19.12.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 323/101
(10)
The Commission notes that, in its request for revision, Lithuania has used a local traffic forecast for IFR movements and service units which is higher than the Eurocontrol’s Statistics and Forecast Service (‘STATFOR’) base traffic forecast published in June 2022.
Lithuania’s local traffic projections are more optimistic than the STATFOR forecast.
Lithuania explains that the difference is due to the use of more recent data on traffic evolution, which shows that the heavy traffic losses recorded in March and April 2022 have been partly reversed in the subsequent months.
(11)
Compared to the performance plan, the annual reductions in the number of service units for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 calendar years are in the approximate range of -26 % to -35 %.
The number of flight movements in Lithuanian airspace operated under IFR is however not foreseen to decrease at the same rate as the en route service units.
That discrepancy is due to the significant reduction of overflights, which on average generate proportionally higher numbers of en route service units than flights landing and departing from airports in Lithuania.
The Commission hence notes that the workload of the air navigation service provider (‘ANSP’), which is driven by the controlled flight movements, is not expected to diminish in correlation with the revenue reduction which stems from the lower number of en route service units.
(12)
Lithuania explains that the shortfall of revenue from air navigation charges caused by lower traffic levels, combined with high inflation and labour market pressure on wages, severely impacts the capability of the ANSP to meet future financial obligations and implement the planned investments.
Lithuania therefore states that the revision of the performance targets is essential in order to guarantee the financial strength of the ANSP and adequate resources for the national supervisory authority which is funded through ANS charges revenue.
(13)
The Commission acknowledges that the initial assumptions underpinning Lithuania’s performance plan are no longer valid due to the significant reduction of air traffic resulting from Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Furthermore, the Commission agrees that the revision of the performance targets is necessary and proportionate in order to ensure the operational and financial viability of the ANSP and to remedy the liquidity shortage which it faces as a consequence of the change in circumstances.
(14)
The Commission therefore considers that the request for revision submitted by Lithuania fulfils the conditions for the revision of local performance targets set out in Article 18(1), point (a)(ii), of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/317.
ASSESSMENT OF THE INTENDED REVISED PERFORMANCE TARGETS
Capacity performance targets (15)
Lithuania requests a revision of its en route capacity targets for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 calendar years in response to the change in circumstances outlined in recitals 6 to 13, in particular the reduced number of IFR movements forecasted for those calendar years and its impact on the capacity provision.
(16)
The following table presents the RP3 en route capacity performance targets of Lithuania, as included in the performance plan, and the intended revised performance targets proposed by Lithuania in its request for revision.
The table also outlines the corresponding reference values from the Network Operations Plan available on 2 June 2021, the time of adopting the revised Union-wide performance targets for RP3, which have been used by the Commission for the purpose of assessing the consistency of the local capacity targets with the Union-wide performance targets, on the basis of point 1.3 of Annex IV to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/317.
Lithuania
2022
2023
2024
En route capacity targets included in the performance plan, expressed in minutes of air traffic flow management (‘ATFM’) delay per flight
0,03
0,03
0,03
Intended revised en route capacity targets, expressed in minutes of ATFM delay per flight
0,02
0,02
0,02
Reference values
0,03
0,03
0,03