Keewatin Air is the successful bidder to provide critical care, fixed wing medevac coverage for the Province of Manitoba.

The tendered ten year contract requires a fleet of five aircraft, a combination of jets and turboprops. It follows a ten year contract awarded last month by the Province of British Columbia to EIC subsidiary Carson Air for the provision of fixed wing medevac coverage, and which required the purchase of a fleet of new, medevac-modified King Airs.

“EIC is excited to continue expanding our medevac business. These two contracts speak to the quality of and confidence placed in our medevac services,” says EIC CEO Mike Pyle.

“The aircraft are in the process of being acquired and modified with medical interiors and will be phased into service from the end of the first quarter of 2024,” explains David White, CEO of Keewatin Air.

Pyle adds: “Our medevac operations are a capability in which we have invested considerable capital and accumulated industry leading experience over the last five decades to become the market leaders in Canada. Based on our proficiency in this industry and the consistent demand, it is a business line we have sought to expand. With the recent contract awards in Manitoba and British Columbia, and our existing medevac contracts in Nunavut, Alberta, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia our footprint is truly national with operations spanning from coast to coast to coast.”

Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba and founded over five decades ago, Keewatin Air is the primary provider of fixed wing air ambulance services in all three regions of Nunavut as well as rotational medevac services in Manitoba. It provides specialised onboard medical staff for Trauma Flight, a rotary medevac scene response service operated in partnership with its sister company Custom Helicopters in Thompson, Manitoba. Keewatin Air provides contract and general air charter services within Manitoba and across Canada from its three bases in Manitoba, namely Winnipeg, Thompson and Churchill, as well as its five Arctic bases in Iqaluit, Igloolik, Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay and Yellowknife.