Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Slovakia
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/768 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 1
Bratislava ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 0
<80’K 0
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 0.9%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 0.8%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 100% / 0%
En route charging zone(s)
Slovakia
Terminal charging zone(s)
Main ANSP
• LPS SR
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• SHMU
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Slovakia grew on average by +1.4% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan IFR movements were forecasted to decrease by -2.9% per year. Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ Slovakia reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2024.
▪ Actual en route service units for Slovakia fell on average by -0.9% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan service units were forecasted to decrease by -3.3% per year. Planned traffic for RP3 was based on a local forecast.
▪ A total of 4,378K actual service units were recorded over RP3, +11.4% above the aggregated planned value (3,929K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ LPS achieved the RP3 targets for all Management Objectives in 2023 and maintained the level in 2024.
▪ Slovakia recorded higher rates of both runway incursions and separation minima infringements in 2024 compared with 2023, continuing the upwards trends.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Environmental performance in Slovakia deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 2.22% in 2020 to 4.05% in 2024.
▪ Slovakia didn´t achieve the KEA targeting any year of RP3.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factors contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period were the factors linked to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine leading to airspace closure, usage of segregated airspace blocks by military and the shift in trajectories.
▪ KEP deteriorated from 3.55% to 4.88% and SCR deteriorated from 2.92% to 4.63% during RP3.
▪ Slovakia has no airports that are regulated under the performance and charging scheme.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Slovakia accumulated a total of 85,960 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2024. During RP3, Slovakia accounted for 0.16% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes decreased by 62%.
▪ Slovakia met its en-route ATFM delay targets in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and failed to meet them in 2024.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in Slovakia were ATC capacity (50%) and Weather (42%).
▪ Over RP3, 47% of delayed flights in Slovakia experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing an increase of 7 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Slovakia, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 14 FTEs, representing a 26% increase compared to 2019. Slovakia exceeded the planned ATCO numbers by 5 FTEs by the end of RP3.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Throughout the RP3 period, the en route actual unit costs of Slovakia were notably lower than the determined unit costs, mainly driven by notably higher traffic levels than planned.
▪ The en route actual total costs for RP3 (245M€2017) were lower than determined (by -10M€2017, or -4.1%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower staff costs (-11M€2017, or -7.5%) recorded by LPS.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for LPS amounted to 29M€. This is +20M 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 11% of the total planned en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 4.0% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Slovakia 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.
▪ Slovakia does not have a terminal charging zone.
▪ Slovakia’s RP3 performance plan included justifications for a deviation to achieve the RP3 capacity targets. The main measures included recruiting of new ATCOs. Slovakia 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. Slovakia should reimburse to airspace users the excess funds received by ANSPs for measures not implemented.