I'm pretty sure that Careflight has various government contracts that would cover the majority of the costs. But they're not the only ones either.

I'm no expert in international medical retrievals, but I highly doubt that Careflight would be spending their own money on doing them. Happy to be corrected though.

Mick

Sorry, just catching up with threads since holidays:

CareFlight Group Qld (LifeFlight) was involved in this operation, not CareFlight (NSW).

CareFlight Group Qld (LifeFlight) is not related to CareFlight based in Westmead, who also operates CareFlight NT.

So to save confusion and since they also merged not long ago with Northern QLD Helicopter Service, they are now called "LifeFlight".

The costs are picked up by Insurance, and what is not picked up is under the 10 year contract with the Qld Government, who entail are able to part-claim from the Federal Health allowance.

CareFlight Group Qld (LifeFlight) is fully funded by QLD Governemnt on a 10 year contract.
CareFlight (Sydney) is mostly funded by NSW Government, but their Darwin operation is fully funded by the NT Government.

Careflight Group QLD is not fully funded by the Government. They received funding from the government for new helicopters and it was mentioned at the time by their chairman "The current funding at the moment is a bit over $60 million a year, about a third of that comes from government."

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/quee...14-126tob.html

Careflight LTD in NSW received $50M of its $80M revenue from government while their operations in NT are funded by the government and a separate $45m contract supporting one aircraft for INPEX.

Thanks Mark for clarifying QLD, I was sure that the 2014 deal was a 'fully funded' contract, but I cant find that detail anymore.