Annual Monitoring Report RP3 - Switzerland
Contextual information
National performance plan adopted following Commission Decision (EU) 2023/178 of 14 December 2022
List of ACCs 2
Geneva ACC
Zurich ACC
No of airports in the scope of the performance plan
≥80’K 2
<80’K 0
Share of Union-wide traffic (TSUs) RP3 1.4%
Share of Union-wide en route costs RP3 2.9%
Share en route / terminal costs RP3 64% / 36%
En route charging zone(s)
Switzerland
Terminal charging zone(s)
Switzerland
Main ANSP
• Skyguide
Other ANSPs
–
MET Providers
• Office Féderal de la Météorologie et de Climatologie MétéoSuisse
Traffic (En route traffic zone)
▪ Actual IFR movements for Switzerland grew on average by +0.3% per year between 2019 and 2024.
▪ In the RP3 revised performance plan IFR movements were forecasted to decrease by -0.5% per year. Planned traffic was in line with the STATFOR October 2021 base forecast.
▪ Switzerland reached the 2019 pre-pandemic traffic level in 2024.
▪ Actual en route service units for Switzerland grew on average by +0.7% 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 October 2021 base forecast.
▪ A total of 6,521K actual service units were recorded over RP3, -1.5% above the aggregated planned value (6,623K).
Safety (Main ANSP)
▪ Skyguide achieved the RP3 EoSM targets in 2024 for all other Management Objectives than Safety Risk Management. However, Skyguide did not manage to implement improvements to Safety Risk Management as planned. The NSA has cautioned that the ANSP may not be able to achieve the required performance levels and established a corrective action plan for the ANSP.
▪ Switzerland recorded an increase in the rates of runway incursions and separation minima infringements. Both rates are below the Union-wide averages.
▪ Switzerland should ensure that the ANSP implements, in a timely and cost-efficient manner, the necessary additional measures such as enhanced processes, improved allocation of resources, targeted training, and systematic reviews. Without such actions, the achievement of the RP4 targets could be jeopardised.
Environment (Member State)
▪ En-route environmental performance in Switzerland improved during RP3. KEA decreased from 4.21% in 2020 to 4.10% in 2024.
▪ Switzerland achieved the KEA target in two years of RP3, in 2020 and 2021, during the low-traffic Covid-19 period.
▪ The NSA noted that the main factors contributed not being met the KEA target during the period were the network being impacted by ATC strikes in neighbouring countries or flight planning.
▪ KEP improved from 7.58% to 6.35% and SCR improved from 7.08% to 6.04% during RP3.
▪ The share of CDO flights deteriorated from 19.96% to 18.01% during RP3.
▪ Additional taxi out time deteriorated from 2.15 to 2.89 min/flight and additional time in terminal airspace deteriorated from 1.28 to 2.02 min/flight during RP3.
Capacity (Member State)
▪ Switzerland accumulated a total of 993,321 en-route ATFM delay minutes within the RP3 timeframe, reaching the highest level of total delay minutes generated in 2024. During RP3, Switzerland accounted for 1.80% of the total delays at Union level. Compared to RP2, total delay minutes increased by 1%.
▪ Switzerland met its en-route ATFM delay targets in 2020, 2021 and 2023, and failed to meet them in 2022 and 2024.
▪ In RP3, the main drivers of en-route ATFM delays in Switzerland were Weather (33%) and ATC capacity (32%).
▪ Over RP3, 37% of delayed flights in Switzerland experienced delays longer than 15 minutes, representing a decrease of 2 percentage points compared to RP2.
▪ In Switzerland, the total number of ATCOs in OPS over the RP3 period increased by 0 FTEs, representing no change compared to 2019. Switzerland exceeded the planned ATCO numbers by 10 FTEs by the end of RP3.
▪ Switzerland accumulated a total of 917,693 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 35%.
▪ In RP3, the leading drivers of arrival ATFM delays in Switzerland were Weather and other non-ATC related causes, representing 66% and 27% of total delay minutes.
Cost-efficiency (En route/Terminal charging zone(s))
▪ Over RP3, the en route actual unit cost of Switzerland was higher than the determined unit cost for every year of the reference period, mainly due to higher costs than planned.
▪ En route actual total cost for RP3 (858M€2017) were higher than determined (by +69M€2017, or +8.8%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by exceptional costs (+65M€2017, or -100%) recorded by Skyguide. These exceptional costs were related to capitalization rules, and have not been charged to airspace users.
▪ The total RP3 en route regulatory result for Skyguide amounted to -78M. The loss is mainly attributable to the application of the cost-sharing mechanism, in particular the negative difference between actual and determined costs to be borne by the ANSP.
▪ Over RP3, the terminal actual unit cost of Switzerland was lower than determined in the first years of the reference period (2020/2021 and 2022) and lower in the second half (2023 and 2024).
▪ Terminal actual total costs for RP3 (477M€2017) were higher than determined (by +13M€2017, or +2.7%). The difference in total costs is mainly driven by exceptional costs (+22M€2017, or -100%) recorded by Skyguide. As for en route, this is due to capitalization rules, which have not been invoiced to the airspace users.
▪ The total RP3 terminal regulatory result for Skyguide amounted to -17M€. As for en route, the loss is mainly attributable to the application of the cost-sharing mechanism, in particular the negative difference between actual and determined costs to be borne by the ANSP.