Amelia International (NL, Ljubljana) has won a five-year contract to provide medevac services between the French Indian Ocean departments of Mayotte and Réunion, using one of its E135s.
The Slovenian subsidiary of France's Groupe Regourd started the public service in May 2020 for the only hospital on Mayotte (Centre Hospitalier de Mayotte - CHM) under an initial one-year commitment in order to meet a long-standing requirement for medevacs in the region, which worsened during the COVID-19 crisis.
In collaboration with CHM and the regional health authority (l’Agence Régionale de Santé de Mayotte - ARS), the carrier has been offering round-trips six days a week between Mayotte and Réunion with one of its E135s - F-HTOP (msn 14500886) - based in Dzaoudzi. The aircraft is equipped with two stretchers and can evacuate patients with cardiac or neurological emergencies and the acutely ill. The airline, in a statement, said it had transported 5,227 patients on 696 flights between Dzaoudzi and St. Denis de la Réunion/St. Pierre de la Réunion with a punctuality rate of 99%. The contract was renewed following a public tender by the hospital group.
“Starting a relatively complex operation in the middle of the emergency health can only succeed with mutual trust and expertise. Excellent cooperation was immediately established with the ARS of Mayotte, the CHM, and all the nursing staff,” commented Alain Regourd, Chairman of the Amelia Group.
The medevac service complements the health system already in place in Mayotte including commercial flights between Mayotte and Réunion by Air Austral (UU, St. Denis de la Réunion) and its Mayotte-based subsidiary EWA Air (ZD, Dzaoudzi), as well as medevac helicopter flights from Mayotte.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Amelia International's fleet includes one EMB-135ER and one EMB-135LR, as well as three EMB-145LIs, four EMB-145LUs, one ATR42-500, and two ATR72-600s.
Mayotte, by August 23, had counted 19,682 cases of COVID-19 and 175 deaths related to the dreaded virus. Infections peaked on February 13, 2021, with a daily average of 278 new cases, but this had declined to an average of 10 new cases by August 23.
