XXXXX FACTS AND FIGURES THE ESSENTIALS 1
Highlights 2017 1 237 098 IFR flights + 3.2 % Traffic evolution IFR flights 512 302 IFR landings/departures 97 % Flights without delay + 5.0 % IFR transit flights 95 325 Military flights 10.1 Sec En-route ATFM delay per flight 1419.4 Personnel (in FTE) 2
Skyguide is in the midst of change Dear reader, Change is centre-stage at skyguide today. Disruptive developments such as increasing automation, new airspace users and modified norms are shaping the parameters of our corporate strategy. But at the core of this remains our Virtual Centre, whose realisation continues to progress as planned, and which we expect to be a mould-breaking innovation in our industry. 2017 was another very satisfying year in operational performance terms. While air traffic volumes grew more strongly than projected, skyguide achieved all the targets of the European Performance Plan. We also met once again all the terms of our services agreement with the Swiss Air Force. And an audit by the Swiss Federal Audit Office confirmed that the integration of civil and military air navigation services has been the right way to ensure the optimum management of Switzerland s airspace resources. Complex airspace The complexity of Swiss airspace remains a major challenge for all its users. As the shortest routings cannot currently be flown in Swiss upper airspace, Switzerland does not fare well in the international routing rankings. In response to this, we are currently committed to a FOCA-led 3
Walter T. Vogel Alex Bristol Project of the Century (to quote Swiss Federal Transport Minister Doris Leuthard) to enhance airspace structure. We also remain dedicated to Functional Airspace Block Europe Central (FABEC) as part of the broader endeavour to establish a Single European Sky. Thanks to the adoption of 63 direct routes, flight plans can already be compiled much more flexibly in Switzerland. Cross-border airspace control, which greatly facilitates the operation of Switzerland s international airports, is also being steadily improved. The change process continues Radical changes cause inevitable uncertainties. And this makes it all the more important to maintain a sound legal framework. Air traffic controllers should not have to fear that any error they make may land them in criminal court. So we would like to see more legal certainty in the processing of incidents, for example, and we advocate assigning the relevant competencies to the Swiss federal prosecutor. Walter T. Vogel Chairman of the Board of Directors Alex Bristol CEO 4
The Executive Board 2018 Alex Bristol (CEO) Marc R. Bohren (Finance & Services) Klaus Meier (Engineering & Technical Services) Francis Schubert (Corporate Development und Stv. CEO) Hans Bracher (Human Resources) Myriam Käser (Communications) Klaus Affholderbach (Safety, Security, Quality) Urs Lauener (Operations) Jeannette Haus (Chief of Staff)
A public service mandate Skyguide manages and monitors the airspace above Switzerland and adjacent parts of France, Italy, Austria and Germany. Skyguide performs the demanding task of both serving the interests of civil aviation and enabling the Swiss Air Force to fulfil its sovereign mandate. Civil and military air traffic management have been integrated in Switzerland since 2001. Swiss airspace is the most densely used in Europe. The various intercontinental airports in and around Switzerland all generate high air traffic volumes. And upper Swiss airspace is a meeting point of key north-south and east-west airways that create two of Europe s busiest air traffic crossroads. An optimum balance Skyguide has a legal public service mandate from the Swiss Confederation to ensure the safe, fluid and cost-effective management of air traffic in the airspace it controls. In organisational terms, skyguide is a joint-stock company under Swiss private law which has its head office in Geneva. Air navigation services must help benefit the customer. And this means striking an optimum balance between safety, capacity, costs and sustainability. 6
Safety is paramount Safety is skyguide s overriding objective. And a corporate safety culture and a certificated safety management system are its prime foundations. The safety of skyguide s air navigation services was maintained in 2017 and is at a high level. Safety levels are measured by the numbers of violations of aircraft separation minima in skyguide-controlled airspace that are reported or automatically recorded. This statistic was lower for 2017 than the average of the past five years. The maturity and effectiveness of skyguide s safety management are confirmed, and are annually assessed by Eurocontrol, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA). Skyguide meets all European safety objectives. The prime goals of the Skyguide Safety Strategy are to permanently enhance the company s safety culture, to systematically record its safety performance and to develop a new risk management system. 7
Strong growth Air traffic volumes in the airspace above Switzerland and adjacent border areas grew more strongly than Eurocontrol had predicted in 2017. Total flight numbers were a 3.2% increase on their 2016 level. The growth was particularly strong for en-route traffic (up 5%). At Switzerland s airports, arrival and departure volumes were almost unchanged (i.e. down 0.01%) from 2016. 2017 2016 Variation Total IFR flights handled 1 237 098 1 198 663 + 3.2% of which en-route 751 946 716 159 + 5.0% Flight movements handled The table below shows the relative sizes of skyguide s various geographical operations and the corresponding development of their IFR traffic in 2017. It is important to distinguish here between flights and flight movements: one flight will usually generate multiple flight movements, at its airports of origin and destination and at the control centres along its route. 8
