Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - France
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2023/176 of 14 December 2022
List of ACCs 5
Bordeaux ACC
Brest ACC
Marseille ACC
Paris ACC
Reims ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 6
<80’K 52
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 17.3%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 21.1%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 85% / 15%
En route charging zone(s)
France
Terminal charging zone(s)
France Zone 1
France Zone 2
Main ANSP
• DSNA
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• Météo France
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for France grew on average by +0.4% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan en route service units were forecasted to remain stable (+0.0%per year). Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ France reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2024.
▪ Actual en route service units for France grew on average by +0.9% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual service units grew faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (+0.6% per year). Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ A total of 82,449K actual service units were recorded over RP3, +3.1% below the aggregated planned value (79,990K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ DSNA did not achieve the RP3 targets for the EoSM, as the achieved maturity levels decreased in 2023. Despite some improvements recorded in 2024, DSNA did not achieve the target in three out of five Management Objectives.
▪ France recorded a decrease in the rate of runway incursions (RIs) and a significant increase in the rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs). DSNA should continue assessing occurrences and should mitigate risks according to their SMS, if necessary.
▪ France 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 France remained stable during RP3. KEA increased marginally from 3.25% in 2020 to 3.29% in 2024 with a peak of 3.33% in 2023.
▪ France achieved the KEA target in one year of RP3, in 2020, during the low-traffic Covid-19 period.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factors contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period were a technical system implementation, industrial action, high peak traffic levels during summers and traffic volatility, capacity and staff issues and adverse weather.
▪ KEP improved from 6.18% to 5.52% and SCR improved from 5.90% to 5.36% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights improved from 17.37% to 14.67% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 1.52 to 2.68 min/flight and additional time in terminal airspace deteriorated from 0.65 to 0.91 min/flight during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time data for Marseille airport has not been reported during RP3 despite being subject to monitoring as per the Regulation.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ France accumulated a total of 17,501,803 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2023. During RP3, France accounted for 31.80% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes decreased by 12%.
▪ France met its en-route ATFM delay target in 2020, and failed to meet them in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in France were ATC disruptions (27%) and ATC staffing (22%).
▪ Over RP3, 40% of delayed flights in France experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 7 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In France, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 48 FTEs, representing a 4% increase compared to 2019. France fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 39 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ France accumulated a total of 1,877,717 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 increased by 8%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in France were ATC Staffing and other non-ATC related causes, representing 27% and 25% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of France was lower than determined for every year, driven by a combination of lower costs and higher service units than planned.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (6.333M€2017) were lower than determined (by -159M€2017, or -2.4%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower staff costs (-108M€2017, or -3.2%) recorded by DSNA. However, in nominal terms, the actual staff costs show an increase of +1.9% compared to the determined figures. According to the NSA, this difference is due to higher-than-expected inflation in 2022 and 2023. The reduction in total costs is also due to lower depreciation (-57M€2017, or -7.5%), mainly due to the postponement of a major project’s commissioning, delays in investments in the first half of the period, and the reclassification of some investment costs to project-related OPEX costs given specific public accounting rules of the French State.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for DSNA amounted to 393M€. This is +224M€ 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 6.1% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 2.8% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal zone 1 actual unit cost of France was lower than the determined unit cost for every year, while higher every year for the terminal zone 2.
▪ Terminal zone 1 actual total costs for RP3 (255M€2017) were lower than determined (by -27M€2017, or -9.4%). This is mainly driven by DSNA lower depreciation costs (-16M€2017, or -27%) than planned, mainly due to delays in implementing the new ATC system. Terminal zone 2 actual total costs for RP3 (898M€2017) were in line with the determined ( -0.9%).
▪ The total RP3 terminal zone 1 regulatory result for DSNA amounted to 19M€, or 6.8% of total revenues. This is +7.4M€ higher than the ex-ante regulatory result (11M€ or 4.0% of the terminal zone 1 revenues). The difference is mainly attributable to the application of the cost sharing mechanism, due to a positive difference between determined and actual costs to be retained by the ANSP.
▪ The total RP3 terminal zone 2 regulatory result for DSNA amounted to 2.7M€, or 0.3% of total revenues. This is -16M€ lower than the ex-ante regulatory result (19M€ or 2.2% of the terminal zone 2 revenues). The difference is mainly 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.