Lisbon, June 30, 2025 (Lusa) - INEM will provide emergency air transport from Tuesday onwards using four Air Force helicopters that operate 24 hours a day and two from the company that won the tender (Gulf Med), which will fly 12 hours a day, INEM clarified on Monday.
In a note sent to newsrooms, the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) explains that the four Portuguese Air Force (FAP) helicopters will have FAP medical teams, and the Emergency Patient Guidance Centre (CODU) will deploy them.
The two other aircraft that will come into operation on Tuesday, from Gulf Med, will have INEM medical teams and will operate on a 12-hour basis, with the remaining aircraft [four were planned in the tender] coming into service gradually until 30 September.
INEM also said that the start of service provision by the company that won the tender, which included four helicopters from 1 July, will be “gradual” to comply with “all the requirements of European aviation legislation, mainly related to ensuring the safety of the operation”.
It also stated that until the Court of Auditors approves the contract, Gulf Med will continue to provide the service through a direct agreement, following INEM’s preliminary consultation with the market, during which the company offered two helicopters.
The FAP will guarantee the transition period for the service to the new operator, which will manage the operation until 2030, following the international public tender.
The note from INEM does not indicate where the aircraft will be based. Still, in a separate note addressed to professionals from the Emergency Medical Helicopter Service (SHEM), which Lusa accessed on Friday, the institute stated that helicopters would be available at the bases in Macedo de Cavaleiros and Loulé, that on 15 July a helicopter would be available in Évora and that “the availability of aircraft for the Viseu base (…) during August is foreseeable”.
On Friday, the Civil Aviation Pilots’ Union warned that the Air Force might need to improve the speed of the emergency air transport service because the helicopters are based in different locations.
Speaking to Lusa, a union source explained that, in the central region, The Portuguese Air Force (FAP) base is in Ovar, while Évora currently hosts one of the helicopters that provides emergency medical services; if the FAP keeps its current location, it will relocate to Beja instead of remaining in Viseu.
‘In terms of timing, the population remains protected only when the helicopter is near the coast, rather than in Viseu, especially when an accident occurs or a transfer is needed from Guarda or Castelo Branco,’ said the same source, adding: ‘Arriving at an accident after 30 minutes, an hour, or an hour and a half offers significantly different outcomes.’
At the time, the same source, a pilot by profession, questioned how the Air Force had acknowledged last year that it was still developing the capacity to provide this service and now claimed to have achieved it.
On Thursday, the government announced that, from Tuesday onwards, the Air Force will provide emergency medical air transport using its aircraft and teams, and this service will continue until the Court of Auditors approves the public tender launched by INEM.
The Lusa news agency is awaiting responses from the FAP and INEM regarding the characteristics of the helicopters that will provide emergency air transport services from July 1 and the locations where these aircraft will be based.
SO/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
