Company Profile

Specialist Aviation Services is parent company to the two most-respected names in public service air support in the United Kingdom - Police Aviation Services and Medical Aviation Services. Established in 1984, PAS established the first provincial police air support unit and was the first company to be issued with a CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) Police Air Operations Certificate. It has pioneered techniques, technologies and procedures that are now accepted as standard practice nation-wide, and has contributed significantly to the deserved reputation of British police air support units as the best equipped and best managed in the world.

Only a year later, in 1985, Medical Aviation Services, MAS was formed to answer a growing demand for the life-saving capabilities of air ambulances. EMS (emergency medical service) helicopters are now similarly well respected across the UK.

Since 2000, the SAS group has been owned by Elite Helicopters Holding NV (previously RDM Aerospace BV), a Dutch industrial concern that also owns a significant interest in MD Helicopters Inc. MDHI manufactures the MD902 Explorer, the mainstay of the SAS fleet.

The group has been based at Gloucestershire Airport, in the west of England, since 1991. It has recently expanded to new, purpose-built facilities almost 3,000 square metres in area. From there, the three operating companies continue to serve UK and international clients, while detachments support individual customer flying operations wherever they may be.

As well as acting as parent company to Police Aviation Services (PAS) and Medical Aviation Services (MAS), Specialist Aviation Services Ltd (SAS) acts as the administrative authority for the group's external maintenance and design contracts. On occasion, a non-PAS or MAS customer - perhaps one from overseas - may need its own aircraft modified with systems familiar to PAS engineers. In this case, the work would be done under the auspices of SAS: however the same teams would carry out the actual work.