Austria’s flight-police unit at Klagenfurt Airport recorded around 400% more forest-firefighting deployments during the 2026 season than a year earlier, highlighting sharply increased demand for aerial emergency response in Carinthia. The Federal Ministry of the Interior unit, one of Austria’s three main flight-police locations, also supported the major forest fire in Lesachtal.
Based at Klagenfurt in southern Austria, the unit remains on standby around the clock and can be airborne in approximately five minutes. It conducts an average of three missions per day across security-police duties, search-and-rescue flights and disaster-response operations.
Forest-firefighting became a substantially larger part of that workload during the season, which was drawing to a close. The Lesachtal fire was among the most demanding incidents handled by the unit and required sustained aerial support in difficult terrain.
The update does not disclose the absolute number of forest-fire missions, the aircraft types involved, the quantity of water or retardant delivered, or the precise comparison period. It also gives no specific explanation for the year-on-year increase.