Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Latvia
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/2426 of 5 December 2022
List of ACCs 1
Riga ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 3
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 0.5%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 0.3%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 76% / 24%
En route charging zone(s)
Latvia
Terminal charging zone(s)
Latvia
Main ANSP
• LGS
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• LVĢMC
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Latvia fell on average by -5.1% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan IFR movements were forecasted to decrease by -5.8%per year. Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR June 2022 base forecast.
▪ Over RP3, IFR movements for Latvia remained below the 2019 pre-pandemic level.
▪ Actual en route service units for Latvia fell on average by -9.6% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual service units’ trend was in line with the planned trend foreseen in the RP3 revised performance plan (-9.9% per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR June 2022 base forecast.
▪ A total of 2,490K actual service units were recorded over RP3, -2.0% below the aggregated planned value (2,540K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ LGS achieved the RP3 targets in 2023 and maintained its performance in 2024, ending the reference period with maturity level D for two Management Objectives (Safety Risk Management and Safety Culture).
▪ Latvia recorded stable performance with respect to runway incursion (RIs) and an increase in the rate of separation minima infringement (SMIs) in 2024.
Environment (Member State)
▪ En route environmental performance in Latvia deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 1.24% in 2020 to 7.36% in 2024 with a peak of 7.97% in 2023.
▪ Latvia achieved the KEA target in one year of RP3, in 2020, during the low-traffic Covid-19 period.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factor contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period was ongoing sanctions against Russian and Belorussian aircraft operators because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
▪ KEP deteriorated from 1.42% to 7.50% and SCR deteriorated from 1.14% to 7.17% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights improved from 55.60% to 63.23% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 1.85 to 2.06 min/flight, while additional time in terminal airspace improved from 0.73 to 0.50 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Latvia accumulated a total of 347 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2024. During RP3, Latvia accounted for 0.00% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes decreased by 97%.
▪ Latvia 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 Latvia was ATC staffing, accounting for 70% of total delay minutes.
▪ Over RP3, 35% of delayed flights in Latvia experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 6 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Latvia, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period decreased by 10 FTEs, representing a 18% decrease compared to 2019. Latvia fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 15 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Latvia accumulated a total of 420 arrival ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2021. Compared to RP2, total terminal delay minutes decreased by 87%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in Latvia were Weather and other non-ATC related causes, representing 66% and 30% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Latvia was lower than the determined unit cost for the first half of the period (the combined year 2020-2021 and 2022), and higher in the second half (2023 and 2024. This is the result of significatively lower than determined traffic in 2023 and lower costs in the entire period except in 2024.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (91M€2017) were lower than determined (by -4.0M€2017, or -4.2%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower than determined staff costs (-3.9M€2017, or -7.6%) recorded by LGS, as a result of reductions in staff numbers.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for LGS amounted to 12M€. This is +5.5M€ 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 12% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 6.6% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Latvia was higher than determined in the entire period, except the combined year 2020-2021, mainly due to lower traffic levels than expected.
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (29M€2017) were lower than determined (by -0.9M€2017, or -3.0%). This is mainly driven by lower depreciation (-0.7M€2017, or -8.2%) than planned recorded by LGS.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for LGS amounted to 2.7M€, or 8.8% of total revenues. This is in line with the ex-ante regulatory result.
▪ Latvia 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.