The Salzburg mountain village of Filzmoos will become the center of the international aviation elite in late summer 2026. The event will take place there from August 27th to September 5th. Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett Instead, the official World Championship in long-distance gas ballooning will take place. This competition is considered the oldest and most prestigious in ballooning and traditionally attracts the best balloonists from more than 20 countries. For Filzmoos, which has established itself as a "balloon village" for decades and regularly hosts international ballooning weeks, the selection by the World Air Sports Federation (FAI) is a special honor and a logistical challenge.
The staging of the 69th edition of the race in Austria is due to the spectacular victory of the Austrian duo. Christian Wagner and Stefanie Liller This is thanks to the 2024 World Championship. According to the regulations of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the home country of the reigning world champions has the right to host the race two years later. Wagner and Liller won in 2024, covering a distance of 2.111 kilometers from Münster (Germany) to Sagres, Portugal. Austria can generally look back on a long and successful tradition in this sport; for example, Austrian Josef Starkbaum won the competition a total of seven times between 1985 and 1997 and is among the most successful participants worldwide.
The Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett was founded in 1906 by the American aviation enthusiast and publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr. and is held annually. The competition is a pure long-distance race in which teams of two in gas balloons – as opposed to hot air balloons – compete to cover the greatest possible distance from the starting point. Altitude is regulated traditionally by jettisoning ballast (usually sand), making the competition a challenge of endurance, weather knowledge, and strategy. Filzmoos plans to celebrate the event as a "Summer Night of Balloons" and, with a supporting program of airshows, live acts, and alpine cuisine, make it one of the biggest events in Salzburg in 2026.