Rega refreshes fixed-wing fleet with Challenger 650
Rega, a Swiss air rescue company, has announced the delivery of its first new Bombardier Challenger 650 air ambulance jet.
Rega, a Swiss air rescue company, has announced the delivery of its first new Bombardier Challenger 650 air ambulance jet. The delivery, which happened at this year’s Annual Media Conference, is the first of three jets that the service is set to receive.
The aircraft landed at Zurich Airport, Switzerland at 11:20 hrs on 17 April, and was greeted by a water salute from the airport’s fire service. Rega expects that the other two aircraft will be delivered by the end of 2018, a move that Rega CEO Ernst Kohler says represents an investment in the future. The fleet renewal project will cost the service around 130 million Swiss francs ($134.3 million).
The new aircraft is ‘one of the most modern civil ambulance aircraft worldwide’, according to Kohler, and all three come with custom designed interiors and medical equipment. A team of Rega pilots, medics and engineers collaborated with a group of external specialists to design the new cabin fit-out, and the company says that patients and staff will both benefit from the wider, multifunctional stretchers and reduced cabin noise when compared to the Challenger CL-604 jets that it currently operates.
The new aircraft will also be able to travel further due to lower air resistance and higher altitudes, meaning less fuel stops. Urs Nagel, Chief Pilot at Rega, said: “We will be able to fly our patients home faster and in a more cost-effective manner in future.”
The fixed-wing fleet renewal is part of a larger renewal plan within Rega, with its EC145 lowland helicopter fleet due to be replaced with Airbus H145s by mid-2019. Even the company’s logo is set to change, with the new Challenger 650 the first of its fleet to carry the new livery.