Air Methods


Air Methods Corporation is an American privately owned helicopter operator. The air medical division provides emergency medical services to 70,000 - 100,000 patients every year, and operates in 48 states and Haiti, and air medical continues to be its primary business focus. Its corporate headquarters are located in the Denver Technological Center, Greenwood Village, Colorado, in the Denver metropolitan area.
The company was founded by Roy Morgan and began air medical operations in 1980. From 1991 until 2017, the company had been a publicly traded company under the NASDAQ ticker “AIRM” until 2017, when it was acquired by a private equity firm.
In 2012, the company acquired its first helicopter tour operations called Sundance Helicopters in Las Vegas, Nevada, and a year later, Blue Hawaiian joined its tourism division. The company has more than 5,000 employees and operates a fleet of approximately 450 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

History

In 1980, Roy Morgan founded Air Methods after a personal experience convinced him that properly equipped and staffed air medical service helicopters were a must.
Air Methods purchased CJ Systems Aviation Group, a leading provider of aeromedical transport, in October 2007.
In 2011, Air Methods acquired Omniflight Helicopters, Inc and operates it as a wholly owned subsidiary. Omniflight Helicopters consisted of over 100 helicopters.
In July 2011, Air Methods entered in a joint venture agreement with Basari Holding, AS and Anka Aerospace & Defense, LLC to form Helistar, AS. The joint venture company is headquartered in Ankara, Turkey.
In October 2012, Air Methods opened their state-of-the-art technologically advanced training center in Aurora, Colorado. Located near the corporate office, the 14,000-square-foot facility has a simulation areas, learning classrooms and office space. In addition, this was the year the company diversified into helicopter tourism.
In 2016, Air Methods acquired Tri-State Care Flight.
In 2017, Air Methods was purchased by American Securities LLC.

Service models

Air Methods provides services through three basic programs; Community-Based Service model, Hospital-Based Service model and Alternative-Delivery Model. Under all three programs, Air Methods transports persons requiring intensive medical care from either the scene of an accident or general care hospitals, to trauma centers or tertiary care centers.
As of 2009, the CBS operated 105 bases at hospitals, fire stations or airports, operating more than 127 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, and Air Methods employees provide medical care to patients en route.
As of 2009, the HBS delivery model was serving 80 hospital customers in 33 states and operated a fleet of more than 170 hospital-based aircraft and medical care en route is provided by employees or contractors of customer hospitals.

Corporate affairs

Headquarters

Its corporate headquarters are located in of space in the Denver Technological Center, in Greenwood Village, Colorado, in the Denver metropolitan area.
Its corporate headquarters were previously on the property of Centennial Airport in Dove Valley CDP, Colorado, United States in the Denver metropolitan area; the headquarters used an Englewood, Colorado postal address. The headquarters moved to the current location in May 2017, one month after it was acquired by American Securities LLC.

Divisions and services

United Rotorcraft, Air Methods' aerospace division, specializes in the design and manufacture of aeromedical and aerospace technology. The tourism division comprises Sundance Helicopters, Inc. and Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, which provide helicopter tours and charter flights in the Las Vegas/Grand Canyon region and Hawaii, respectively. Air Methods’ fleet of owned, leased or maintained aircraft features over 450 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Rocky Mountain Holdings, LLC, Mercy Air Service, Inc., and LifeNet, Inc. operate as wholly owned subsidiaries of Air Methods.
United Rotorcraft designs, manufactures, and installs aircraft medical interiors and other aerospace or medical transport products.
The Direct Patient Logistics transfer center is a division of Air Methods that coordinates transfers between hospitals and referring centers. It is the center point of coordination between all parties involved in the transfer process.
AirCom is the dispatching/coordinating/and flight tracking division of Air Methods. It dispatches over 400 aircraft for Air Methods Corporation as well as dispatching and coordinating services for other agencies, including police departments, county departments, ambulance services, and other public service agencies.
Along with dispatching aircraft, Air Methods has teamed up with Community Health Systems and sister company Quorum Health Systems to allow for hospitals owned by those companies, to have a transport call center that they can use for ease of access in finding an aircraft. The program allows for the hospitals to call the communications center and pass off flight requests to a specialist so that doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff can focus more on patient care. The Transport Call Center took their first call from Big Bend Hospital in Alpine, Texas on November 12, 2011. From November 2011 to January 2015, the CHS/QHC Transport Call Center was located in Nashville, Tennessee. It was then relocated to the Air Methods Communications Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Aircraft

As of 31 December 2013, Air Methods' fleet included 264 company owned aircraft, 136 leased and 55 aircraft owned by customers and operated under contract. Included in that total were 48 single engine helicopters and 1 Piper Saratoga operated by their Tourism division. Air Methods Fleet of Helicopters includes the:
Fixed Wing Owned and or Operated thru Air Methods
Air Methods, as of 2006, has had a total of 19 accidents. Following a 2006 accident Craig Yale, the vice president of corporate development for Air Methods, stated in a news conference shortly after the accident that, "We fly over 100,000 hours a year, 85,000 missions a year, and in doing so have had very few fatal accidents over a 10-year period."