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Tyrol Air Ambulance recognised for outstanding safety records

(Geneva/Innsbruck, 20/05/13) On Monday 20th May, Tyrol Air Ambulance received the Platinum Safety of Flight Award for its record of 50 years of flight operations without accident. This is the highest international award for flight safety and was presented by the European Business Aviation Association (EBEAA) on the occasion of the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBEACE) in Geneva. It is the first time an air ambulance was honoured with this award.

„This award underlines our commitment to highest safety standards. Already in 2010 and 2011 our safety records were recognised with the Silver and Gold Safety of Flight Awards. We are really proud that we were able to demonstrate our excellent standards also this year again“, Manfred Helldoppler, Managing Director, expressing his satisfaction. „Our company made safety an important part of the organisational culture. We also want to set new standards in quality and safety requirements in future“, explains Helldoppler further.

Tyrol Air Ambulance

The company’s history dates back to 1958, when the company ‚Aircraft Innsbruck’ was founded. In 1963 the first „Public Air Transport License“ was granted for aircraft and helicopters, which were also used for ambulance flights. In 1978 the company was renamed as Tyrol Air Ambulance. The team of the internationally renowned air ambulance accompanies injured or sick patients back home or to a hospital with adequate medical care. Each year the company takes care of around three thousand patients at the highest medical level. Thanks to a global network and cooperations, the deployment range of Tyrol Air Ambulance is virtually unlimited.

Tyrol Air Ambulance now Core Partner of IAG

As of June, Tyrol Air Ambulance is CORE PARTNER of the International Assistance Group (IAG), taking another important step towards further improving customer service. The IAG provides an outstanding platform for top-class, binding standards and cost savings with some 56 international assistance members and 60 alarm centres around the world. More than 77 million policy-holders place their trust in the professional assistance provided IAG members, totalling 6,800 staff in 180 countries.

The membership gives Tyrol Air Ambulance access to a database of worldwide service providers that is regularly updated. Partners will benefit from that improved service.

TAA donates medical equipment to Austrian NGO in Tanzania.

In September 2013, Tyrol Air Ambulance (TAA) donated medical equipment to the mission of Austrian sisters in Mitundu/ Tanzania (neonatal transport incubator, airpack, air suppyling device, walker, wheelchair). The sisters run several health centers, maternity clinics and also mobile clinics for those who live in remote areas. Each year, more than 60.000 patients seek treatment in the clinics and some 700 children are born.

Tyrol Air Ambulance is "AIR AMBULANCE PROVIDER OF THE YEAR"

(Vienna, November 7th 2013) The festive gala for the International Travel Insurance Journal (ITIJ) Awards was hosted by the InterContinental in Vienna. Held in a different country each year, the award ceremony recognises the most outstanding companies worldwide in the travel insurance sector and in the field of international healthcare.

Tyrol Air Ambulance received the award for "Air Ambulance Provider of the Year", winning out over Mexico's AirLink Air Ambulance as well as Canada's Skyservice Air Ambulance. With its high medical standards, individual solutions and a strong international network, the Austrian company is now entitled to style itself the world's leading air ambulance provider.

TAA closes previous year with a positive result

(Innsbruck, 11.04.14) Tyrol Air Ambulance achieved the second best result in the company's history last year with a total of just under 4,000 hours of flight time. The company announced on Friday that it generated positive earnings in 2013.

In future the air ambulance will especially be focusing on patient transport in the medium and long-haul segment. It also aims to extend air ambulance corridors from tourist conurbation areas.

High risk patient transport

Patients with severe heart problems, rapid air transport for an organ transplant or "exotic" infections? Intensive care specialist Dr. Eva Wurz of Tyrol Air Ambulance on the fascinating task of transporting high-risk patients.

What arrangements are necessary for high risk patient transports? How is your medical team trained?

We always have an experienced specialist and the necessary equipment on board. In the case of heart patients, for example, a cardiologist will be at hand who is able to deal with potential malign arrhythmia if required. Transplant patients are looked after by an intensive care specialist. The latter is provided with detailed information beforehand by our medical department. He will be familiar with blood gas analyses in advance in the case of lung transplant patients and can respond swiftly to changes in oxygenation. If necessary an intubation can be carried out during flight so as to establish a stable condition.

