Austrian Armed Forces Receive International Award for Airshow "AirPower22"
For the 10th time, AirPower22 took place at Fliegerhorst Hinterstoisser in Zeltweg on 02 and 03 September 2022 under the motto "Above the clouds!". Austria's famous airshow has now been awarded the prestigious "The Paul Bowen Award of Achievement" by the European Airshow Council as the best international airshow of the year 2022 at the European Airshow Council Convention in Brussels.
AirPower is the name of an air show organized by the Austrian Armed Forces, Red Bull GmbH and the Province of Styria, which takes place every three years at Hinterstoisser Air Base in Zeltweg with free admission. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons, Marco Almbauer, Public domain
For over a year, starting in the early summer of 2021, AirPower22 as Europe's largest airshow, was planned through to the smallest detail. Europe's largest airshow, organized by the Austrian Armed Forces together with partners Red Bull and the Province of Styria, was attended by a total of 275,000 visitors in the event area on both days in 2022, as well as tens of thousands more fence guests in the angling area.
"Militarily, AirPower22 was not only the largest exercise of the Austrian Armed Forces in 2022 but a real operation. What has to work immediately and right away at every AirPower is the interaction with the international guests of military aviation - be it the flying into Zeltweg, the supply of the foreign participants, the pre-practice of the displays, the adherence to common rules of flight safety, a perfectly functioning interaction of the air-ground services or the cooperation on the two days of the event under high time pressure," says Brigadier Wolfgang Prieler, project manager of AirPower22.
Brigadier Wolfgang Prieler thanks all his staff and proudly proclaims the team effort "has now been honored with The Paul Bowen Award of Achievement as the International Best Airshow of 2022."
At the award ceremony last week in Brussels, AirPower22 was recognized and awarded in particular for the excellent civil-military cooperation between the Austrian Armed Forces as the organizer and the civilian partners involved, the civilian authorities and also for the special efforts on the topic of sustainability as the international best airshow of 2022.
Minister of Defense Klaudia Tanner thanked the jury for the prestigious award from the international airshow community and stated, "This means that we have become a benchmark worldwide with AirPower, as was also confirmed to us in particular by American and Canadian participants at the European Airshow Council meeting. This is of course at the same time an incentive for the next AirPower!".
As far as the next AirPower is concerned, the first course has been set according to Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner, who gave the planning order for the next Airpower. "We also feel supported here by the clear wish of the population. A clear ¾-majority, specifically 81 percent of respondents, said in a representative survey from September 2022 Austria-wide that AIRPOWER is very important or rather important for the Murtal region, its economy and tourism, in the Murtal region it was even an impressive 84 percent!", says Defense Minister Tanner.
About the AirPower
AirPower is the largest air show in Europe. It takes place every three years at the Hinterstoisser air base in Zeltweg with free admission.
This is also always of interest to military diplomacy, as many international guests also attend the event. Flying squadrons from other countries also take part in the event. Aerobatic squadrons from Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, France, Great Britain and even NATO took part in the airshow.