On October 23, 2025, the Toll Ambulance Rescue Helicopter Service fleet of eight AW139 reached the significant aviation milestone of 40,000 flight hours, and a service milestone of over 24,000 critical care missions. The Toll operated NSW Ambulance Aeromedical Rescue Helicopter service commenced operations on January 10, 2017.
Together Toll and NSW Ambulance provide a full-service emergency medical services (EMS), search and rescue capability and interhospital-transport service, as well as partnering with NETS to deliver a newborn and paediatric emergency transport service. Operating from four bases in Sydney, Orange, Wollongong and Canberra, the 24/7/365 service is tasked to canyons, crevasses, roadways, rivers, oceans, frozen lakes, cliffs and cruise ships. The environment in which the aeromedical operations work is both challenging and diverse, everything from over the horizon search and rescue operations off the NSW Coast, to 250 winch operations in mountainous regions, with no two rescues looking the same.
Earlier this year, the service won the international 2025 Vertical Aviation International (VAI) Salute to Excellence Golden Hour Award for contributions to air medical transport.
“This is a great milestone for NSW Ambulance and Toll which together deliver a world-class aeromedical service for patients across NSW – undertaking complex missions in some of the state’s most difficult to access areas and harshest terrains,” NSW Ambulance Chief Executive Dr Dominic Morgan said.
“This partnership enables NSW Ambulance’s highly qualified doctors, critical care paramedics and flight nurses to train and work alongside Toll’s pilots and aircrew officers to deliver exceptional out-of-hospital care to critically unwell and injured patients.”
One patient recently reached out to the service, "My 11-year-old son was airlifted to Randwick from the Snowy Mountains after a fishing accident. The care, professionalism and attitudes of the crew (even though it was freezing and no one could feel their hands, haha) were just amazing. They saved my son’s life. After a week and a half in hospital, he was discharged and back on the farm fishing, riding his motorbike and bouldering like usual. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to the Toll and NSW Ambulance team" – Nat
Scott Watkins, Senior Vice President Toll Aviation said, “This aviation and service milestone gives pause to reflect on the incredible work that the team undertakes every day to ensure the service is available for the communities of NSW and ACT and testament to the strength of the partnership between NSW Ambulance, ACT Ambulance and Newborn and Paediatric Emergency Transport service (NETS) and Leonardo Helicopters.
Stefano Villanti, Leonardo Helicopters SVP Sales, Marketing and Contracts said “The AW139 is a highly successful helicopter model used globally for various roles, including emergency medical services (EMS), search and rescue, law enforcement, and energy support. Its advanced technology, high performance, safety features, and the ability for rapid reconfiguration to meet the operational requirements have played a major part in meeting operators’ requirements and allow them to successfully accomplish the mission. We congratulate Toll and NSW Ambulance for achieving this major milestone assisting their community and we stay committed to making sure their helicopters continue to perform at their best for life-saving missions in the future.”
These milestones are a result of the skill, the dedication and collaboration of all our staff to service and the support of the community.