Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Hungary
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/775 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Budapest ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 0
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 2.9%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 1.6%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 84% / 16%
En route charging zone(s)
Hungary
Terminal charging zone(s)
Hungary
Main ANSP
• HungaroControl (EC)
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• Hungarian Meteorological Service (Országos Meteorológiai Szolgálat)
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Hungary grew on average by +4.3% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual IFR movements grew faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (+1.2% per year). Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ Hungary reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2022.
▪ Actual en route service units for Hungary grew on average by +4.2% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan service units were forecasted to remain stable (+0.1%per year). Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ A total of 13,952K actual service units were recorded over RP3, +19.9% above the aggregated planned value (11,632K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ HungaroControl achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in 2020 and continued to improve its performance. In 2024 HungaroControl maintained Level D for all five management objectives.
▪ Hungary recorded no runway incursions (RIs) in 2024, and a similar rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs) compared with 2023.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Environmental performance in Hungary deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 1.51% in 2020 to 2.23% in 2024.
▪ Hungary didn´t achieve the KEA target in any year of RP3.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factor contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period was the extra distance flown caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ KEP deteriorated from 2.46% to 2.82% and SCR deteriorated from 2.12% to 2.79% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights deteriorated from 33.57% to 26.14% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 0.87 to 1.31 min/flight and additional time in terminal airspace deteriorated from 0.66 to 0.77 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Hungary accumulated a total of 4,329,613 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2024. During RP3, Hungary accounted for 7.87% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes increased by 130%.
▪ Hungary met its en-route ATFM delay targets in 2020 and 2021, and failed to meet them in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in Hungary were ATC capacity (41%) and Weather (28%).
▪ Over RP3, 44% of delayed flights in Hungary experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing an increase of 6 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Hungary, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 8 FTEs, representing a 8% increase compared to 2019. Hungary fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 5 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Hungary accumulated a total of 2,847 arrival ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2020. Compared to RP2, total terminal delay minutes decreased by 41%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in Hungary were Weather and ATC Capacity, representing 56% and 44% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Hungary was lower than the determined unit cost for each year of the reference period except 2020, mainly due to higher traffic than expected. Significant higher traffic starting from 2022 is due to the closure of the Ukrainian airspace and the consequent rerouting of flights in the Hungarian airspace. Total actual SUs were +20% higher than determined over the period.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (487M€2017) were lower than determined (by -26M€2017, or -5.1%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower staff costs (-14M€2017, or -6.0%) as well as other operating costs (-14M€2017, or -12%) recorded by HungaroControl.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for HungaroControl amounted to 65M€. This is +43M€ 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 14% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 5.3% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Hungary’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. Hungary 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 significantly lower than determined. Hungary should reimburse to airspace users the excess funds received by the ANSP for measures not implemented.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Hungary was lower than determined in each year of the reference period. As for en route, this is mainly due to higher traffic levels than expected due to rerouting of flights due to the closure of the Ukrainian airspace.
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (96M€2017) were lower than determined (by -11M€2017, or -10%). This is mainly driven by HungaroControl’s significantly lower depreciation costs (-5.3M€2017, or -62%) than planned, resulting from the cumulated investment performance in RP3 being behind the schedule.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for HungaroControl amounted to 14M€, or 14% of total revenues. This is +7.4M€ higher than the ex-ante regulatory result (6.2M€ or 6.5% of the terminal revenues). As for en route, 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.
▪ Hungary 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.