CHAPTER III PERFORMANCE TARGET SETTING

Article 9Union-wide performance targets

1.At the latest 19 months before the start of a reference period, the national supervisory authorities shall provide to the Commission initial cost data and information about traffic forecasts referred to in point (f) of Article 10(2) related to the upcoming reference period, as inputs for the setting of Union-wide performance targets.

2.At the latest 15 months before the start of a reference period, the Commission shall publish indicative target ranges for the Union-wide performance targets, consisting of the annual minimum and maximum values within which the Commission intends to set the Union-wide performance targets.

The Commission shall consult the stakeholders referred to in Article 10(3) of Regulation (EC) No 549/2004, other relevant persons and organisations and, regarding safety aspects, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency on those indicative target ranges.

3.At the latest seven months before the start of a reference period, the Commission shall adopt in accordance with point (a) of Article 11(3) of Regulation (EC) No 549/2004 the Union-wide performance targets for the key performance indicators referred to in Article 8(1).

For this purpose, the Commission shall:

(a)take account of the relevant inputs from the Performance Review Body, the Network Manager and the national supervisory authorities;

(b)use en route traffic forecasts, expressed in terms of IFR movements and in service units and based on the latest available Eurocontrol's Statistics and Forecast Service (‘STATFOR’) base forecast;

(c)substantiate each Union-wide performance target with a description of the underlying assumptions and rationale for that target, including the use made of inputs referred to in point (a) of this paragraph, the outcome of the consultation referred to in paragraph 2 and other relevant factual data.

4.Together with the adoption of the Union-wide performance targets, the Commission shall establish:

(a)a Union-wide ‘baseline value for determined costs’ and a Union-wide ‘baseline value for the determined unit cost’, for the purpose of setting targets in the key performance area of cost-efficiency for the key performance indicator referred to in point 4.1 of Section 1 of Annex I. Those baseline values shall be calculated in respect to the year preceding the start of the reference period.

The baseline value for determined costs shall be estimated by using the actual costs available for the preceding reference period and adjusted to take account of latest available cost estimates, traffic variations and their relation to costs.

The baseline value for the determined unit cost shall be derived by dividing the baseline value for the determined costs with the traffic forecast expressed in service units for the year preceding the start of the reference period;

(b)alert thresholds beyond which Member States may request a revision of the performance targets contained in performance plans, in accordance with point (a)(i) of Article 18(1). Those alert thresholds shall be based on the following parameters:

(i)

the deviation of the actual traffic from the traffic forecast over a given calendar year, expressed as a percentage of IFR movements;

(ii)

the deviation of the actual traffic from the traffic forecast over a given calendar year, expressed as a percentage of service units;

(iii)

the variation of the reference values as a result of the seasonal updates of the Network Operations Plan pursuant to point (a) of Article 9(4) and Article 9(8) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/123 in comparison to the reference values from the latest version of the Network Operations Plan available at the time of drawing up the performance plan. This variation shall be expressed as a percentage of variation or as a fraction of minutes of en route ATFM delay, depending on the magnitude of the references values;

(c)the comparator groups of air navigation service providers with a similar operational and economic environment, for the purposes of assessing performance targets in the key performance area of cost-efficiency.