There is no single air sports world championship
This is the structural fact that makes air sports different from every other sport on the site. The FAI does not run one world championship; it delegates to twelve Air Sport Commissions, each of which runs its own world championships on its own cycle — CIVA for aerobatics, CIA for ballooning, IGC for gliding, CIVL for hang gliding and paragliding, ISC for skydiving, CIAM for aeromodelling and drone racing, CIMA for microlights and paramotors, CIG for rotorcraft, and others besides.[1] [2]
| Season | Pool / Format | Host cities |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Aerobatics: Florent Oddon (FRA), retained; France team title | Mason City, Iowa (USA), 24 Aug – 2 Sept |
| 2024 | Aerobatics: Florent Oddon (FRA); France team title | Zamość / Mokre (POL), 17–24 Aug |
| 2024 | World Drone Racing Championship | Hangzhou (CHN), 31 Oct – 3 Nov |
| 2023 | Drone racing: MinChan Kim (KOR); Korea top nation | Namwon (KOR) |
| 2015 | 4th and most recent World Air Games | Dubai (UAE), 1–12 December |
Recent championships across the disciplines, and the last World Air Games.
How events are awarded and entered
World and continental championships are Category 1 events. A bid must be supported by the bidder's national airsport control and local authorities, is vetted by the relevant commission and voted by its plenary, and the winner signs an FAI organiser agreement. Competitors enter through their national airsport control as a national team, not individually: an athlete must hold a valid FAI Sporting Licence issued by that body, be entered within its team quota, and comply with FAI anti-doping rules. Selection to the national team is entirely a national matter and varies by country.[2] [3]
What happened to the World Air Games?
The FAI's multi-discipline showcase ran four times — Turkey in 1997, with more than 3,000 participants from 60 countries across sixteen championship categories; Spain in 2001; Turin in 2009; and Dubai in 2015. A fifth edition was awarded to Turkey for 2020 and then 2022, but the FAI withdrew it and placed the event under strategic review. No replacement host has been named, and the World Air Games should be treated as dormant. The federation's own pages on the event have not been updated since.[1] [4]
References
- FAI — World Air Games. Accessed August 2026.
- FAI — Air Sport Commissions. Accessed August 2026.
- FAI — Sporting Licence and sporting code. Accessed August 2026.
- FAI — air sports and the World Games, 1997 to 2025. Accessed August 2026.
- CIVA — 33rd FAI World Aerobatic Championships, official results (individual & team), Mason City. Accessed September 2026.