Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Portugal
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/767 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Lisbon ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 2
<80’K 8
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 3.3%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 2.1%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 78% / 22%
En route charging zone(s)
Portugal Continental
Terminal charging zone(s)
Portugal
Main ANSP
• NAV Portugal (Continental)
Other ANSPs
• Estado Maior da Força Aérea
• Estado Maior da Armada
MET Providers
• IPMA
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Portugal-Lisboa grew on average by +2.1% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan IFR movements were forecasted to fall by -0.6% per year. Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ Portugal reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2023.
▪ Actual en route service units for Portugal grew on average by +2.1% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan service units were forecasted to decrease by -0.9%per year. Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ A total of 15,872K actual service units were recorded over RP3, +11.3% above the aggregated planned value (14,263K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ NAV Portugal achieved the RP3 EoSM targets for all five Management Objectives in 2020. However, in 2023, the ANSP experienced a decline in performance failing to maintain the required level for Safety Risk Management. In response, NAV Portugal implemented targeted measures in 2024, particularly in the area of occurrence analysis and monitoring, which enabled the organisation to recover and achieve the required RP3 EoSM target level D in this management objective.
▪ Portugal recorded stable performance with respect to safety occurrences with lower rates of separation infringement and runway incursion. The NSA approved the State safety plan related to monitoring of occurrences and implementation and efficiency of specific measures.
Environment (Member State)
▪ En route environmental performance in Portugal improved during RP3. KEA decreased from 1.79% in 2020 to 1.61% in 2024 with the lowest level of 1.50% in 2023.
▪ Portugal achieved the KEA target in four years of RP3, from 2021 to 2024.
▪ KEP improved from 2.11% to 2.02%, while SCR remained stable during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights deteriorated from 52.99% to 46.23% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 1.95 to 3.06 min/flight and additional time in terminal airspace deteriorated from 1.08 to 2.17 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Portugal accumulated a total of 1,106,304 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2022. During RP3, Portugal accounted for 2.01% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes increased by 46%.
▪ Portugal met its en-route ATFM delay target in 2021, and failed to meet them in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in Portugal were ATC capacity (59%) and Other, non-ATC causes (33%).
▪ Over RP3, 38% of delayed flights in Portugal experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 4 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Portugal, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 14 FTEs, representing a 10% increase compared to 2019. Portugal fell short of the planned ATCO numbers by 22 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Portugal accumulated a total of 1,921,945 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 31%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in Portugal were other non-ATC related causes and Weather, representing 52% and 40% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Throughout the RP3 period, the en route actual unit costs of Portugal were notably lower than the determined unit costs, driven by higher traffic levels than planned.
▪ The en route actual total costs for RP3 (639M€2017) were lower than determined (by -17M€2017, or -2.6%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower staff costs (-5.3M€2017, or -1.3%) recorded by NAV Portugal.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for NAV Portugal amounted to 24.6M€. This is +11.4M higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. The difference is mainly attributable to the positive inflation adjustment due to higher than planned inflation. The regulatory result amounted to 4.1% of the total planned en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 2.3% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ In the first half of the RP3 period, the terminal actual unit costs of Portugal costs were in line with the determined unit costs; After 2021 the actual unit costs were notably lower than the determined unit costs, mainly due to higher than determined traffic levels.
▪ The terminal actual total costs for RP3 (181M€2017) were lower than determined (by -5.2M€2017, or -2.8%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower staff costs (-2.8M€2017, or -1.9%) recorded by NAV Portugal.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for NAV Portugal amounted to 8.7M€. This is +5.6M higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. The difference is mainly attributable to the positive inflation adjustment due to higher than planned inflation. The regulatory result amounted to 4.4% of the total planned en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 1.7% of the total planned en route revenues.