Movements Control Centres 2017 2016 Variation Geneva 697 277 661 014 + 5.5% Zurich 798 705 766 215 + 4.2% TOTAL 1 495 982 1 427 229 +4.8% IFR-Landings/ Departures 2017 2016 Variation Bern Belp 15 203 17 197 11.6% Buochs 2 436 2 241 + 8.7% Donaueschingen 1 568 1 468 + 6.8% Friedrichshafen 14 494 14 447 + 0.3% Geneva 183 563 183 082 + 0.3% Grenchen 4 561 4 907 7.1% Les Eplatures 2 172 2 016 + 7.7% Lugano Agno 9 208 9 918 7.2% Sion 5 909 5 393 + 9.6% St. Gallen Altenrhein 9 736 9 210 + 5.7% Zurich 263 452 262 529 + 0.4% TOTAL 512 302 512 408 0.02% 9
High punctuality despite larger traffic volumes Even though it handled greater volumes of air traffic during the year, skyguide delivered a punctuality performance for 2017 that was only slightly below its prior-year level. Some 97% of all skyguide-controlled flights departed free of delays. Average ATC-related delays per flight for the year increased from the 4.2 seconds of 2016 to 10.1 seconds. Delays at Geneva Airport declined by 21.2%, while delays at Zurich were reduced by as much as 24.5%. Average ATFM delay per delayed flight (Europe and skyguide airspace) Delay (in minutes) Source: OPAL data warehouse - CFMU data 25 20 15 10 5 0 Change (in %) Europe skyguide 2008 +2.6 5.4 2009 +3.3 2.4 2010 +22.9 +9.4 2011 18.0 11.8 2012 3.4 +1.8 2013 1.4 +3.5 2014 2.4 5.7 2015 +6.8 +6.5 2016 8.1 9.6 2017 2.3 +3.6 10
97 % of all flights free of delays 97.0% 2.5% 0.5% On-time flights with less than 15 min. delay with more than 15 min. delay Average ATFM delay per flight airport / en-route (skyguide airspace) Delay (in minutes) Source: OPAL data warehouse - CFMU data 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total En-route Airport 1.34 0.70 0.65 1.35 0.84 0.51 1.41 1.13 0.29 1.64 1.12 0.52 1.09 0.76 0.34 0.74 0.51 0.23 0.80 0.48 0.32 0.52 0.20 0.33 0.52 0.13 0.39 0.59 0.13 0.47 0.52 0.09 0.44 0.56 0.07 0.48 0.43 0.07 0.36 0.44 0.17 0.27 11
In the heart of Europe Some 40% of the airspace that skyguide manages and monitors is above adjacent countries. Switzerland has a clear interest in collaborating with its neighbours, since all its international airports are close to its borders. Delegating air navigation services beyond national borders was one of the objectives of the Single European Sky (SES) initiative that was launched in 2004. SES is intended to ensure that air traffic is handled according to operational and not national criteria. And the creation of functional airspace blocks or FABs was designed to support this objective. Skyguide s collaboration within Functional Airspace Block Europe Central (FABEC) is based on an international agreement of 2010, and has been under way since December 2012. FABEC launched a strategic reorientation in 2017. But Europewide harmonized airspace control is still unlikely in the foreseeable future. Binding targets The European Performance Plan is a tool which sets binding targets for all air navigation services providers. The harmonisation of technical infrastructures, to provide a 12
foundation for implementing operational, safety, environmental and efficiency measures, is being promoted via the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) programme. And skyguide is fully committed to pursuing the European Performance Plan. 13
Personnel policy objectives Skyguide offers specialist jobs in a technologically demanding field. In doing so, the company enables competencies to be developed within Switzerland that have sizeable future potential. The following table shows the numbers of skyguide employees (in full-time equivalents) as of 31 December 2017:uat. ZRH 445.5 GVA 310.3 Regio 152.2 1419.4 full-time equivalents ZRH 167.7 GVA 159.6 Regio 1 ZRH 25.6 GVA 59.3 ZRH 26.8 GVA 17.9 ZRH 18 GVA 19.4 ZRH 5 GVA 19.4 ZRH 6.7 GVA 12.3 881 Operations 328 Engineering & Technical Services 84.9 Finance & Services 44.7 Safety, Security, Quality 37.4 Directorate* 24.4 Corporate Development 19 Human Resources * Incl. Corporate Communication, Innovation & Change. 14
A negative net result Once again, skyguide handled a higher total volume of air traffic in 2017 than it had the previous year. As a result, its total operating revenue of CHF 470.3 million was a CHF 15.3 million increase on 2016. Total operating expenses were up CHF 5.4 million on the previous year. So the operating result improved CHF 9.9 million to CHF 42.5 million. The company was compelled to invest CHF 53 million in its skycare company pension scheme, however, to cover part of the current funding shortfall. This produced a negative net result for the year of CHF 35.6 million, which compares to a positive net result of CHF 15.3 million for 2016. In CHF million 2017 2016 Total operating revenue 470.3 455.0 Total personnel expenses 349.3 291.1 Other operating expenses 131.5 131.3 OPERATING RESULT 10.5 32.6 (Under-)/overrecovery balance brought forward 8.9 9.4 (Under-)/overrecovery balance carried forward 12.0 4.0 NET RESULT FOR THE YEAR 35.6 15.3 15
You will find full details of all the above in the 2017 Annual Report. www.skyguide.ch/annual-report skyguide swiss air navigation services ltd p.o. box 796 CH-1215 geneva 15 tel +41 22 417 41 11 fax +41 22 417 45 47 www.skyguide.ch @ skyguide The Essentials/en/1400/3.2018