Air rescue New Rega base in Samedan GR on shaky ground

Swiss Air-Rescue (Rega) presented its plans for a new helicopter base at the airfield in Samedan GR on Friday. However, the regional airfield lacks legal certainty for the CHF 15 million project.

Rega said in a press release on Friday that it had been trying for decades to renew the outdated helicopter base in the Engadin. Now the renewal cannot be postponed any longer. Nothing less than the safeguarding of air rescue in the Engadin is at stake.

As Rega's fleet is due to be renewed by the end of 2026, a new hangar must be in place by then at the latest. Otherwise, there is simply no room for the new helicopter.

There seemed to be agreement in principle. In December 2023, the regional airfield decided to stage Rega's construction project and also made the necessary space available in the north of the site. As a result, Swiss Air-Rescue has spent the last few months working on a construction project "with great effort", according to its own statements.

Lack of legal certainty

However, there is now a lack of legal certainty in the form of a fully negotiated substructure rights agreement that is ready to be signed. As the land on which the new hangar is to be built does not belong to Rega, there is a need for contractually agreed conditions governing the use of the land, explained a Rega spokesperson when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Last week, the airfield said that it was currently preparing the necessary decision-making basis for the responsible authorities in order to tackle the further planning and realization of the new replacement buildings in stages. No one could be reached at the regional airfield on Friday.

Rega went on to say that the matter was urgent. Swiss Air-Rescue only operates this one base in the Engadin. The nearest bases are in Untervaz GR and Locarno TI.