Pilatus PC-12 reaches 1,500 deliveries
RFDS PC-12 1,500th delivery
Pilatus handed over the 1,500th PC-12 built to the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS).
A celebration was held to mark the milestone.. Just under 2,000 Pilatus employees and guests took part, watching as the aircraft was handed over to the RFDS in a special livery.
“We are very proud of our partnership with Pilatus and would like to say how honoured we are to accept this anniversary PC-12 today. No other aircraft in the world compares to the PC-12.”
John Lynch, CEO Royal Flying Doctors Service Central Operations said: “We are very proud of our partnership with Pilatus and would like to say how honoured we are to accept this anniversary PC-12 today. No other aircraft in the world compares to the PC-12. The PC-12 is perfectly tailored to the rigorous conditions in the Australian outback: we appreciate its special characteristics and recognise the indispensable role it plays in enabling us to meet the challenges of our mission as it is defined today.”
The RFDS was amongst the first customers to take delivery of a PC-12 in 1994. The charitable Australian institution currently uses 33 PC-12s to provide medical assistance to people living in the remotest areas, covering the whole of Australia. The company transports around 18,000 patients yearly, operating in and out of short and unmade bush strips.
Oscar J. Schwenk added: “We are very happy to be able to hand over the 1,500th PC-12 to an exceptionally loyal customer who believed in the merits of the PC-12 from the outset. The RFDS successfully uses our PC-12 for exceptionally difficult missions, delivering daily proof that it is optimally suited for such work. I am thankful and extremely proud that we may count the RFDS amongst our customers. I am equally pleased that the RFDS is amongst our first customers for the PC-24, which it plans to use for ambulance operations – once Pilatus, always Pilatus!”
The versatility of this single-engine Pilatus turboprop aircraft is highly appreciated by operators worldwide, and the PC-12 is already certified in 55 countries. It is deployed for business travel, cargo flights, ambulance and emergency operations, search and rescue flights and aerial surveillance. Statistics show that 69 PC-12 are in the air at any given time. In 2016 alone, Pilatus produced 91 PC-12s in Stans for delivery to customers all around the world.
The PC-12 was approved for commercial operations in Europe in March 2017, which will ensure an even larger market share for this exceptionally economical aircraft.
