the KEA target in any year of RP3.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factors contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period were “local” inefficiency reflecting the inefficiency within a given airspace and “interface” inefficiency primarily dominated by the previous airspace and beyond Belgian control.
▪ KEP improved from 7.07% to 6.10% and SCR improved from 6.53% to 5.77% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights deteriorated from 18.12% to 17.69% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 1.36 to 2.08 min/flight, while additional time in terminal airspace improved from 0.89 to 0.73 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Belgium accumulated a total of 206,728 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2022. During RP3, Belgium accounted for 0.38% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes decreased by 73%.
▪ Belgium met its en-route ATFM delay targets in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024, and failed to meet them in 2023.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in Belgium were ATC staffing (60%) and Other, non-ATC causes (16%).
▪ Over RP3, 29% of delayed flights in Belgium experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 9 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Belgium, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 11 FTEs, representing a 14% increase compared to 2019. Belgium exceeded the planned ATCO numbers by 1 FTE by the end of RP3.
▪ Belgium accumulated a total of 96,596 arrival ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2023. Compared to RP2, total terminal delay minutes decreased by 76%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in Belgium were Weather and other non-ATC related causes, representing 62% and 31% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Belgium-Luxembourg was lower than the determined unit cost for three years of the reference period (the combined year 2020-2021, 2022 and 2023), and higher in 2024.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (1,055M€2017) were lower than determined (by -13M€2017, or -1.2%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower other operating costs (-13M€2017, or -12%) recorded by skeyes, as a result of delays in projects and lower utility costs.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for skeyes amounted to 22M€. This is +13M€ higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. The difference is mainly attributable to the positive difference between determined and actual costs to be retained by the ANSP. The regulatory result amounted to 3.1% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 1.3% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Belgium was lower than determined in for three years of the reference period (the combined year 2020-2021, 2022 and 2023), and higher in 2024.
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (165M€2017) were lower than determined (by -6.4M€2017, or -3.8%). This is mainly driven by skeyes lower staff costs (-3.7M€2017, or -3.1%) than planned.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for skeyes amounted to 6.2M€, or 3.3% of total revenues. This is +2.5M€ higher than the ex-ante regulatory result (3.7M€ or 2.0% of the terminal revenues). As for en route, the difference is mainly attributable to the positive difference between determined and actual costs to be retained by the ANSP.