German air ambulance and charter operator FAI is adapting to an evolving market in order to keep its aircraft flying. The company reports that medevac has slowed significantly, while charter is up 29 per cent.

Head of air ambulance Volker Lemke says: “The situation is completely different now compared to how it was before the pandemic. The air ambulance business has changed completely. Before the pandemic we were extremely busy working with six aircraft per day. One third of our business was medevac out of the Middle East and Africa, whereas this year this business has slowed down significantly. We work for the big assistance companies serving corporate clients, and we recently had our monthly briefing call with a large international assistance company, which tells us that business in Africa has slowed down by at least 80 per cent. This has an impact on our revenue stream this year because those cases are really missing.
“Then we have the typical holidaymaker travel insurance cases. They tend to go on long range flights to the Far East and the Caribbean. We do not yet have the resources to cover those long range flights with our Learjets. The travel insurance business is driven by price. If we are talking about a case coming back from Thailand for 115,000 Euros, it can come down to a 500 Euros difference that dictates the service that they go for. We have had a lower number of Challenger flights and we have tried to keep those aircraft busy; sometimes when two Learjet flights are arranged to pick up a patient we have been using the Challenger instead.”

In recent years the team has been very busy between Djibouti, the Horn of Africa and Germany. It was committing sometimes twice a week to pick up an American soldier and get them back to Germany for treatment. Now those numbers are extremely low too – they have dropped by almost 90 per cent. Flights from eastern Europe back to Germany are not something FAI chases as companies can use their own assets over shorter distance.

Lemke continues: “One thing we have had to face is the cost explosion of the last year. Since the pandemic we have had to deal with a cost increase for handling services, fuel, spare parts and so on. Everything including salads went up by at least 20 or 30 per cent. From an operational point of view, the gap between the cost of the Learjet operation and the Challenger operation closed a little bit – they are closer together today. We see that there is a big demand in the market but simply not the capacity for midsized midrange aircraft. Sometimes customers have to wait to get a nice price for Thailand to the UK. Sometimes there is a longer wait but then it results in the patient being transported within two days on a long range aircraft. Clients are willing to pay a little bit more if it means getting the patient back to Europe earlier, which is a good development for us. Tourism is growing and we are hopeful for the years ahead, it gives us a good feeling because cases for the ambulance business will increase alongside. We are one of the very few widebody Challenger operators and this is helpful as human beings are heavier and bigger than ever before.”
Georg Gruber is senior vice president and head of charter sales. He notes: “Charter has been pretty good for us over the last two or three years. So far this year, every single month has been one of our best months. We are up 29 per cent compared to last year. This gives us a very good boost and is nice for us because two years ago we decided to focus mainly on long distance flights on our Global fleet; we now have five Globals in our fleet and we have been pushing them hard on ultra long range trips – we have been quite successful in that area. We often fly to the US, Canada, the Caribbean and South America, and we have a couple of additional flights to Africa and some to Asia and Australia, though not as much as we used to.

“We are focused on the western hemisphere because the market there is growing and growing, and we have a tonne of returning customers either working for agencies or direct customers, so that’s really good. Our service aspect also sets us apart in my opinion. All of our flight attendants are highly motivated and trained in-house. Customers are able to order catering from their preferred restaurant. If they are in Miami they might want to have their favourite sushi from Zuma or from Nobu and we will organise it.”
August was the first month where it wasn’t as easy to sell flights, according to Gruber. He feels as though the market is quite overcrowded at the moment, especially during the summer. “Some operators are exclusively flying during the summer, so it’s a bit of a shark tank environment, you need to work hard. But the future looks good, we have a strong team and we are looking forward to what’s ahead.”