Medical flights & international repatriation

Dedicated air ambulance or scheduled flight: a comparison

The same repatriation can cost very different amounts depending on how it is done. Here is the comparison between a dedicated air ambulance (private medical jet) and a scheduled flight with a stretcher or medical team on board.

Dedicated air ambulance: cost of the private aircraft alone

€65,000+ per transport for the dedicated jet (e.g. New York → Rome). An aircraft entirely dedicated to the patient: high costs, often not covered by insurance policies.

Niino model: scheduled flight with stretcher or medical team

from €12,000 for a scheduled flight with medical assistance on board. Dedicated stretcher or medical escort on a scheduled flight, full team and door-to-door organisation.

Indicative prices: every trip receives a tailored, no-obligation assessment. A scheduled flight with a stretcher or escort typically costs a fraction of a dedicated jet.

The three options

• Full door to door: ambulance or medical car from home to the airport, flight with stretcher or escort, vehicle at destination. One single contact for the whole journey.
• Flight only: we handle the paperwork (MEDIF, stretcher or seats, oxygen) and provide medical assistance on board.
• Escort only: a nurse or doctor who accompanies a vulnerable or disabled person travelling seated, at the airport and in flight — even without a stretcher. This is our entry-level service.

How it works, step by step

1. Request: tell us the route, the passenger's condition and the dates.
2. Assessment and MEDIF: we prepare the fitness-to-fly form with the treating doctor and coordinate the request with the airlines' medical desks.
3. Flight and escort confirmed: route, seat or stretcher, oxygen and medical professional on board.
4. Door-to-door journey: vehicle from home to the airport, flight, vehicle at destination.
5. Assistance until arrival: one single contact from start to finish.

Which airlines carry a patient on a stretcher

The main scheduled airlines — ITA Airways, the Lufthansa group with Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines, Air France-KLM and the major non-EU carriers — offer stretcher transport through their medical desks. A stretcher on a scheduled flight takes up 6 to 9 economy seats, is always charged and requires an escort; if medical assistance is needed, the escort must be a doctor or a nurse. Cabin crew do not provide medical assistance.

Low-cost airlines — Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air — do not carry stretchers.

Niino has no commercial relationship with the airlines: we coordinate the request with their medical desks.

How the quote works

For ground transport the price is online in 30 seconds. For flights you receive a tailored assessment: route, airline, medical needs and escort in a single quote.

What is free at the airport and what we add

Assistance at the airport — wheelchair, escort to the gate, boarding — is a free right guaranteed by EU regulations: just request it from the airline at least 48 hours in advance. Niino takes care of everything else: a qualified professional beside the passenger during the flight, the medical paperwork, the stretcher if needed, and transport to and from the airports.

Further reading (in Italian)

• Stretcher on a plane: how lying-down transport works
• Medical or nursing escort in flight
• Flying with oxygen
• Medical repatriation: bringing a patient home
• Flying with an elderly parent
• Flying with a disability: rights and assistance
• Flying home after a hospital stay
• Medical flights to and from Sardinia
• Medical flights to and from Sicily