Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Estonia
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/771 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Tallinn ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 2
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 0.5%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 0.4%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 90% / 10%
En route charging zone(s)
Estonia
Terminal charging zone(s)
Estonia
Main ANSP
• EANS
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Estonia fell on average by -5.7% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual IFR movements fell faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (-0.4% per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ Over RP3, IFR movements for Estonia remained below the 2019 pre-pandemic level.
▪ Actual en route service units for Estonia fell on average by -9.2% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan service units were forecasted to remain stable (+0.2%per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ A total of 2,316K actual service units were recorded over RP3, -31.2% below the aggregated planned value (3,368K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ EANS already achieved the RP3 EoSM targets at the start of the reference period and continued to improve the SMS throughout RP3.
▪ Estonia recorded a significantly higher rate of runway incursions (RIs) in 2024 compared to 2023, while lowering the rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs).
Environment (Member State)
▪ En route environmental performance in Estonia deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 1.21% in 2020 to 6.14% in 2024 with a peak of 6.55% in 2023.
▪ Estonia achieved the KEA target in one year of RP3 period, in 2020, during the low-traffic Covid-19 period.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factor contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period was the traffic to and from Kaliningrad which does not follow the optimal routes due to restrictive measures resulting from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ KEP deteriorated from 1.34% to 6.21% and SCR deteriorated from 1.23% to 6.14% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights improved from 62.30% to 70.04% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 0.85 to 1.20 min/flight, while additional time in terminal airspace improved from 0.44 to 0.22 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Estonia accumulated a total of 1,212 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2024. During RP3, Estonia accounted for 0.00% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes decreased by 97%.
▪ Estonia met its en-route ATFM delay targets in each year of the third reference period.
▪ In RP3, the main driver of en-route ATFM delays in Estonia was ATC capacity, accounting for 86% of total delay minutes.
▪ Over RP3, 22% of delayed flights in Estonia experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 14 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Estonia, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period decreased by 9 FTEs, representing a 30% decrease compared to 2019. Estonia fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 6 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Estonia accumulated zero minutes of arrival ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, showing no change compared to RP2.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Estonia was higher than the determined unit cost for every year, except for the combined year 2020-2021. The second half of the reference period has been marked by reduced traffic caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, resulting in higher actual unit costs. Total actual SUs were -31% lower than determined over the period.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (119M€2017) were lower than determined (by -12M€2017, or -9.1%. The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower staff costs (-7.4M€2017, or -13%) recorded by EANS. However, in nominal terms, the actual staff costs of EANS are in line with the determined.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for EANS amounted to 18M€. This is +12M€ higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. 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. The regulatory result amounted to 15% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 5.2% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Estonia was higher than the determined unit cost for every year, expect for the combined year 2020-2021.
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (13M€2017) were higher than determined (by +1.3M€2017, or +11%). This is mainly driven by EANS higher depreciation costs (+0.6M€2017, or +23%) and cost of capital (+0.5M€2017, or +51%) than planned. The NSA explained that it mainly results from the continuation of investments that were previously postponed and an additional equity injection.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for EANS amounted to -0.3M€. The loss is attributable to the application of the cost sharing mechanism, due to a negative difference between determined and actual costs to be borne by the ANSP.
▪ Estonia 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.