“Europe is burning” has often been the lead news item over recent weeks, with almost 1,500 wildfires breaking out, consuming almost 450,000 hectares (1,700 mi.2) of land. Therefore, this week’s Flight Friday looks at global monthly flight hours of dedicated firefighting aircraft (excluding military aircraft that can be temporarily converted to firefighting aircraft).
So far, 2026 has set records in Europe, surpassing the previous high set in 2025 for the same time frame, and flight hours are a reflection of that.
Using 2023 as a base, firefighting aircraft in July and August 2023 amassed approximately 4,000 hr. each month.
The 2024 northern hemisphere summer season saw an uptick in flight hours, with July seeing 50% additional utilization, and August was up around 15% at 6,000 and 4,500 hr., respectively.
The previous year-to-date record setter was 2025, with 5,600 hr. in July and over 6,200 in August. Those July figures have already been surpassed with over 8,000 flight hours accumulated. With only a small slowdown in the spreading of the wildfires, and with forecasters warning of continued “very extreme conditions,” August utilization is expected to remain at high levels.
This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization database.
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