Frontex surveillance aircraft logs 1 000th mission of 2026

A Frontex aircraft operating off Cabo Verde has completed the Agency's 1 000th surveillance mission of 2026, as joint aerial cooperation expands across the EU's external borders and in partner countries in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

The milestone mission, flown by a King Air 350 under a joint surveillance activity with Cabo Verde, detected 73 contacts during a six-and-a-half-hour flight. No suspicious activity was reported.

Frontex planes have now logged more than 5 060 flight hours and contributed to around 7 900 detections across operations on two continents this year. Eight countries are currently supported by Frontex aerial surveillance, and that number is expected to grow to 12 before the end of 2026.

The first four months of 2026 have also seen a 40% drop in irregular crossings into the EU, which is the steepest decline recorded in recent years. The sharpest fall of any route was on the Western African Route, where detections were down 78% compared with the same period in 2025.

Joint aerial surveillance with Cabo Verde began in November 2025, when Frontex and Cabo Verde launched cooperation aimed at tackling cross-border crime and saving lives at sea. The Atlantic crossing from West Africa to the Canary Islands is among the most dangerous maritime routes towards Europe.

Aircraft operating in the area support search and rescue, detecting vessels in distress and relaying coordinates to rescue coordination centres, alongside law enforcement and pollution monitoring tasks.

Aerial surveillance is one of the core tools Frontex uses to support national authorities at the EU's external borders and in partner countries.

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