The first Lear 45 ever to be configured for air ambulance purposes, is within months of picking up its first patient, says UK charter operator Gold Air International (GAI).

The company has been working on the project, both conceptually and in practice, with Washington-based LifePort since October of last year and expects the first of four Lear 45s to be ready for worldwide action at the end of January, 2001. Richard Evans sat down with GAI's Will Curtis and LifePort's Frank Graham to find out the whys and wherefores of an industry 'first'.

"We think the Lear 45 lends itself to EMS work better than almost any previous Learjet," said Curtis. "It's cheaper than a 35 to run but you've got a lot more space and a lot more lift capacity in it to carry relatives.

"Despite the relatively high costs of having LifePort create a [single and double] stretcher fit for the aircraft, we went ahead with the order. I guess it probably totals more than $200,000 in terms of the two stretcher kits and the two additional oxygen and loose equipment cabinets that have been ordered."

Gold Air says that it has already received worldwide commitments for 1,500 hours of ambulance work per annum from various sources and predicts that a sizable portion of the British market will be conducted by Gold Air as of next year. So why hasn't the Lear 45 been configured for medevac purposes before? Graham explained: "In my opinion, it is because other businesses haven't been able to come up with the business plan and the justification to use that airframe for medevac purposes."

From the outset, says Curtis, Gold Air forced themselves to look at potential revenue rates from a new perspective."Traditionally," he said "ambulance rates are quite tight. When we addressed our business model, two things struck us. Firstly, under the new tax laws of the UK, to get full tax allowance, you have to fly it for 600 hours a year. "While a typical ambulance mission is 10 hours a day, an average executive mission might use three or four hours, at most.

"Secondly, across the fleet of four Lear 45s, we thought we needed some high utilisation work in there to make an outlet. So we stopped looking at how much revenue we made per hour and looked at how much revenue we made per day. "We will actually make more revenue per day out of flying air ambulance than we will out of executive charter, even though the rate is poor. With the Lear 45, capital cost is everything. That's the big expense.

The running cost, the DOCs, are minuscule, for us particularly, because of the way that our part deals etc with Bombardier have worked out. It is a very cheap aircraft for us to operate. Capital cost is high, running cost is very inexpensive."One of Gold Air's priorities when designing the medevac-fit Lear 45 was to have ample oxygen to hand, onboard the aircraft. Curtis said: "I wanted 7,000 litres of oxygen in the stretcher base. This required some lateral thinking from Frank, which, to their credit, he and his engineering department undertook to great effect."

Graham added: "This project certainly presented us with some challenges. It also gave us the opportunity to further our relationship with Bombardier. It really has been the team approach which has made this programme successful."

As regards the marketplace for this particular air ambulance, Curtis told EBAN: "We will fly worldwide with the aircraft and anticipate a lot of work from Africa and the Gulf back to the US and also a lot of repatriations from Europe and the Canary Islands back to the UK, the latter of which we already carry out.

"London-Tenerife and London-Lagos are very strong markets for us at the moment. That said, because of the current weakness of the Euro and the strength of the pound, we're a little bit uncompetitive on Greece and the Middle East, but that will change in time."

Having already committed to $40 million of Bombardier's product, GAI will not be stopping there as far as aircraft acquisitions are concerned. Curtis explained: "We're certainly looking at the midsize and super midsize category as a future Hawker replacement.

"We're looking at the Horizon, the Continental, we'll look at the new Embraer and also the Galaxy.

"The Galaxy I like because it seems like good value for money, and has good range and good speed. The Embraer is really interesting; it's a lot of aircraft for the money.

"Bombardier are strong contenders on the grounds of their excellent customer service. Raytheon, conversely, have shot themselves in the foot because they can't even supply a spare part for our Hawker 800. Their product support is, in my opinion, completely useless and they deserve to know."

LifePort is expecting FAA approval for the air ambulance Lear 45 by no later than the end of November, 2000 and this should be followed up with CAA approval by no later than December. Said Graham: "We're confident of achieving these."After the first 45 has entered service in late January, 2001, the second will begin work "as soon as the wheels hit the tarmac" in March, the third arrives in July and the fourth in August, 2001.

In addition to a baggage space length of 2.1 metres, the interior fit allows a maximum of two patients, four medics and one relative/friend. In the stretcher base and the additional cabinet, there are 17,500 litres of oxygen, which translates as 18 hours of gas oxygen at a consumption rate of 15 litres per minute.

Refreshment and entertainment services have been retained on the aircraft. Said Curtis: "It sounds like a frivolity but in Africa, for example, there are very few places where you can eat safely - and you simply cannot afford for the flight crew or medical crew, let alone the patient, to get food poisoning."