Air Flights Double in Maine as 3,031 Missions Show Growing Need
LifeFlight of Maine is raising pay and adding mental health support to retain staff while rural hospitals close and ground ambulances struggle to keep up.
By Marco Ortega ·
Air medical demand in Maine has doubled since 2015, forcing LifeFlight of Maine to rethink how it keeps experienced clinicians on the job. In 2025, the service flew 3,031 missions, a pace of more than one flight every three hours. Demand rose another 10 percent in 2026. This surge occurs as rural hospitals close or convert to outpatient facilities, leaving air ambulances to fill the gap in emergency care.
Nicholas George, who runs the ETHOS Database, a national tracking system for air medical programs, says the need for air medical services is increasing year over year. Ground ambulance stations are also struggling to remain open. In one recent instance, a woman in a small northern Maine town died while county dispatch called ten different ambulance services. None responded to the request.
LifeFlight CEO Joe Kellner says the company retained only 60 percent to 70 percent of its workers for years. To fix this, he introduced a six to eight month orientation program called the Critical Care Academy. The company also raised paramedic pay to match that of flight nurses. Industrywide, paramedics typically earn less, but Kellner believes the pay equity has helped with recruitment.
Staffing remains a difficult challenge. Almost a quarter of ground-based EMS workers leave the field every year. Flight clinicians face dangerous conditions, long shifts, and high mental health burdens. LifeFlight now employs a full-time mental health counselor. EMS workers experience rates of post-traumatic stress injury, anxiety, and depression more than five times higher than the average American. Kellner notes that the cost of training a new employee is about $100,000, making retention a financial priority.
Paramedic Brian Merklin left the profession for a few years after working four-day shifts in Nevada during the pandemic. He returned to LifeFlight because of its support systems. Merklin serves on a peer support team and says the organization is the only place he has worked that actually provides mental health resources. He hopes other areas will adopt similar models.
Flight nurse Denise Saucier has worked for LifeFlight for seven years. She notes that most transports are interfacility moves, where crews stabilize a patient at a small local hospital and fly them to a larger center. The view from the helicopter often shows long stretches without houses or roads, highlighting how necessary the service is in one of the country's most rural states.
Mike Abernethy, an EMS expert and retired emergency medicine professor at the University of Wisconsin, describes LifeFlight as a model program. He argues that the nonprofit structure and focus on quality create a stark contrast with for-profit air medical businesses. LifeFlight is now nearly fully staffed for the first time in nine years.
