Alexander D. Quintana, Director of Sales and Flight Coordination for AirCARE1, shares how the company is looking to the future, expanding its infrastructure, and investing in safety equipment, training and education
As we emerge from Covid controls, are you seeing a recovery in the number of repatriation flights you are performing for insurance companies?
We have seen almost a full recovery in quote requests coming in from our travel insurance partners. Quotes this year have exceeded pandemic – and even pre-pandemic – figures. As countries ease off restrictions and normal travel increases, we have been able to re-establish our working relationships with our travel insurance partners again. However, post-pandemic challenges are still affecting the number of flights we are actually able to perform. Throughout the industry, we are all dealing with challenges around pilot shortages, supply chain shortages, and increased cost in fuel. We believe it will take some time before things return to how they were.
How did you deal with the pandemic and adjust to the environment? What trends did you note with regards to where people are travelling that allowed you to better prepare for the future in terms of aircraft positioning etc?
The first six months of the pandemic were challenging for all of us in the industry. We did not know what to expect and how we would safely manage the limited repatriation requests that came in. We had to come together with our industry partners in the air ambulance community and establish new safety protocols, rework our approach to international travel coordination, and determine best practices moving forward so we could meet the needs of travel insurers.
Our base locations at the beginning of the pandemic were concentrated in the southwestern parts of the US – New Mexico and Arizona. We operated five medically dedicated aircraft, but we did not have the volume needed to justify a fleet of that size. We studied our flight location trends and the data showed that many people were still coming to the US for travel, and to Florida in general. Based on this information, we were able to expand our footprint and in January 2021, we opened our third base in Florida. This was a risk to take mid-pandemic with a diminished flight volume, but this new location allowed us to serve new markets in the Caribbean and expand our services to our travel insurance partners. Because we are independently owned and operated, we could be proactive with the trends we saw, and in this case, were able to go from concept to a fully operational base in three months.
Now with the pandemic fears fading away, travel is back, and we are currently seeing increased international travel from Mexico and Caribbean. We are perfectly positioned to service these quote requests due to the preparation we made during the pandemic
It was noted at a recent ITIC that ‘people have forgotten how to travel safely’, and there has already been an increase in accidents abroad. Have you seen a surge in air ambulance cases lately, and are there any patient demographics you can share with regards to type of injury etc that is going to aid in planning for medical case management going forward?
It does seem as if travellers are taking undue risks because they don’t believe anything can happen to them on vacation, especially coming out of the pandemic. This is represented in the rising number of cases we’ve seen with patients needing transports due to injuries from things like accidental falls and other mishaps, as well as strokes. We are seeing this mostly in the adults between 65 and 85 years old.
While we still do Covid-related transports, we have seen these requests trending down since many countries require a negative Covid test for patients before entry. We do, however, travel with isolation equipment just in case the patient contracts Covid prior to our arrival. As is standard, we are always prepared for the unexpected and have protocols in place for any situational changes.
What investments have you made in the business to ensure continuity in the face of ongoing challenges such as MRO requirements, recruitment and accreditation?
The investments we have made over the past two years have mainly been around the needs related to the pandemic and medical requirements of the patients we serve. We have invested in personal protective equipment and isolation equipment for each aircraft, added the ability to provide highflow O2 to patients, and opened a new base in Florida to service patients travelling in that region.
One of our top priorities in our organisation is training and education. We invest in recurrent safety, medical and aviation training for all crewmembers as soon as they come onboard. Investing in our teams is how we maintain consistency and the highest level of care, compassion, and service.
In 2021, AirCARE1 was reaccredited by both CAMTS and EURAMI, and we pride ourselves in being one of a few companies that are dually accredited in this industry
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