The aerial firefighting market size is projected to reach US$ 1,657.47 million by 2031 from US$ 1,043.22 million in 2023; the market is expected to register a CAGR of 6.0% during 2023-2031.

Growing Number of Forest Fire Instances is Bolstering the Aerial Firefighting Market Growth

In 2021, the forest fires caused 9.34 million hectares of tree cover loss globally, which represented ~33% of the overall tree cover loss. In addition, the period of fire seasons across the world continues to extend year by year, which resulted in the overlap of seasons across different regions. This has led to difficulties for the countries to share the resources and assistance to other countries experiencing wildfires. According to the NFPA journal, the forecasted expenditure on firefighting owing to the global climate-change-induced forest fires is expected to rise from US$ 2 billion in 2020 and reach between US$ 5 billion and US$ 30 billion annually by 2050. Hence, the growing number of forest fire instances as mentioned above drives the demand for aerial firefighting services to combat forest fires from further spread which in turn is anticipated to fuel the aerial firefighting market growth in the coming years.

In addition, there is a rise in investment toward technological advancements, such as detachable or removable water tanks in aerial firefighting fleets. For instance, in July 2022, Airbus SA tested its roll-on/roll-off system to drop water from the removable tank in an Airbus A400M. This removable tank kit can be connected to any aircraft with no modification. Thus, the rise in technological advancements is expected to boost the market growth in the coming years.

The aerial firefighting market is primarily segmented into four key regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Climate change is a global and inevitable phenomenon. With the increasing number and intensity of wildfires around the world, annual damages from climate-induced forest fires are expected to surge to as much as US$ 50 billion to US$ 300 billion annually by 2050 according to the data from the Cost of Carbon Project (joint project of Environmental Defense Fund, the Institute for Policy Integrity, and the Natural Resource Defense Council). Many countries, therefore, focus on expanding their firefighting aircraft fleets. On the other hand, aging airframes and demanding missions result in the scarce availability of aircraft, particularly large air tankers with capacities of over 4,000 gallons. This scenario compels wildland protection agencies to proactively invest in the expansion of their aerial firefighting fleets for forest fire management, which is likely to propel the growth of the aerial firefighting market during the forecast period.

Coulson Aviation, Conair Fire Aviation, Neptune Aviation, 10 Tanker Air Carrier, Erickson Aero Tanker, Billings Flying Services, Dauntless Air Inc., Avincis, Kishugu Aviation, and Babcock International Plc are among the key players profiled in the aerial firefighting market report. The companies implement both organic (such as product launches, expansion, and product approvals) and inorganic (such as collaborations and partnerships) strategies to stay competitive in the market.