Poland’s Health Ministry Eyes New Helicopters for Polish Medical Air Rescue
Poland’s Ministry of Health has unveiled plans to spend up to PLN 446 million ($116 million) on new helicopters for the Polish Medical Air Rescue (PMAR).
In a statement, the Health Ministry said that state-run entities that operate helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) can apply for co-financing of up to 99%, and they are required to cover the remainder of 1% of the potential investment’s cost. The money will be used for “the purchase of new emergency helicopters.”
The procedure to buy new aircraft was kicked off in February 2025. Following the distribution of funds, helicopters are to be purchased until the end of 2028, according to the Health Ministry.
“We are getting ready to buy six larger helicopters for the Polish Medical Air Rescue. It is essential to expand the aircraft fleet, especially since we want to open another permanent base in Koszalin [in north-western Poland],” Marcin Podgórski, the head of the PMAR, said in an interview with local health industry news site Politykazdrowotna.com.
“Both COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine have shown that we need helicopters with a greater range than the currently used EC135/H135. The helicopters we currently have are typical rescue aircraft. We want to buy helicopters suitable for helicopter intensive care medical service transport,” he added.
Opening the permanent base in Koszalin will expand the service’s operational capacities in the country’s north-western region of Western Pomerania. The region is in proximity to Poland’s border with Germany and lies along the Polish Baltic Sea shore.
The latest development comes after, in January 2025, the PMAR announced that its fleet of EC135/H135 helicopters marked its 500,000th landing. As of early January, the 27 helicopters had amassed a total of 125,000 flight hours.
“The helicopters have landed in various locations, performing HEMS missions, inter-hospital transports, training flights or technical flights,” the service said.
The first Eurocopter EC 135 P2 was supplied to the Polish Medical Air Rescue in September 2009, and it was dispatched to permanent duty at a Polish HEMS base in December that year.
“The progressive replacement of the entire fleet from [Soviet-designed] Mil Mi-2 helicopters to Eurocopters was completed in April 2011. Currently, the Polish Medical Air Rescue operates 27 EC135/H135 helicopters, with the last four purchased at the end of 2015,” according to the service.
Manufactured by Europe’s Airbus, the H135 is used by HEMS in various countries.
“Backed by experience and a long heritage, over 1,560 twin-engine H135s have been delivered and are in service in more than 63 countries. With over 325 operators, these versatile rotorcraft have flown close to 7.5 million hours (as of 2024),” Airbus said in a statement.
The PMAR is also making efforts to expand its training capabilities. In March 2025, the service launched a procedure to buy a new full flight simulator (FFS) of an H135 helicopter in the P3 variant with related equipment for its staff. Under the plan, the new simulator will reinforce the Polish service's existing training infrastructure which consists of an older simulator bought in 2009, and two Robinson R44 training helicopters the PMAR acquired in 2018.
Currently, the PMAR is manned by a workforce of around 800 employees, according to data from the Polish service.
About the Author
Jaroslaw Adamowski is a freelance journalist based in Warsaw, Poland. Among others, he covers the EMS industry and related developments in Central-Eastern Europe.
