Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Czech Republic
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/772 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Prague ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 0
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 1.8%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 1.6%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 87% / 13%
En route charging zone(s)
Czech Republic
Terminal charging zone(s)
Czech Republic
Main ANSP
• ANS CR
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• CHMI
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Czech Republic fell on average by -2.0% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual IFR movements’ trend was in line with the trend foreseen in the RP3 revised performance plan (-2.0% per year). Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ Over RP3, IFR movements for Czech Republic remained below the 2019 pre-pandemic level.
▪ Actual en route service units for Czech Republic fell on average by -4.3% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual service fell faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (-3.1% per year). Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ A total of 8,596K actual service units were recorded over RP3, -4.2% below the aggregated planned value (8,969K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ ANS CR exceeded the RP3 EoSM targets as early as 2020 and remained at this maturity level throughout RP3.
▪ The Czech Republic has recorded a stable level of runway incursions (RIs) over RP3, while a marked reduction of the rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs) over RP3 going from above the Union-wide average to go well below.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Environmental performance in the Czech Republic deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 2.18% in 2020 to 2.48% in 2024 with a peak of 2.61% in 2023.
▪ The Czech Republic achieved the KEA target in two years of RP3, in 2020 and 2021, during the low-traffic Covid-19 period.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factors contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period were severe impact of flight trajectories caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine (MIL restricted areas and corridors), airspace user preferences and changes in the traffic pattern over LKAA FIR (decrease of long-haul flights).
▪ KEP remained stable, while SCR deteriorated from 3.24% to 3.47% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights deteriorated from 29.48% to 23.68% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 1.36 to 2.17 min/flight and additional time in terminal airspace deteriorated from 0.67 to 0.93 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ The Czech Republic accumulated a total of 880,483 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2022. During RP3, the Czech Republic accounted for 1.60% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes increased by 56%.
▪ The Czech Republic met its en-route ATFM delay targets in 2020, 2021 and 2023, and failed to meet them in 2022 and 2024.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in the Czech Republic were Other, non-ATC causes (71%) and Weather (15%).
▪ Over RP3, 45% of delayed flights in the Czech Republic experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing an increase of 10 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In the Czech Republic, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 28 FTEs, representing a 24% increase compared to 2019. The Czech Republic fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 16 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Czech Republic accumulated a total of 22,558 arrival ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2024. Compared to RP2, total terminal delay minutes decreased by 25%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in the Czech Republic were Weather and other non-ATC related causes, representing 84% and 11% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Czech Republic was lower than the determined unit cost for every year of the reference period (except 2024 when it was in line with the DUC). The second half of the reference period has been marked by reduced traffic caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (490M€2017) were lower than determined (by -43M€2017, or -8.0%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by ANS CR lower other operating costs (-14M€2017, or -20%), which the NSA attributed to the cost containment measures implemented.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for ANS CR amounted to 71M€. This is +30M€ (or +74%) higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. The difference is mainly attributable to the application of the cost-sharing mechanism, in particular the positive inflation adjustment due to higher than planned inflation. The regulatory result amounted to 13% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 7.8% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Czech Republic was lower than determined in three out of four years (the combined year 2020-2021, 2022, and 2023), and higher than determined in 2024.
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (76M€2017) were lower than determined (by -7.1M€2017, or -8.6%). As for en route, this is mainly driven by ANS CR lower other operating costs (-3.1M€2017, or -27%) than planned.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for ANS CR amounted to 6.0M€, or 6.3% of total revenues. This is +2.0M€ higher than the ex-ante regulatory result (4.0M€ or 4.4% of the terminal revenues). As for en route, the difference is mainly attributable to the application of the cost-sharing mechanism resulting from the positive inflation adjustment due to higher than planned inflation.
▪ Czech Republic’s RP3 performance plan included justifications for a deviation to achieve the RP3 capacity targets. The main measures included the recruitment and training of new ATCOs and a number of investments to increase capacity. Czech Republic has not submitted a detailed report of the capacity-related measures implemented. However, the number of ATCOs in operation at the end of RP3 is below the plan, and costs for new major investments are lower than determined. Czech Republic should reimburse to airspace users the excess funds received by ANSPs for measures not implemented.
▪ Czech Republic 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 ser-vices delivered to airspace users or reimbursed to them.