Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Spain
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2022/776 of 13 April 2022
List of ACCs 5
Barcelona ACC
Madrid ACC
Palma ACC
Sevilla ACC
Canarias ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 6
<80’K 1
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 10.8%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 11.7%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 88% / 12%
En route charging zone(s)
Spain Continental
Spain Canarias
Terminal charging zone(s)
Spain
Main ANSP
• ENAIRE
Other ANSPs
• FERRONATS
• ANSP EA
MET Providers
• AEMET
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Spain grew on average by +1.9% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan IFR movements were forecasted to remain stable (-0.1% per year). Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ Spain reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2023.
▪ Actual en route service units for Spain grew on average by +2.9% 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 55,469K actual service units were recorded over RP3, +5.4% above the aggregated planned value (52,609K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ ENAIRE exceeded the RP3 EoSM targets during the first year of RP3, achieving maturity level D in all five Management Objectives, and has remained on this high level since then. ENAIRE implemented a continuous monitoring process to ensure maintaining high safety performance.
▪ SKYWAY achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in 2023 with maturity level D on three of five Management Objectives, including Safety Risk Management. SKYWAY remained above target in 2024.
▪ Spain recorded an increase in the rate of separation minima infringements compared with 2023. The rate of runway incursions increased slightly between 2023 and 2024.
Environment (Member State)
▪ Environmental performance in Spain deteriorated during RP3. KEA increased from 3.11% in 2020 to 3.30% in 2024, however, it remained stable since 2021.
▪ Spain achieved the KEA target in one year, in 2020, during the low-traffic Covid-19 period.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factors contributed to KEA deteriorating during the period were increased traffic demand leading to congestion in key airspace sectors, sector staffing and adverse weather conditions.
▪ KEP improved from 4.65% to 4.55%, while SCR remained stable during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights deteriorated from 44.40% to 41.68% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 1.33 to 2.40 min/flight and additional time in terminal airspace deteriorated from 0.69 to 1.32 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Spain accumulated a total of 4,465,713 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2024. During RP3, Spain accounted for 8.11% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes increased by 5%.
▪ Spain met its en-route ATFM delay targets in 2020 and 2021, and failed to meet them in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in Spain were ATC capacity (67%) and Weather (21%).
▪ Over RP3, 33% of delayed flights in Spain experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 5 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Spain, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 64 FTEs, representing a 5% increase compared to 2019. Spain exceeded the planned ATCO numbers by 102 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Spain accumulated a total of 1,798,050 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 decreased by 32%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in Spain were Weather and ATC Capacity, representing 60% and 16% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Throughout the RP3 period, the en route actual unit costs of Spain Continental were slitghly lower than the determined unit costs because of higher traffic levels than expected compensated by higher than expected actual costs. Meanwhile, Spain Canarias saw notably lower unit costs throughout the period, driven by significantly higher traffic than planned.
▪ Both Continental’s en route actual total costs for RP3 (3,047M€2017) as well as Canarias’ costs (480M€2017) were higher than determined (Continental by +82M€2017, or +2.8%, while Canarias by +11M€2017, or +2.3%). The difference in Continental’s total costs is mainly driven by higher staff costs (69M€2017, or +3.9%), which was due to unplanned obligations arising from national legislation, including salary adjustments for public employees and legal rulings affecting air traffic controllers. The difference in Canarias’ total costs is mainly driven by higher staff costs (5.7M€2017, or +2.2%), which was due to unplanned obligations arising from national legislation, as for Spain Continental.
▪ The total RP3 Continental en route regulatory result for ENAIRE amounted to 201M€. This is +94M higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. The total RP3 Canarias en route regulatory result for ENAIRE amounted to 40M€. This is +25M higher than the ex-ante regulatory result. In both en route charging zone, it is the result of the negative difference between determined and actual costs to be borne by the ANSP and the positive inflation adjustment due to higher than planned inflation. For Continental, the regulatory result amounted to 6.9% of the total planned en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 4.1% of the total planned en route revenues. For Canarias, the regulatory result amounted to 9.6% of the total planned en route revenues, while the ex-ante regulatory result amounted to 4.1% of the total planned en route revenues.
▪ Spain 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.
▪ Throughout the RP3 period, the terminal actual unit costs of Spain were lower than the determined unit costs, except in 2022. This was due to lower costs and higher traffic levels than expected, except in 2022 when costs were higher and traffic levels were lower than determined.
▪ The terminal actual total costs for RP3 (486M€2017) were higher than determined (by -6.6M€2017, or -1.3%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by lower depreciation costs (-4.4M€2017, or -13%) recorded by ENAIRE.