Hon Casey Costello
Associate Minister of Health

The Government is investing in seven more emergency helicopters to replace some of New Zealand’s ageing air ambulance fleet, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today.

An additional $12.6 million is being invested this financial year, $7.3 million by Health New Zealand and $5.3 million by ACC, to enable the country’s air ambulance helicopter service providers to replace ageing helicopters with newer aircraft.

“In 2024, New Zealand’s helicopter fleet was the oldest in the developed world and the coalition government has invested to help fix that,” Ms Costello says.

“Our air ambulance helicopters play a vital role in saving lives around New Zealand. This is particularly true for those living in remote, rural or regional areas.

“Last year the Government invested $14.7 million to fund nine replacement helicopters. Today’s announcement is additional to that and means that all the oldest helicopters will be replaced with a total of 16 new or near-new helicopters in operation,” Ms Costello says.

“The new helicopters provide improved safety, more reliable service, a better capacity to respond in bad weather conditions, reduced maintenance costs, greater fuel efficiency and better operational performance.

“The additional investment supports the move to a standardised aircraft model. This will improve maintenance and fleet rotation efficiency, enable flexible workforce rostering and reduce pilot training requirements across multiple aircraft.”

The Minister was speaking at an event to mark a new Airbus helicopter joining the Wellington-based Life Flight fleet to provide services to the region. It is the fourth machine in the replacement programme to go into operation since last year’s investment, following the introduction of replacement helicopters in Tauranga in mid-2024, Hamilton in March 2025, and Auckland in May 2025.

Two more replacement helicopters are in the country and being fitted out ready to go into operation in Auckland and Northland by early 2026. The other helicopters from last year’s investment are expected to operate out of Hawkes Bay, Gisborne, and Taranaki.

Minister Costello said that delivery arrangements are in progress for the extra helicopters announced today and it was hoped most of these would also be in service and operational by mid-next year.

Notes:

New Zealand’s emergency air ambulance helicopter services are currently provided by Northern Rescue Helicopter Limited (for Auckland and Northland), Central Air Ambulance Rescue Limited (for the Central North Island) and Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (for the South Island). These service providers own or lease the helicopters.

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