Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Bulgaria
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/778 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Sofia ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 0
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 3.7%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 1.7%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 100% / 0%
En route charging zone(s)
Bulgaria
Terminal charging zone(s)
Main ANSP
• BULATSA
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Bulgaria grew on average by +3.6% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual IFR movements grew faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (+0.8% per year). Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ Bulgaria reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2023.
▪ Actual en route service units for Bulgaria grew on average by +4.5% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual service units grew faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (+0.5% per year). Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ A total of 17,593K actual service units were recorded over RP3, +17.7% above the aggregated planned value (14,943K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ BULATSA achieved the RP3 targets for the EoSM in 2023 and remained on or above the targets in 2024.
▪ Bulgaria did not provide monitoring data for runway incursions (RIs) or separation minima infringements (SMIs) in 2023 and 2024.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Environmental performance in Bulgaria deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 2.55% in 2020 to 3.52% in 2024.
▪ Bulgaria didn´t achieve the KEA targeting any year of RP3.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factors contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period were geopolitical situation and airspace restrictions resulting from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, continuous shifts in traffic flows, airspace user preferences, and a lack of sufficient capacity in neighbouring ACCs resulting in additional traffic in Sofia FIR.
▪ KEP deteriorated from 3.52% to 4.04% and SCR deteriorated from 2.72% to 3.92% during RP3.
▪ Bulgaria has no airports regulated under the performance and charging scheme.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Bulgaria accumulated a total of 157,638 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2024. During RP3, Bulgaria accounted for 0.29% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes increased by 1247%.
▪ Bulgaria met its en-route ATFM delay targets in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and failed to meet them in 2024.
▪ In RP3, the main driver of en-route ATFM delays in Bulgaria was Weather, accounting for 99% of total delay minutes.
▪Over RP3, 47% of delayed flights in Bulgaria experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing an increase of 13 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Bulgaria, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period decreased by 2 FTEs, representing a 1% decrease compared to 2019. Bulgaria fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 4 FTEs by the end of RP3.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Bulgaria was lower than the determined unit cost for each year of the reference period. The second half of the reference period has been marked by increased traffic caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, resulting in lower actual unit costs. Total actual SUs were +18% higher than determined over the period.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (509M€2017) were lower than determined (by -27M€2017, or -5.1%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower staff costs (-13M€2017, or -4.1%) recorded by BULATSA. However, in nominal terms, the actual staff costs show an increase of +7.5% compared to the determined figures. According to the NSA, this difference is due to higher-than-expected inflation and higher than planned traffic. The reduction in total costs is also due to lower other operating costs ( -13M€2017, or -22%), mainly due to unpaid 10M BGN “alliance entry fee” (COOPANS or ITEC) which has been reimbursed to users through the 2025 unit rate, a lower rate for the increase in energy prices, actual resources versus determined resources, and lower than determined external services costs.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for BULATSA amounted to 106M€. This is +44M€ (or +70%) higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. The difference is mainly attributable to the positive inflation adjustment due to higher than planned inflation. The regulatory result amounted to 18% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 12% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Bulgaria should ensure that any excessive regulatory result, including excess funds received by the ANSP due to the inflation mechanism, is either reinvested to improve the quality of services delivered to airspace users or reimbursed to them.