Life Flight Trust
Keeping lifesaving missions airborne across Aotearoa
For over 50 years, Life Flight has provided urgent aeromedical transport across Central New Zealand and beyond. With a 24/7 fixed-wing air ambulance fleet, their service saves lives every day—and Fieldair is proud to be their trusted aircraft engineering partner. In this Q&A, Life Flight Chief Executive Mark Johnston shares how the partnership supports their mission.
Background & mission
Can you give us a quick overview of Life Flight’s mission and the services you provide?
For the past 50 years Life Flight has been delivering lifesaving aeromedical care across Central New Zealand and beyond. As a Not-for-Profit Trust with bases in Wellington and Hamilton, we’re dedicated to providing equitable access to healthcare for people in need.
Our fleet of 5 King Air B200C Air Ambulance planes, crewed by expert teams, operates 24/7, 365-days-a-year to ensure swift, safe, and seamless transport for more than 1,500 patients annually. When time is critical, local communities can depend on us to be there.
What types of aircraft are used in your operation, and what kind of flying do your teams do day-to-day?
We currently operate 3 King Air B200Cs in Wellington and 1 in Hamilton, with a back-up aircraft to ensure continuous cover. Each aircraft features extra-wide cargo doors and automatic patient loading devices, enabling seamless ICU and neonatal transfers, including bariatric patients up to 280kg.
Each aircraft usually flies 1–2 missions per day, averaging 5 hours. We fly high-acuity patients with onboard doctors and nurses in Wellington, and employ our own specialist nurses in Hamilton for inter-hospital transfers.
The relationship with Fieldair
How long have you been working with Fieldair, and what first led you to choose them?
We’ve partnered exclusively with Fieldair for over 10 years for our fixed-wing maintenance requirements, alongside their sister company Air Freight NZ (AFNZ) who supply our pilots.
What services does Fieldair provide to Life Flight?
They provide complete maintenance control services, including scheduled maintenance, spare parts management, OEM liaison, and on-call engineers in both Wellington and Hamilton. Their Palmerston North base handles heavy maintenance and aircraft refurbishment—including repainting all our B200Cs acquired from Australian operators.
What qualities or capabilities made Fieldair stand out?
Quite simply, we trust Nolan, Brett, and the team at Fieldair to keep us flying 24/7, 365 days a year. Our partnership has grown significantly over the last 2–3 years as our operations have expanded into the Waikato.
Collaboration in action
Any examples where Fieldair made a critical difference?
Yes—they’ve proactively secured critical spare parts in short global supply, thanks to their strong OEM relationships. That helps us stay operational during unexpected maintenance needs.
What’s your collaboration with the Fieldair team like day-to-day?
We have weekly and monthly meetings with Fieldair and AFNZ as part of our Air Services Agreement, reviewed annually. Turnaround times are strong, with dedicated engineers at both bases.
Impact
How has Fieldair’s engineering support contributed to your mission?
They keep our planes airworthy and ready for their next mission. We don’t run a scheduled service—so Fieldair’s 7-day engineering cover is vital to maintaining our 24/7 response.
What impact has the partnership had on reliability, safety, or efficiency?
A very positive one. They’re responsive, detailed, and understand our needs inside and out. They’re also great to work with.
Future outlook
How do you see your engineering needs changing—and Fieldair’s role in that?
Fieldair has recently expanded their Wellington footprint with more engineers, allowing for more local maintenance. As we grow our Hamilton operations, we’ll likely need similar coverage there too.
What would you say to others considering Fieldair?
Get in touch with Nolan, Brett or Nic—based on our experience, we’re pretty sure you’ll be glad you did.
Final word
“Life Flight is very much a team effort, and we rely heavily on trusted partners like Fieldair, and their sister company AFNZ, to keep us flying 24/7, 365-days-a-year. They’re an incredibly important part of the extended Life Flight family, and we couldn’t save time and save lives without them.”
— Mark Johnston, Chief Executive, Life Flight
