Seeking info on Gama aviation?

[zaplead]

Hi,
Just noticed Gama aviation have contract for Scottish Air Ambulance Service but have not heard of them before & would be interested to know whether they are new to Air Ambulance work?
Any info greatly appreciated

[GroundGirl]

Think they have been about for a while now but not sure how long they have ben in to Air Ambulance work. Their website is here

[Bomber ARIS]

Think Gamma, think Bond

They go back a long way and were essentially Bond's fixed wing department - amongst other things, flying fixed wing air ambulance(King Airs) around the islands of Scotland, with a little Lear Jet (or was it Citation?) type action down London way.

The "change" in contract will still see Bond flying their 135s, and it woulndn't take a genius to figure out who will be providing the Shetland 332L2, mentioned in the new contract.

[roundwego]

Bond leased Gama a/c and crews to provide a fixed wing service up and down the east coast of the UK for oil related passengers. They ran a "closed" scheduled service for some of their oil company customers. Bond eventually took on their own fixed wing AOC and operated a mix of owned and leased King Airs.

When Bond won the air ambulance service contract for Scottish Ambulance Service in the early ninetys, the King Air was part of the package. I am not sure if Bond still have their own F/W AOC or if they just sub charter the aircraft from Gama now.

Gama has a London base, details of which can be found on their web site

http://www.gamagroup.com/index.php

[zaplead]

Thanks for info

I've just found their website on Google & it would appear that they are a 're-branded' version of the Bond facilities as you folks indicate.
I'm assuming they are now autonomous from Bond & not part of the BAS empire, including the rotary wing side of the Air Ambulance contract-would this be correct???

[Daifly]

Gama's always been independant of Bond - different companies, different owners, was established in 1984 and is now the UK's largest operator of Business Jet Aircraft and has been a contract holder to the Scottish Ambulance Service since 1997.

Gama supported Bond's move into Fixed Wing back in the early 90's (as Gama had been operating King Airs for 10 years by that point, and they helped write the Bond Fixed Wing AOC Manual).

This new contract is for the provision of two brand new Beech King Air 200C's and two EC135T2's. Gama isn't a specialist helicopter operator, so has subcontracted that work to Bond, but they're not a linked company other than working together on things in the past.

[zaplead]

Cheers......

Thanks very much for the background folks, its much appreciated.
I'm glad I'm not an aviaition industry correspondant-Trying to keep pace of who's who and who does what in commercial aviation changes daily.......Cheers