The Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust is the sole provider of emergency air rescue and air ambulance services in our region. Since 1989, thousands of people throughout Canterbury and the West Coast have been successfully flown from accident sites and hospitals to critical care units throughout the South Island by three main operations - The Westpac Rescue Helicopter, based in Christchurch, the Solid Energy Rescue Helicopter based in Greymouth and the New Zealand Flying Doctor Service fixed wing aircraft also based in Christchurch.

The fundamental role of the Canterbury West Coast Air RescueTrust has been to secure and administer the enormous and constant amount of funding that is required to not only keep a viable Air Rescue service fully operational but to ensure that it meets or exceeds world-class standards of operational performance and safety.

The fact that those standards are constantly being redefined to keep pace with the changing environment and technology, means an increasing demand on training resources and equipment.

The CWC Air Rescue Trust commits approximately $150,000 NZD per annum to the training of rescue and retrieval teams. On average, it has been estimated that it costs a minimum of $3000 NZD for each individual helicopter mission to be flown.

New Zealand's current funding environment means that 40% of Air Rescue operational costs are met by ACC and Hospital payments, leaving an enormous shortfall of 60% which can only be met by public donations and business sponsorship support.

POPE PRINT ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT THIS VITAL COMMUNITY SERVICE AS PRINT SUPPLIERS TO THE CANTERBURY WEST COAST AIR RESCUE TRUST