1  Introduction

The ACE benchmarking work is commissioned by the Performance Review Commission (PRC) and carried out by the EUROCONTROL Performance Review Unit (PRU) using information provided by Air Navigation Services Providers (ANSPs) in compliance with Decision No. 88 of the Permanent Commission of EUROCONTROL on economic information disclosure1.

The data processing, analysis and reporting are conducted with the assistance of the ACE Working Group, which comprises representatives from participating ANSPs, airspace users, regulatory authorities and the Performance Review Unit. This enables participants to share experiences and establish a common understanding of underlying assumptions and data limitations.

The objective of this document is to provide a first insight on the level of 2023 cost-effectiveness performance both for the Pan-European system and for individual ANSPs before the release of the final ACE benchmarking report, which is planned end of May 2025. This document also presents financial indicators extracted from the ANSPs Financial Indicators Dashboard and monitoring ANSPs’ cash holdings and liquidity.

Economic information disclosure by ANSPs takes time as it is depending on the publication of their financial statements, which can be a lengthy process. Indeed, ANSPs have to follow official procedures that prevent them from sharing their financial statements before the independent audit report is finalised and the formal approval for publication is received by the relevant authorities (sometimes at Ministry level).

The final ACE benchmarking report will provide more detailed information on observed changes for selected performance indicators both at pan-European system level and at ANSP level. This detailed analysis will particularly focus on ANSPs for which significant differences in costs are observed. The report will present the main drivers underlying these differences.

Figure 1.1 illustrates the timeline to produce the next ACE benchmarking report.

Figure 1.1: Timeline to produce the next ACE benchmarking report

It is important that robust ACE benchmarking analysis is available in a timely manner since several stakeholders, most notably ANSPs’ management, regulatory authorities (e.g. NSAs) and airspace users, have a keen interest in receiving the information in the ACE reports as early as possible.

Fifteen out of 38 ANSPs submitted their ACE 2023 data on time by the 1st of July 2024 and all data submissions were received by early September 2024. For ANSPs operating under Single European Sky regulations, the ACE data submission process was carried out at the same time as the preparation of performance plans for the 4th Reference Period (RP4) covering 2025-2029. However, clearly the timescale to produce the ACE benchmarking report is inevitably delayed if data are not submitted on time.

It should be noted that the data presented in this document are still preliminary and not yet fully validated. Indeed, the data submission milestone is just the first step of a process which comprises a thorough verification and analysis of individual ANSP submissions. This validation exercise also includes a formal round of exchange between the PRU and each ANSP in order to ensure a common understanding of the data submitted by the ANSP.

The data used in this document reflects the information received by the 12th of November 2024. Figure 1.2 shows the status of the ACE data validation process for the data presented in this document.

Airnav Ireland
(Ireland)

Croatia Control ✔️
(Croatia)

Fintraffic ANS ✔️
(Finland)

MATS
(Malta)

ROMATSA
(Romania)

Albcontrol
(Albania)

DCAC Cyprus ✔️
(Cyprus)

HASP ✔️
(Greece)

MOLDATSA
(Moldova)

Sakaeronavigatsia ✔️
(Georgia)

ANS CR ✔️
(Czech Republic)

DFS ✔️
(Germany)

HungaroControl ✔️
(Hungary)

MUAC ✔️
(EUROCONTROL)

skeyes
(Belgium)

ARMATS ✔️
(Armenia)

DHMI ✔️
(Türkiye)

LFV ✔️
(Sweden)

NATS (Continental) ✔️
(United Kingdom)

Skyguide ✔️
(Switzerland)

Austro Control ✔️
(Austria)

DSNA
(France)

LGS ✔️
(Latvia)

NAV Portugal (Continental)
(Portugal)

Slovenia Control
(Slovenia)

Avinor (Continental)
(Norway)

EANS
(Estonia)

LPS
(Slovakia)

NAVIAIR ✔️
(Denmark)

SMATSA
(Serbia/Montenegro)

BHANSA ✔️
(Bosnia and Herzegovina)

ENAIRE ✔️
(Spain)

LVNL
(Netherlands)

Oro Navigacija ✔️
(Lithuania)

BULATSA
(Bulgaria)

ENAV ✔️
(Italy)

M-NAV ✔️
(North Macedonia)

PANSA
(Poland)

✔️ Data submission has been reviewed
Figure 1.2: Status of 2023 data validation process

The data contained in this report is therefore subject to changes before the release of the final ACE benchmarking report in May 2025.

The remainder of this report is structured as follows:

  1. Due to the on-going war in Ukraine, UkSATSE has been excluded from the ACE analysis.↩︎