What about patients with "exotic" infections?

We undertake a disinfection using the relevant agent, depending on the type of infection. Our doctors have active protection by vaccination and wear gloves as well as face masks and special protective clothing if necessary. We also carry out regular smear tests after flights so as to ensure good hygiene standards.

What about high-risk patients such as those who have caught the Ebola virus (EHF) in infected zones?

This type of flight is generally only carried out by a very small number of providers who have the highly specialised equipment required.

Are patients without EHF symptoms suffering from a disease/injury other than EHF (e.g. a heart attack or a broken leg) transported out of these areas?

Yes, TAA does, as a rule, offer this type of transport depending on current developments in the infection area. In such cases we use a special algorithm to clarify in advance whether there is an infection in addition to the acute condition.

Tyrol Air Ambulance donates medical equipment to Tanzania

Three young nurses from Austria just returned from a volunteer mission. For two months, they worked with local staff at the Health Centre of Tumaini (Kisuaheli for “Hope”). In their luggage, they carried badly needed medical equipment: Tyrol Air Ambulance donated a respirator (the first in the region), a variety of stethoscopes, intubation devices and an emergency backpack. "The unconditional commitment of the staff was very impressive”, records Martin Prem, one of the nurses. "We had a tough, but wonderful stay - and we made friends for a lifetime.”

How assistance cases will be handled in 2030?

From November 5-7, 2014 IAG Partners from around the globe met in Milano for the annual autumn forum.

In the workshop " Brainstorming Future: How assistance cases will be handled in 2030?" TAA was awarded the first prize together with On Call USA for the most innovative concept: CLP "Consolidated Life Profile". The concept aims at accompanying an insured individual with a variety of top quality assistance and healthcare services throughout the various stages of the individual's life, thus creating added value to insurance products plus an extended customer loyalty.

TAA supports Clinic Clowns

(December 2014) Tyrol Air Ambulance donates foreign currency collection to the "Rote Nasen" Clinic Clowns. Money comes from worldwide ambulance missions.

TAA management statement: "It is a pleasure for TAA, to help the Clinic Clowns to bring some more laughter and happiness to the kids in the hospitals."

In the best hands: Long-haul intensive care transport FRANCE-USA

70-year-old New Yorker with a history of epilepsy has suffered a tonic-clonic seizure with consciousness impairment during a stay in France.

Patient has been carried out with an ICU unit including intubation. The patient was breathing spontaneously and was given an additional oxygen as required.

Accompanying spouse Katherine K. about the transport: "The entire crew was exceptional! The captains, doctor and nurse were all amazing. Please extend our personal thank-you to the crew who flew us from Avignon to New York."

First flight for the pride of the fleet

TAA is delighted to introduce the newest member of our fleet, a third Gulfstream 100 with the registration OE-GKW. The air ambulance jet has already completed its first repatriation, taking a patient from France to Austria before continuing onwards to the Canary Islands to immediately begin its next mission.
 
Our Technical Operations team invested a total of 2,500 man-hours in the new Gulfstream 100. The process began back in November 2015 with a so-called Pre-Buy-Inspection (inspection of aircraft and examination of maintenance record), which assured TAA that the aircraft was a suitable candidate for our fleet.
 
Many installations and modifications were required in order to prepare the Gulfstream 100 for use as an air ambulance. A complete transformation from VIP jet to state-of-the-art ambulance jet was achieved in a matter of weeks, in accordance with European (EASA) legal requirements.
Additionally, a large scheduled maintenance inspection was successfully carried out, including intensive checks of all systems.
 
Finally, on 20 April 2016, with all paperwork, modifications and certifications completed, the aircraft took off on its maiden air ambulance mission for TAA.
 
Picture: TAA’s crew for OE-GKW’s first air ambulance mission

TAA LAUNCHES NEW BLOG

2016 has been an interesting year so far for TAA. We are celebrating 40 years of service since the first TAA air ambulance mission, we have added a new G100 aircraft to our fleet, we are building new offices and we continue to fly more missions than ever before. We are also launching a brand new TAA Blog  to keep you updated on all these stories and more!

