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Mobility and Transport

SES Performance and charging

Improving air traffic management performance is the purpose of the Single European Sky initiative. The performance and charging scheme is the regulatory instrument through which the European Commission drives it. For this purpose, a performance and charging scheme was enacted to ensure the efficiency of air navigation services across the four key performance areas of safety, environment, capacity and cost-efficiency.

The Commission works in cooperation with the Member States, their National Supervisory Authorities (NSAs) and Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). The NSAs play an essential role in the implementation of the scheme at the local level, as they are responsible for the development, control and monitoring of the performance plans and targets.

A Performance Review Body (PRB) was created to assist the Commission and the NSAs in the implementation of the performance and charging scheme. It is an independent advisory body, which is composed of industry experts. Together with the PRB, the Eurocontrol and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency provide support to the Commission on the implementation of the performance and charging scheme.

The performance and charging scheme is composed of the following key elements covering both the en route and terminal phases of flights:

  • A set of rules, which are implemented over “reference periods” (RPs) with a duration between three and five years.
  • Union-wide targets set at the start of each RP. The targets refer to the key performance areas (KPAs) of:
    • safety,
    • environment,
    • airspace capacity,
    • cost efficiency.
  • Performance Plans submitted by SES Member States with local performance targets, wherein they state how they will contribute to meet the Union-wide targets. Local targets should be consistent with Union-wide targets.
  • Cost bases for charges related to the provision of air navigation services (ANS), the transparency of those cost bases and of unit rates, as well as the processes for the calculation, determination, and enforcement of ANS charges incurred by airspace users.
  • Incentive mechanisms, including the sharing of some financial risks between ANS providers and airspace users.
  • Monitoring reports, submitted by National Supervisory Authorities to the Commission. The performance results in each key performance area are then analysed in the PRB annual monitoring reports from a Union-wide as well as local perspective.

EU Single Sky Performance website

The EU Single Sky Performance website is a repository for the performance and charging regulatory framework, including latest EC Decisions, PRB reports, monitoring dashboards and information on all related events.

See also

29 September 2023: Single European Sky: European Commission advised to prioritise environmental performance when setting performance targets for air navigation services