Performance

 

The Performance Scheme is a Single European Sky initiative aimed at improving the performance of the air navigation services and network functions in Europe through:

 

  • The establishment of European-wide targets in four key performance areas: safety, environment, capacity and cost-efficiency.

 

  • The elaboration of performance plans at FAB level, consistent with and adequately contributing to the EU-wide targets.

 

The purpose of the 2015-2019 SW FAB Performance Plan (RP2 SOWEPP) is to establish the high-level performance targets for the Air Navigation Services provided in Portugal and Spain within the scope of the plan and set out the guidelines for the action plans to meet them.

 

This has to been done in consistency with the Performance and Charging Regulations (390/2013 and 391/2013) and with the Commission Implementing Decision of 11 March 2014 setting the Union-wide performance targets for the air traffic management network and alert thresholds for the second reference period 2015-19.

 

The Portuguese and Spanish NSAs are jointly responsible for drawing up the South West FAB Performance Plan:

 

  • Portugal: ANAC (Autoridade Nacional da Aviação Civil)

 

  • Spain: AESA (Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea)

 

The RP2 SW FAB Performance Plan covers:

 

  • The en-route air navigation services provided in the Barcelona, Canarias, Lisboa and Madrid Flight Information and Upper Information Regions (FIR/UIR).

 

  • The terminal air navigation services provided at airports in Portugal and Spain with more than 70,000 instrument flight rules (IFR) air transport movements per year: Madrid-Barajas (LEMD), Barcelona (LEBL), Palma de Mallorca (LEPA), Lisboa (LPPT), Málaga (LEMG) and Gran Canaria (GCLP).

 

SW FAB Monitoring Process

 

The purpose of the monitoring process is to establish the structure and procedure for the implementation of the Performance Plan during RP2. Annual monitoring has to ensure that targets are met and allows for compliance with monitoring requirements. Continuous monitoring ensures that targets are met by the end of the year.

 

Both procedures are applied at two levels:

 

  • At FAB level, leaded by the SAC and PER WG.
  • At National level, leaded by each coordinating NSA (ANAC, AESA).

 

The follow-up and monitoring of the indicators at FAB level is carried out by NSAs (ANAC and AESA), which also coordinates with the respective service providers. When the alarm system is triggered, as it was in 2017 and has just been triggered in 2018, conditions and causes of non-compliance must be analysed in order to be able to establish improvement measures to achieve the targets.

 

Annual monitoring is fed with the continuous monitoring undertaken the previous year and coordinated with the Operational Board (OB). The rest of the information is delivered by the entities to their respective NSAs (ANAC/AESA).

 

Data and information is integrated at SW FAB level in a single report. The report includes information about safety, environment, capacity and cost-efficiency, investments and all issues that have to be reported to the PRB.

The draft SOWEPP Annual Monitoring Report is approved by the SAC and is submitted to the EC via the PRB.

 

SW FAB Common Plan

 

The objectives of the SW FAB are set to achieve optimal performance in the areas related to safety, environmental sustainability, capacity, cost-efficiency, flight efficiency and also military mission effectiveness, through airspace design and the organisation of air traffic management in the airspace concerned regardless of existing boundaries.

 

The number of flights and their distribution within the SW FAB airspace are key factors for the preparation of the plans to achieve the performance targets at FAB level as part of the network level. Traffic growth within the SWFAB continues to increase with respect to previous forecasts; this unexpected scenario in the SW Axis shows deviations of more than 10% comparing to SOWEPP figures for 2016, which could reach more than 20% by the end of RP2, according to STATFOR forecasts.

 

According to the SOWEPP, the projects in the SW FAB OB CP are mainly oriented to the improvement of two main operational key performance areas:

 

  • Environment: Average horizontal en-route flight efficiency, with a SWFAB target of keeping inefficiency (KEA value) under 3.28% in 2019;
  • En route Capacity: En route ATFM delay, with a SWFAB target of 0.30 minutes per flight for the period 2015-2019; and
  • Terminal and Airport Capacity: Arrival ATFM delay, with national targets set up for the average global performance of all nine Portuguese airports (0.60 minutes) and five Spanish airports over 70.000 movements (0.80 minutes).

 

The development of the SW FAB OB Common Plan projects shall contribute to the reduction of the impact on environment by improvements on routes, flight profiles and distances flown, mostly specially with the implementation of all free routes projects.

 

It is expected that future traffic demand may be accommodated in a more efficient SW FAB airspace with the reduction in the ATC delays, increase efficiency whilst maintaining safety and improve environmental performance.

 

A first estimation of benefits to the AUs have been made both in quantitative way (identification of the nautical miles saved through the implementation of some of  the operational projects, considering the technical projects as facilitators/enablers for their implementation) and in a qualitative way (contribution to the achievement of improvements in Safety (SAF), Capacity (CAP) and Environment (ENV) performance areas as well as to the Civil-Military Coordination (CMC) and inter-FAB/regional collaboration (INT) areas).