Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Germany
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2023/177 of 14 December 2022
List of ACCs 4
Bremen ACC
Langen ACC
Karlsruhe UAC
Munich ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 7
<80’K 8
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 11.5%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 14.7%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 76% / 24%
En route charging zone(s)
Germany
Terminal charging zone(s)
Germany
Main ANSP
• DFS
Other ANSPs
• MUAC
MET Providers
• Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Germany fell on average by -2.1% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan IFR movements were forecasted to remain stable (-0.2%per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ Over RP3, IFR movements for Finland remained below the 2019 pre-pandemic level.
▪ Actual en route service units for Finland fell on average by -1.2% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan service units were forecasted to grow by +0.9% per year. Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ A total of 54,933K actual service units were recorded over RP3, -6.4% below the aggregated planned value (58,720K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ DFS achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in 2021 and remained at or above the RP3 targets throughout the period.
▪ Germany reported a decrease in the rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs) in 2024, and no occurrences of runway incursions (RIs).
▪ As part of occurrence management at DFS, each reported safety-relevant event (e.g. RI and SMI) is analysed individually. Where appropriate, lessons are drawn from these analyses, and preventive measures are developed to avoid recurrence. In addition, continuous trend analyses are conducted, incorporating information from all SMS processes to identify systemic issues and support proactive safety management.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Environmental performance in Germany deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 2.37% in 2020 to 2.53% in 2024 with a peak of 2.76% in 2022.
▪ Germany 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 contributing to KEA deteriorating during the period were the longer routes persisting due to re-routings caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and weather-related issues.
▪ KEP improved from 5.54% to 4.85% and SCR improved from 5.08% to 4.62% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights deteriorated from 19.29% to 13.57% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 1.63 to 2.23 min/flight, while additional time in terminal airspace improved from 1.15 to 1.07 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Germany accumulated a total of 15,625,733 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2022. During RP3, Germany accounted for 28.39% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes increased by 10%.
▪ Germany 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 Germany were ATC capacity (47%) and Weather (31%).
▪ Over RP3, 33% of delayed flights in Germany experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 1 percentage point compared to RP2.
▪ In Germany, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period decreased by 158 FTEs, representing an 11% decrease compared to 2019. Germany fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 265 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Germany accumulated a total of 1,194,317 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 29%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in Germany were Weather and other non-ATC related causes, representing 58% and 40% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Germany was lower than the determined unit cost for the combined year 2020-2021 and 2023, while higher in 2022 and 2024.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (4,400M€2017) were lower than determined (by -269M€2017, or -5.8%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower staff costs (-200M€2017, or -6.8%). However, in nominal terms, staff costs have been in line with the plan. The difference is mainly attributable to the gap between planned and actual inflation.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for DFS amounted to 144M€. The regulatory result amounted to 3.4% of the total en route revenues.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Germany was higher than determined in three out of four years (2022, 2023 and 2024), mainly due to lower traffic levels than expected.
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (1.363M€2017) were lower than determined (by -55M€2017, or -3.9%). This is mainly driven by DFS’ lower staff costs in real terms (-25.6M€2017, or -2.6%) than planned, and lower than planned depreciation (-22.0M€2017, or -16%).
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for DFS amounted to 3.5M€, or 0.2% of total revenues.