The Blog will provide you with regular updates about TAA, giving you a look behind the scenes at the company and its people. We also hope it will become a forum for exchanging ideas and experiences with our customers, patients and industry partners.

TAA wins „IAG Sharing Knowledge Challenge Award"

Being the proud core partner of International Assistance Group (IAG) for Austria, TAA once again took part in the annual IAG Academy which was held from September 21 to 23 at the Le Meridien Versailles in Montreal, Canada. Starting off with a welcome reception in the hotel bar the conference turned out to be mixture of working through complex case studies, company updates,  fruitful best-practice discussions and interesting insights into the daily business and routine of our IAG partners. The hosts of this years’ IAG academy, Skyservice Air Ambulance, as well as the always amazing Paola Almonte and David Clero from IAG Headquarter, crowned this successful conference with a dinner at the Casino Montreal and an on-site visit to Skyservice where all members could inspect their impressive fleet of Aircraft.

As part of the conference all IAG members are asked to present new products, business lines, ideas and services which they are very proud of. TAA took the chance and presented the business idea of “Psychological support & services” during the two day event. Positioning itself as a pioneer in niche-markets it was very dear to the presenter Claudia Schmiedhuber – Sales Development Officer – to stress the importance of such services and also illustrate on how such niche markets are being identified as well as what it takes to act on these results. TAA was therefore awarded the “IAG Sharing Knowledge Challenge Award” which has proven that TAA is on the right track with its ideas and future developments.

Thanks to you!

TAA celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. What better time to thank our worldwide partners and customers?

Watch our new company video!

Georgia on our minds

Behind every air ambulance mission there is a personal story. Check out what happened to Jiri on TAA Blog.

TAA nominated as finalist for Award "Air Ambulance Company of the Year"

We are proud to announce that TAA has been nominated as finalist for the ITIJ Industry Awards 2017 in the category “Air Ambulance Company of the Year”.

We thank all our clients and partners for their ongoing support and trust in our services, and we thank all our staff for their contribution to make this happen.

See you in Barcelona on November 9, 2017.

When every second counts - Filmteam accompanies TAA Flight Doctor

German TV station "ZDF" accompanied Tyrol Air Ambulance (TAA) Flight Doctor Ina to learn more about a doctor's working place in the air. Whatch the TV report (DE) here!

Tyrol Air Ambulance and Pediatric Air Ambulance announce cooperation to provide children’s intensive care transports

Tyrol Air Ambulance (TAA) and Pediatric Air Ambulance will work closely together in the future to provide intensive care transports for children. Through this cooperation TAA will offer both incubator and children’s intensive care transports, expanding on its existing product portfolio of single, double and organ transports.

For joint assignments, TAA will deliver the aircraft and flight crew, whilst Pediatric Air Ambulance will provide the specialized medical crew for the children and the necessary equipment required in neonatology and children’s intensive care medicine. The paediatricians will be selected from experienced specialists and consultants working at university hospitals, primarily Ludwig-Maximilians University Hospital in Munich. The paediatric nurses will typically have a “specialist paediatric intensive care medicine” qualification or a similar qualification in paediatrics.

Flight doctors in action

Stern TV accompanied our flight doctors at their work and once again showed how important it is to be insured while travelling. Video (German)

Tyrol Air Ambulance can now also transport COVID-19 patients on ambulance flights

Special isolation chambers, adjusted by Air Ambulance Technology for our Citation Bravo and Gulfstream 100 air ambulance aircraft allow us to transport infectious patients and therefore also most patients suffering from COVID-19, MERS or Malaria. The isolation chambers are state-of-the-art and are working with negative pressure, which means a reduction of the germ load and a minimization of the contamination of the environment. They are designed that intensive care patients and even infectious small children and babies in the incubator we use for pediatric transports can be transported in this unit.

After several tests, and having worked out the procedures as well as having trained our crews we are now ready for the transportation of infectious patients!

Small freight and express courier flights

Tyrol Air Ambulance offers small freight transports and express courier flights.