The Big Picture
University of Utah Health is preparing for the next chapter of its AirMed program with a new hangar designed to strengthen one of the region’s most critical emergency medical resources.
For nearly five decades, AirMed has supported patients across Utah and the broader Intermountain West, providing lifesaving transport by helicopter and airplane when time and specialized care matter most. As the program has grown, so have the demands on its crews, aircraft and operations.
The new hangar will help meet those demands by giving AirMed the space and infrastructure needed to continue operating safely, efficiently and around the clock.
What’s Happening
University of Utah Health is breaking ground on a new AirMed hangar at Salt Lake City International Airport.
The current hangar has served the program for more than five decades, but AirMed’s services, aircraft and operational needs have expanded significantly over that time. Today, the program supports a large geographic footprint, transporting patients throughout the Intermountain West and, at times, across much of the western United States.
The new facility will help centralize key parts of AirMed’s operation. In addition to supporting aircraft maintenance, the hangar will include space for pilots, technicians, flight crews, the education team and the flight center that dispatches AirMed flights.
Why It Matters
AirMed operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That level of readiness requires more than aircraft — it requires coordinated teams, specialized equipment, reliable maintenance and facilities built to support a complex medical transport operation.
By bringing more of those functions together in one purpose-built space, the new hangar will help AirMed remain efficient and prepared to respond when patients need urgent care.
The project is especially important because of the broad region AirMed serves. Its crews transport patients across the Mountain West, and its airplane can reach patients throughout the western half of the country. For communities across the region, that reach means access to university-level care even when distance is a major barrier.
The Bottom Line
The new AirMed hangar is an investment in emergency medical readiness for Utah and the Mountain West.
After decades of service from its current facility, AirMed is building the infrastructure needed to support a growing, highly specialized program. The new hangar will help crews, technicians and dispatch teams continue delivering safe, exceptional care to patients — any time of day, across a wide geographic region.