Scandinavian Air Ambulance has just begun flying emergency helicopter services from a third base in northern Finland at Rovaniemi under a three plus seven year contract awarded by FinnHEMS. Operations from Oulu and Varkaus in Lapland had begun at the beginning of the year.

Now the company is to acquire four Eurocopter EC145 T2 helicopters for the contract which involves demanding day and night operations over land and water in temperatures ranging from -45°C to +35°C.

The order was signed at Heli-Expo 2012 in Dallas, where Eurocopter had last year unveiled the evolved version of its popular twin engine EC145. It incorporates the company's fenestron shrouded tail rotor, new Arriel 2E engines with dual channel FADEC, upgraded main and tail rotor gear boxes, and an innovative digital avionics suite together with a four-axis autopilot.

"Eurocopter's development of the evolved EC145 T2 provides a helicopter system that meets our needs in a very challenging operational environment," explains Dick Lindholm, Scandinavian Air Ambulance president. "We look forward to receiving the aircraft beginning in 2014, that will join our existing Eurocopter fleet consisting of EC135s and EC145s, along with AS365s."

The Swedish company expects to use the EC145 T2's performance, lift and range capabilities for emergency air ambulance flights and inter-hospital transportation of patients.

Scandinavian Air Ambulance began operations in 2001 with helicopter bases in Stockholm and Östersund, subsequently expanding across the country using rotary and fixed wing aircraft to service Swedish healthcare authorities and county councils. Further growth occurred in December 2010 when it took over the contracted helicopter activity in Finland.

"Scandinavian Air Ambulance is one of Scandinavia's largest air ambulance companies, and its choice of the EC145 T2 is a strong endorsement for this variant of the Eurocopter product line," says Jacques Cardaillac, Eurocopter sales director of northern Europe.

Eurocopter focuses on vip variants

Meanwhile, as EBAN goes to press, Eurocopter is concentrating its efforts at the Abu Dhabi Air Expo on its vip and corporate helicopter variants, including the EC145.

It has introduced the Stylence family of helicopters that incorporate extra-thick interior insulation and special flooring to further lower the noise and vibration levels, in-flight office and telecommunications equipment, and luxurious interior with high quality leather upholstery. Eurocopter has also collaborated with Mercedes Benz to create a special edition EC145.

The company believes the key benefits of its vip-configured helicopters include the spacious cabin, the large side-sliding doors for passengers' easy access, the substantial luggage storage space loaded easily through the rear clamshell doors, the view from a generously windowed cabin, and the low noise and vibration levels.