Paris-based Occitania has added a fourth Falcon 50 to its fleet, which will be dedicated to medevac operations. “We decided to have a purpose-built Falcon 50 for medevac flights, which will allow the other aircraft to remain in passenger charter configurations,” said Occitania’s UK-based general manager, Andrew Lee. The company is based at Le Bourget, where it has its own terminal and 24-hour operations department.

Occitania currently has contracts with Medic’Air and Europe Assistance and will now focus on the UK medevac market, with this latest acquisition. “In the last three years since the office has been open here, I think we’ve done just one medevac flight and that was taking an Arab to America for a heart operation,” said Lee.

The pre-owned Falcon was converted by Dassault and is configured to fit three stretchers and four leather seats, which medical staff or relatives can occupy during the flight. “Our original three Falcon 50s have passenger configurations, so each time we had a medevac flight we had to take the seats out and fit a stretcher. This tends to knock the expensive interiors about.

“The Falcon 50 is a very reliable and versatile aircraft, with the ability to fly in and out of airports such as London City. It also has a good range of 3,100 miles,” he added.

The company has particularly benefited from the authorisation of Falcon 50s to fly into London City. “The airport’s accessibility has been very good for us and it’s very popular with the passengers. It’s in the heart of London’s financial capital and we do a number of roadshows for banks.

“The opening of its first FBO, the London City Jet Centre, will be extremely helpful. I’ve seen the plans for the FBO and it looks fantastic. I’m pleased they had the foresight to build a terminal dedicated to business aviation,” said Lee.

The aircraft will generally be deployed when companies such as Europe Assistance and Medic’Air call on behalf of an injured party, but very occasionally the end user himself may contact the operator

or more usually a broker will call.

Lee explained: “We have a worldwide air operators certificate, so we can fly anywhere.

“The company primarily hopes to do more flying to the Middle East, picking up on the customers flying from there to the US for medical treatment.”

Occitania is currently reviewing the possibility of acquiring other aircraft, but at the moment the company is happy to maintain the fleet uniformity that the Falcon 50s offer.