Helicopter companies throughout Switzerland are ensuring that urgent flights can be carried out at any time, even during the corona crisis. Because deployments have fallen drastically, losses from on-call services have risen enormously.
With the sudden cessation of tourism in the Alpine region due to the corona pandemic, helicopter operations for rescue and supply flights have also drastically declined. Nevertheless, companies in the Swiss helicopter industry maintain a permanent system in order to be ready for patient rescues, relocation flights, search missions or firefighting at any time. The cost per helicopter is in the millions.
Philipp Perren, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Air Zermatt, calculates: “In order to keep a rescue helicopter operational 24 hours a day for 12 months, we expect the crew of a pilot, an emergency doctor and a paramedic to have around 16.5 full-time jobs. Crew, operations management and administration thus cost around 2.4 million francs, regardless of whether missions are flown or not. Almost two thirds of the personnel currently work in the rescue sector, but we are only deployed for around 10 percent of normal missions.”
Patrick Fauchère, flight operations manager at Air Glaciers, adds: “With the closure of the winter sports areas in mid-March, around a third of the rescue operations over the entire winter have disappeared. However, we cannot simply close our bases: In the event of traffic accidents, avalanches or forest fires, people expect us to be there for them immediately.” Considering all types of operations, Air Glaciers currently only fly a good half of the normal flight hours, according to Fauchère.
The Swiss Air Rescue Service REGA is also recording significantly fewer primary operations to rescue patients.
The President of the Swiss Helicopter Association SHA, National Councillor Martin Candinas, is feeling the pressure on the industry: “Together with emergency response organizations and hospitals, helicopter companies make a significant contribution to coordinated healthcare and thus provide an important social service for safety in Switzerland. In return, they provide services that incur very high costs but are barely remunerated due to the low number of assignments.”
In addition to flights for sick or injured patients, the regional helicopter companies also play another important role in safety against natural hazards: In recent weeks, they have been deployed for firefighting flights during forest and wildfires in hard-to-reach areas and for immediate risk assessment following landslides and rockfalls.
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More information
Martin Candinas, President SHA: 078 841 66 86
Patrick Fauchere, Head of Flight Operations, Air Glaciers SA: 027 329 14 15
Philipp Perren, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Air Zermatt AG: 044 269 77 77
About the Swiss Helicopter Association (SHA)
The Swiss Helicopter Association brings together Switzerland's most important helicopter companies. The association represents its members vis-à-vis authorities and other organizations in Germany and abroad. It aims to protect, support and promote the common interests of Swiss and Liechtenstein helicopter companies.
Christian Gartmann has been the Communications and Media Officer of the Swiss Helicopter Association SHA since 2018.