Rega – Swiss Air Rescue

Red and white, loud and mostly in a hurry: When a helicopter with the titles REGA thunders over you in Switzerland, someone is in trouble. For spotters, Rega is still one of the country’s most exciting organizations. It operates its own small fleet of ambulance jets and rescue helicopters, flies without a schedule and in 2026 is in the middle of a complete renewal of its helicopter fleet. This page shows you what Rega flies, how to tell the types apart – and why the AW169, which is often linked with it, never entered Rega service.

Rega at a glance

Rega is not an airline in the classic sense but the Swiss Air Rescue (Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht) – a private, non-profit foundation. It rescues people with helicopters in Switzerland and brings patients back from abroad with ambulance jets. It sells no tickets, and there are no scheduled flights. Rega is funded mainly by its patrons: In 2025 there were almost 3.7 million of them, which is about 40 percent of the Swiss population.

Its headquarters is the Rega Center at Zurich Airport in Kloten. The ambulance jets are based here, the operations center runs from here, and the helicopters are maintained here. The rescue helicopters themselves are spread across 14 bases, from Geneva to the Engadin.

On average, Rega transported 36 patients every day in 2025. Just over 9,100 helicopter missions were rescues directly at the accident or emergency site, almost 2,600 were transfers between hospitals. The three jets brought over 1,000 people back to Switzerland.

From 1952 to today: a short history

The Swiss air rescue service was founded on April 27, 1952 at a delegates’ assembly of the Swiss Lifesaving Society (SLRG) in Twann on Lake Biel, initially as one of its sections. The driving force was the physician Rudolf Bucher. In 1960 the air rescue service became an independent association, and in 1979 a foundation. Around this time the short name “Rega” was also introduced, replacing the older abbreviations. The name combines “Rettungsflugwacht” with the French and Italian terms “Garde Aérienne” and “Guardia Aerea”.

The fleet history is a small tour through aviation:

Period	Type	Role
from 1957	Bell 47J	Gift from the Association of Consumer Cooperatives (today Coop)
1970s	Alouette III	Long the backbone of the fleet, breakthrough of mountain rescue
1970s	Bölkow Bo 105	Rega’s first twin-engine ambulance helicopter
from 1973	Learjet 24D	The world’s first civilian ambulance jet
1977/78–1988	Learjet 35	Two aircraft for repatriations
from 1982	Challenger CL-600	Rega’s first long-range jet
from 1992	Agusta A109 K2	Rescue helicopter, later replaced by the Da Vinci and EC145
2002–2018/19	Challenger 604	Predecessor of today’s ambulance jets
2000s–2020	Eurocopter EC145 (BK 117 C2)	Rescue helicopter for the Central Plateau, then sold to Morocco

If you collect historically, you can find some of these types today in museums or with other operators. You may know the Learjet 35 from the page on the Learjet 35/36, the EC145 family goes back to the BK 117, and historic aircraft in Switzerland are shown by, for example, the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne (Verkehrshaus) and the Flieger-Flab-Museum Dübendorf.

Codes, callsign and registration

• ICAO code SAZ: appears in air traffic control flight plans and on many trackers for jet flights.
• Callsign SWISS AMBULANCE: This is how the crew of the ambulance jets identifies itself on the radio.
• No IATA code: Rega sells no tickets and therefore appears on no departure board.
• Registration HB-: Like all Swiss aircraft, Rega jets and helicopters carry the prefix HB-. What the letters after it reveal is explained in the guide to Swiss HB registrations.

The helicopter bases are numbered internally: “Rega 1” is Dübendorf, “Rega 2” Basel, “Rega 3” Bern and so on. These numbers refer to the location, not to a specific registration – helicopters rotate between bases, maintenance and reserve.

The ambulance jets: three Challenger 650s

For repatriations Rega uses three Bombardier Challenger 650s. They carry the registrations HB-JWA, HB-JWB and HB-JWC and replaced the three Challenger 604s from 2018, which had been in service since 2002. The manufacturer is Bombardier in Canada.

Feature	Details according to Rega
Number	3
Range	up to 6,500 km
Cruising speed	around 850 km/h
Length / wingspan	20.86 m / 19.61 m
Patients	up to 4 on stretchers, of which 2 intensive care
Equipment	like an intensive care unit, with its own loading ramp for stretchers

From the outside, the Challenger 650 is a classic business jet: low-set wings, two rear-mounted engines, T-tail. Inside, Rega has converted the cabin into a flying intensive care unit. The specially developed loading ramp makes it possible to bring patients aboard on the stretcher without a lift – a detail you can watch on the ground during loading.

The jets fly not by schedule but as needed: to Mallorca today, to Southeast Asia tomorrow. For you that means: At Zurich Airport a Rega movement can come at any time, but you cannot look it up in advance in the schedule.

The helicopters: changeover to the H145 D3

With the rescue helicopters, 2026 is a year of upheaval. For a long time Rega flew two types: the Airbus H145 at the bases on the Central Plateau and the AgustaWestland AW109SP “Da Vinci” at the mountain bases. That two-way split is just disappearing.

Rega is replacing its entire helicopter fleet with the Airbus H145 D3 with a five-blade main rotor. According to Rega, it is the largest procurement project in its history. The first five-blade H145 arrived at the end of 2024, and the remaining aircraft follow through 2026. They replace both the older four-blade H145 D2s and the Da Vinci. In July 2026 two new H145 D3s entered service at Zweisimmen and Wilderswil in the Bernese Oberland; with that, according to Rega, 11 of the 14 bases were equipped with the newest generation.

