Service · The hub
International air ambulance,
planned around the patient.
EuropeCair coordinates safe, medically supervised air transport for patients who need to move across Europe or across the world — from the first clinical assessment through to the hospital handover at the other end.
Service · The hub
What this covers.
An air ambulance mission is not a flight with a doctor on it. It is a clinical transfer of care that happens to take place at 41,000 feet, and almost everything that determines whether it goes well is decided on the ground before anyone boards.
EuropeCair plans every mission around one question: what does this specific patient need in order to arrive in no worse condition than they left? That drives the aircraft, the equipment loaded into it, the composition of the medical crew, the routing, the altitude profile, and whether the sector can be flown direct or needs a technical stop.
What a mission includes
- Clinical assessment and a fitness-to-fly determination made with your treating physician
- Aircraft selection and medical configuration for the diagnosis
- Qualified flight medical crew — physician, flight nurse or paramedic as the case requires
- Overflight and landing permits, slots, and customs and immigration clearance
- Ground ambulances at the departure and arrival airports
- Direct clinical handover to the receiving hospital, with case notes
- Family communication throughout, in a language the family speaks
Only appropriately qualified providers should market services as air ambulance transportation. Medical credentials, operational standards and transparent service information are the trust signals that matter in this category, and we would encourage anyone comparing providers to ask for them directly.
Capability
What we are equipped to move.
Missions are configured to the patient rather than the other way around. These are the transfer types we plan most often.
Patients who are medically stable but cannot travel by scheduled airline — mobility, cast, post-operative recovery or infection-control reasons.
Continuous cardiac, respiratory or neurological monitoring in the air, with a flight nurse or paramedic escort.
Ventilated, sedated or vasoactive-supported patients moved with a full intensive care set-up and physician on board.
Patients stabilised after a road accident, fall or emergency surgery abroad who need to reach a home surgical team.
Incubator transport and paediatric-competent crew, planned with the receiving neonatal or paediatric unit.
Intercontinental sectors flown with crew rest planning, a technical stop where required, and continuity of the clinical team.
Mission log · How a transfer runs
From your first call
to the receiving ward.
The sequence below is what we work through on every mission. Times are illustrative — the real clock depends on the clinical picture, permits, weather and slots.
We take the details
Patient location, treating facility, diagnosis as understood, and the destination. The case is opened and a coordinator is assigned immediately.
Physician to physician
A EuropeCair physician speaks directly with the treating doctor to establish the clinical picture, the equipment needed in the air, and fitness to fly.
Aircraft, crew, permits
Aircraft selected and configured, medical crew assigned, permits and slots filed, and ground ambulances booked at both ends of the route.
Bedside collection
The patient is collected from the ward and stays under continuous medical care from that moment. Up to two immediate family members may accompany.
Clinical handover
Ground ambulance meets the aircraft, and the flight medical crew hands over directly to the receiving team with full case notes.
Real departure times depend on the fitness-to-fly assessment, regulatory approvals, weather, airport slots and aircraft availability.
Continue reading
Related services.
Getting a patient home to their own healthcare system for continued treatment.
Ventilated and critically ill patients moved with a full intensive care set-up.
When a scheduled airline with a qualified escort is the clinically appropriate option.
Questions we are asked
Before you
need us.
If your situation is not covered here, the coordination centre will answer directly, day or night.
Call +44 20 3671 5709The limiting factor is rarely the aircraft. It is the fitness-to-fly assessment, the permits for the countries being overflown, and the airport slots at both ends. Once those are in place, a mission can typically be airborne within hours. We begin planning aircraft availability in parallel with the clinical review rather than waiting for it.
A qualified medical crew appropriate to the case — that may be a flight nurse and paramedic, or a physician-led team for intensive care transfers. Up to two immediate family members may also travel, subject to aircraft availability and operational requirements.
Aircraft are configured per mission. A monitored transfer carries cardiac monitoring, oxygen and infusion equipment; an intensive care transfer adds transport ventilation, suction, syringe drivers and the drug set the clinical picture calls for. The configuration is decided during the physician-to-physician review.
Medical documentation from the treating physician establishing the diagnosis, the current condition and when and where the illness or injury occurred, plus the patient's passport and any visa or entry documentation for the destination. Our coordinators tell you exactly what is needed and chase it with the hospital where that helps.
Sometimes, and often only partially. Many travel policies cover treatment and hospital expenses but exclude medically escorted air repatriation, or cap it below the real cost. A EuropeCair membership is designed to sit alongside insurance rather than replace it.
Arrange it before you need it
One number, answered
around the clock.
If a transport is needed now, call the coordination centre. If you are planning ahead, a EuropeCair membership is $600 a year and covers unlimited medically necessary repatriation flights.