Estonia’s partnership with Airbus will soon include NextGen aircraft

Estonia’s partnership with Airbus to expand its emergency healthcare capabilities will soon see the CityAirbus NextGen aircraft operated in the country.

Andreas Thellmann, Urban Air Mobility at Airbus, said: “Estonia is partnering with Airbus to optimise the country’s emergency healthcare system. Soon it will utilise fully-electric CityAirbus NextGen aircraft.”

Following last year’s Airbus Summit where the firm presented LifeSaver, a framework co-developed with International SOS that aims to optimise emergency healthcare systems, Estonia becomes the first country to implement the programme. 

According to Airbus, LifeSaver in Estonia is not limited to technology. It will include operating procedures, accreditation standards, medical guidelines and regulations to “ensure that individual solutions are operationally viable and deliver clear benefits such as better patient outcomes, greater efficiency and/or lower environmental footprint”.

Among the potential tools to be mobilised is Airbus’ fully-electric aircraft prototype CityAirbus NextGen. With a target operational range of 80km and a cruise speed of 120km/h, the aircraft is capable of carrying three passengers and a pilot.

Asso Uibo, Invest Estonia’s director of Regional Business Development, South Estonia, said: “Our common ambition is to take a big step forward from the first studies to assess what could be improved in the existing medical services ecosystem in Estonia, to the wider development of the LifeSaver solution as a full-scale integration phase, where, for example, eVTOLs and drones are a natural part of the emergency medical service.”.

Hubertus Groepper, programme manager, LifeSaver, said: “We are looking forward to using all these capabilities that we can find in Estonia and bringing them to life through this implementation of LifeSaver.”