Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Ireland
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/766 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 2
Shannon ACC
Dublin ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 1
<80’K 2
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 3.9%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 1.8%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 82% / 18%
En route charging zone(s)
Ireland
Terminal charging zone(s)
Ireland
Main ANSP
• AirNav Ireland
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• Met Eireann Aviation Services Division (ASD)
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Ireland grew on average by +1.0% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan en route service units were forecasted to remain stable (-0.2%per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ Ireland reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2023.
▪ Actual en route service units for Ireland grew on average by +1.5% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual service units grew faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (+1.1% per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ A total of 18,440K actual service units were recorded over RP3, +2.1% above the aggregated planned value (18,067K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ AirNav Ireland met the RP3 targets in 2024, reaching maturity level D for four out of five Management Objectives during 2024.
▪ Ireland recorded a higher rate of runway incursions (RIs) and a decrease in the rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs) relative to 2023. The rate of runway incursions was above the Union-wide average.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Environmental performance in Ireland deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 1.11% in 2020 to 1.40% in 2024.
▪ Ireland achieved the KEA target in three years of RP3, in 2020, 2021 and 2022, during the low-traffic Covid-19 period.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factors contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period were the changes made by neighbouring ANSPs affecting trajectories, adverse weather, French industrial action and the increase in the proportion of flights on the “Tango” routes.
▪ KEP improved from 2.32% to 1.96%, while SCR remained stable during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights deteriorated from 46.35% to 42.51% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 2.37 to 3.32 min/flight and additional time in terminal airspace deteriorated from 1.19 to 1.57 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Ireland accumulated a total of 12,300 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2023. During RP3, AirNav Ireland accounted for 0.02% of the total delays at Union level. Delay change compared to RP2 is not available.
▪ Ireland met its en-route ATFM delay targets in each year of the third reference period.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in Ireland were ATC capacity (53%) and ATC staffing (45%).
▪ Over RP3, 24% of delayed flights in Ireland experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 29 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Ireland, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period decreased by 3 FTEs, representing a 1% decrease compared to 2019. Ireland fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 3 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Ireland accumulated a total of 114,230 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 increased by 38%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in Ireland were Weather and other non-ATC related causes, representing 75% and 21% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Ireland was slightly lower than the determined unit cost each year of the reference period, due to a combination of higher than expected traffic levels and lower total costs.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (549M€2017) were lower than determined (by -16M€2017, or -2.8%. The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower than determined other operating costs in real terms (-15M€2017, or -12%) recorded by AirNav Ireland.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for AirNav amounted to 31M€. This is +18M€ 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 6.1% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 2.7% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Ireland was lower than determined for the entire period except in 2022, due to a combination of higher than expected traffic levels and lower total costs.
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (123M€2017) were lower than determined (by -3.5M€2017, or -2.7%). This is mainly driven by lower than planned depreciation (-4.9M€2017, or -22%) registered by AirNav, resulting from delayed projects completion dates.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for AirNav amounted to 12M€, or 10% of total revenues. This is -1.5M€ lower than the ex-ante regulatory result (14M€ or 12% of the terminal revenues). The difference is mainly attributable to the amounts excluded from the cost-sharing to be reimbursed to users.