(Refiles story to remove erroneous spelling of company name in paragraph 5)
By Tim Hepher
PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) – Europe’s largest aerial emergency services firm Avincis is warning Europe is not ready for longer and more extreme wildfire seasons, with the company’s chief executive telling Reuters that its firefighting aircraft are now needed almost year-round.
CEO John Boag said longer European wildfire seasons and bureaucratic obstacles have exacerbated regional shortages of both aircraft and the experienced pilots needed to fly them.
“Globally, fire seasons are getting longer, aircraft are not moving between areas and pilots are becoming harder and harder to get,” Boag said in an interview.
The comments by Boag, a helicopter pilot who began his career herding cattle in Australia’s outback in a Bell 47 chopper in 1985, come as France and Spain battle historic wildfires after weeks of drought turned forests into major fire risks.
Lisbon-based Avincis says Europe is under strain in part because the extra months of firefighting narrow the window for moving capacity between hemispheres, leaving gaps in capacity.
“Originally the peak period of the year over the summer was three or four months … Now we have aircraft starting in March and April and going through to October,” Boag said.
Wet winters only make the problem worse by increasing the growth of vegetal matter that can later turn into tinder. Just as concerning is the spread of fire risk further North.
“You’re at a point where governments are going to have to be able to afford to have the aircraft available to cover a 12-month period, because commercial companies can’t go to the South (southern hemisphere) and earn more revenue over the off-season,” Boag said.
PILOT RECRUITMENT HURDLES
Avincis has a fleet of 180 helicopters and 40 fixed-wing planes worldwide, including 22 Canadair waterbombers.
In Spain and Portugal, where it uses 47 aircraft, Avincis has flown more than 5,000 hours in firefighting operations so far this year, more than double the same period in 2025.
Europe has already made a collective purchase of 22 of the rugged water-scooping Canadairs from Toronto-based De Havilland Canada. After a decade-long production halt, a new model is coming but won’t reach its first customer, Greece, until 2028.
Alternatives are scarce.
The Airbus A400M military plane has joined firefighting in France, dropping 20 tonnes of retardant. Others including China’s Comac touted potential plane variants at last week’s Farnborough Airshow and a French startup, HYNAERO, is in the early design phase of an amphibious plane to be ready in 2032.
Firefighting is demanding, relying on low-level, precision flying in the face of unpredictable air currents. Experts say there is a shortage of experienced pilots and technicians.
Boag faulted European rules that require pilots to re-sit civil aviation exams if coming from abroad or the military.
“We need a pathway to be able to get people into Europe quickly without the bureaucracy,” Boag said. “The aerodynamics on a helicopter are the same in the military and the civilian world.”
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency had no immediate comment on its pilot licensing rules.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Susan Fenton)