Type	Role	Status as of October 2026
Airbus H145 D3	Rescue helicopter for lowlands and mountains	New standard fleet, deliveries run through 2026
Airbus H145 D2	Rescue helicopter, Central Plateau	Being replaced by the D3
AgustaWestland AW109SP Da Vinci	Mountain rescue	Being replaced by the D3, disappearing base by base
Airbus H125	Training, mountain flying and external load work	One example in training service

According to Rega, the H145 flies at around 230 km/h and can be used up to 5,000 meters above sea level. A four-axis autopilot and modern avionics allow very precise satellite-based approaches. The cabin has room for bulky medical equipment up to a heart-lung machine or a transport incubator for premature babies. The manufacturer is Airbus Helicopters.

The Da Vinci is a variant of the Leonardo AW109 that Rega developed together with the manufacturer for mountain rescue. Rega ordered it in 2009 as the successor to the Agusta A109 K2; at some mountain bases it flew for over 16 years. If you still want to photograph a Da Vinci in Rega colors, you should hurry. For training Rega uses an Airbus H125 with a cockpit modeled on that of the Da Vinci.

The AW169-FIPS: the project that never came

Many sources and photos link Rega with the Leonardo AW169. The background: For years Rega has pursued the vision of “rescuing in all weather”, because in fog, low clouds or snowfall missions have to be canceled again and again. One of the last limits is icing – a helicopter without de-icing may not fly in clouds in which ice forms.

That is why Rega bought three AW169-FIPS from Leonardo, that is, AW169s with full ice protection (FIPS stands for Full Ice Protection System). Delivery was planned for 2023. In September 2022 came the end: Test flights in North America showed that the new de-icing system worked in principle, but the helicopter no longer met Rega’s high performance requirements. Both sides mutually canceled the purchase contract, and Rega received its deposits back in full.

For spotters that means: You will not find an AW169 in Rega colors in service. Photos of an AW169-FIPS prototype do exist, but they show test flights, not rescue service. Rega holds on to the all-weather vision – today mainly through instrument flying with the existing helicopters.

You will find more on the differences between helicopter types in the guide recognizing helicopter types.

Rescuing in all weather: the Low Flight Network

Instead of de-icing, Rega is currently betting on instrument flying. With partners it is building the Low Flight Network (LFN), a network of satellite-based flight routes between airfields, Rega bases and hospitals. With it, crews can fly by instruments in fog or low clouds where visual flight is not possible.

A few milestones: In 2011 Rega flew by satellite navigation to the Inselspital in Bern in poor visibility for the first time, and in 2016 the first routes were approved for daytime operation. In July 2024 Rega became the world’s first helicopter operator to receive approval for a high-precision approach to a hospital, in Interlaken. Expansion is going more slowly than desired, however, because new routes must be approved by Skyguide and the BAZL (Federal Office of Civil Aviation). How Swiss air traffic control works is explained in the article Austro Control and Skyguide.

The 14 operating bases

The Rega helicopters are distributed across these bases; according to Rega, a helicopter reaches any place in Switzerland in about 15 minutes of flying:

• Central Plateau and northwestern Switzerland: Dübendorf, Basel (at EuroAirport), Bern (at Bern Airport), St. Gallen
• Western Switzerland: Lausanne, Geneva (at Geneva Airport)
• Alps and pre-Alps: Erstfeld, Untervaz, Mollis, Wilderswil, Zweisimmen, Samedan
• Southern Switzerland and Valais: Locarno, Sion

In Valais, Air Zermatt and Air-Glaciers mainly handle air rescue; the Rega base in Sion complements them. Another Swiss operator close to the state that you can see at Swiss airfields is the Federal Air Transport Service. General tips for helicopter photos are in the guide spotting helicopters.

Spotting Rega in Zurich

Your best chance of the ambulance jets is in Zurich. According to Zurich Airport, the Rega Center is located at the start of runway 28 and has direct access to the runways. The helicopters now come to the Rega Center only for maintenance; the nearest operating base is Dübendorf. For choosing a position at the airport, the Zurich plane spotting guide and the spot pages for the Butzenbüel and observation deck B help you.

Common mix-ups

• Taking the AW169 for a Rega type – the purchase was canceled in 2022; the AW169 is not in service at Rega.
• Logging a Challenger 650 as a 604 – the 604 was replaced in 2018/19; HB-JWA to HB-JWC are 650s.
• Logging all H145s the same – the D2 with four and the D3 with five rotor blades are different versions.
• Confusing the base number with a registration – “Rega 3” is the Bern base, not a specific helicopter.
• Taking every red helicopter in Valais for Rega – Air Zermatt and Air-Glaciers also fly there.
• Looking for Rega as an airline with an IATA code – it does not appear on departure boards, only under ICAO SAZ.

Conclusion

Rega is small but versatile: three ambulance jets for the whole world, a helicopter fleet for every corner of Switzerland and a history that runs from the Bell 47 to the H145 D3. 2026 is a special year for spotters because the Da Vinci is leaving service and the H145 D3 is taking over. If you note registration and version precisely, you capture this changeover in your own logbook – and know that the AW169 is just a canceled chapter in this story.