The gate-to-gate unit economic cost indicator for the pan-European system reached €609 per composite flight hour in 2023. 76% of this was made up of ATM/CNS costs, with the remaining 24% attributable to ATFM delays. After the exceptional increase observed in 2020 mainly reflecting the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent traffic downturn, unit economic costs then significantly reduced, with the total cost in 2023 being comparable to pre-pandemic levels.
However, the share of the cost attributable to ATFM delays reached a level similar to that recorded in 2018, a year which was marked by significant capacity issues in Europe. Although the root causes might differ and depend on specific issues, including a significant change in traffic patterns as a result of the invasion of Ukraine, these preliminary results suggest that the ATM industry had not been able to successfully address the capacity issues already prevailing five years ago. This might be reflected in the levels and trends of staffing and investment seen over the period 2020-2023
