WEF Davos: Federal Army secured the airspace in western Austria

From January 12th to 19th, 2024, the Federal Army increasingly secured Austrian airspace on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. For this purpose, a flight restriction area was set up over parts of Vorarlberg and Tyrol.

Due to the geographical location of Davos close to the border with Austria, Switzerland requested in advance that Austrian airspace be secured by the Austrian air force for the duration of the World Economic Forum. More than 1.000 soldiers and 24 aircraft, twelve fixed-wing aircraft and twelve helicopters ensured the security of the event. The tasks included, among other things, patrol flights for surveillance, flights to identify airspace violations and transport flights. The pilots completed 190 flight hours in 350 missions.

“The high level of professionalism of our deployed soldiers and civilian employees guaranteed the success of this airspace security operation. Smooth cooperation across national borders is becoming increasingly important and is particularly important in airspace surveillance and airspace security,” said Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner.

During the airspace security operation, there were six airspace violations caused by slow-flying aircraft. The pilots had disregarded the flight restriction area. In total, 299 civil flight permits were issued and monitored in this area. Of these, 174 were by authorized aircraft such as helicopters from the Ministry of the Interior or the ÖAMTC.

As part of the airspace security operation, the state treaty “Cross-border airspace surveillance” with Switzerland was also fully applied. It enables seamless tracking of suspicious civilian aircraft without encroaching on national sovereignty on the bordering national territory. However, the use of weapons in the territory of the other state is expressly prohibited. The necessary procedures were practiced both with Swiss aircraft in Austrian airspace and vice versa.

A similar state treaty with Germany is currently in the parliamentary process and has been assigned to the National Defense Committee for consideration. From today until Monday, almost all soldiers involved in the airspace security operation in Vorarlberg and Tyrol will be relocated back to their home garrisons throughout Austria.