Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Malta
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/2425 of 5 December 2022
List of ACCs 1
Malta ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 1
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 0.8%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 0.3%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 81% / 19%
En route charging zone(s)
Malta
Terminal charging zone(s)
Malta
Main ANSP
• MATS
Other ANSPs
• Malta International Airport Plc.
MET Providers
–
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Malta grew on average by +2.6% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual IFR movements grew faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (+1.6% per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR June 2022 base forecast.
▪ Malta reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2023.
▪ Actual en route service units for Malta grew on average by +1.7% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ Actual service units grew faster than planned in the RP3 revised performance plan (+0.5% per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR June 2022 base forecast.
▪ A total of 3,643K actual service units were recorded over RP3, -3.8% below the aggregated planned value (3,785K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ MATS has consistently met or exceeded the RP3 EoSM targets since 2020. However, during the last two years, the maturity has decreased for two Management Objectives. In 2024 the decrease in maturity followed an audit performed, where the NSA assessed Safety Promotion at Level C, below the planned and achieved level of 2023.
▪ Malta recorded an increase in the rate of runway incursion (RIs) and in the rate of separation minima infringements (SMIs). The NSA is continually monitoring occurrences to ensure that mitigations are applied to reduce the risks.
Environment (Member State)
▪ En route environmental performance in Malta improved during RP3. KEA decreased from 2.53% in 2020 to 1.49% in 2024.
▪ Malta achieved the KEA target in two years of RP3, in 2023 and 2024.
▪ KEP improved from 2.92% to 1.49% and SCR improved from 2.05% to 1.25% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights improved from 51.41% to 54.66% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 0.89 to 2.29 min/flight and additional time in terminal airspace deteriorated from 0.69 to 1.05 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Malta recorded no en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe. During RP3, Malta accounted for 0.00% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes decreased by 100%.
▪ Malta met its en-route ATFM delay targets in each year of the third reference period.
▪ In RP3, no en-route ATFM delays were recorded in Malta.
▪ Over RP3, nearly zero percent of delayed flights in Malta experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 75 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Malta, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 3 FTEs, representing a 9% increase compared to 2019. Malta fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 3 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Malta accumulated a total of 224 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 76%.
▪ In RP3, the leading driver of arrival ATFM delays in Malta was other non-ATC related causes, representing 100% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Malta was lower than the determined unit cost for every year, except in 2022. This is mainly resulting from lower actual costs than planned.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (92M€2017) were lower than determined (by -16M€2017, or -15%. The difference in total costs is mainly driven by MATS, with all cost categories registering lower-than-planned costs. MATS registered -7.5M€2017 (or -26%) in other operating costs, and -4.1M€2017 (or-34%) in depreciation costs. The NSA mentioned that it is mainly due to measures that resulted in cost savings and postponement of investments. However, the details on these measures were not provided.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for MATS amounted to 14M€. This is +11M€ higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. The difference is mainly attributable to the application of the cost-sharing mechanism resulting from the gain retained by the ANSP due to lower than planned nominal costs. The regulatory result amounted to 14% of the total en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 2.6% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Malta was lower than determined for every year.
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (22M€2017) were lower than determined (by -4.7M€2017, or -18%). It is mainly driven by MATS, with all cost categories, except cost of capital, registering lower-than-planned costs. The NSA did not provide sufficient explanation for these discrepancies.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for MATS amounted to 4.7M€, or 20% of total revenues. This is +4.2M€ higher than the ex-ante regulatory result (0.5M€ or 2.2% of the terminal revenues). As for en route, the difference is mainly attributable to the application of the cost-sharing mechanism resulting from the gain retained by the ANSP due to lower than planned nominal costs.
▪ Malta should provide all the required information regarding the difference between actual and determined costs in RP4, in the context of the annual monitoring process and the cost-exempt reporting, to enhance transparency for airspace users.
▪ Malta 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 de-livered to airspace users or reimbursed to them.