Athens’ Hellas Wings, the sister company of Athens Aviation, has renewed its government contract

to operate medevac services for the Greek department of health. Consequently it has enabled the company to add a second Jetstream to its fleet.

Operations manager Patricia Lombardi said: “The Jetstream takes two stretchers and three paramedics. It’s a good sized, comfortable aircraft with large cargo doors to take the stretcher in and out.

“The renewal of the tender, which we initially won 16 months ago, has meant an increase in the volume of our work and the need for another aircraft.”

The additional Jetstream is also in anticipation of the 2004 Olympics. Lombardi said: “The Jetstreams can be fitted with 19 seats for charter and I’m sure that next year we will see some increases in ad-hoc flights. I do however believe that the Olympics will have more impact on Athens Aviation’s business than ours.

“Their handling services are expected to see an increase of at least 100 per cent that month.”

Hellas Wings started flying around eight years ago with a Najavo Chieftain, before adding its first Jetstream. It now has a staff of 12 full-time pilots, engineers, doctors and paramedics. “Unfortunately hospitals on the Greek Islands don’t have very good facilities, so we often have to transport patients to Athens, ready to transfer on to a commercial flight back home.

“We also do ad-hoc flights to and from the islands and into the Balkan states and occasionally we transport clients to a few of the Greek casinos,” said Lombardi.

The company chose to buy now, because of the attractive sales market. “At the moment it’s a very good time to buy aircraft. In the future our ceo Lakis Stergiopoulos would also like to buy a jet, which he’s looking into right now. We’d definitely like to get that onboard for 2004,” she added.