In most of southern Europe, large forest fires have become a fixture of the summer season. Whether witnessed live or on television, people in places like Spain, Portugal and Italy have become accustomed to seeing helicopters and seaplanes pouring water over smoldering landscapes. 

But what some might not know is that, even if they are emblazoned with the regalia of regional or national governments, many of those aircraft are operated by a privately-owned pan-European company, the name of which you might never have heard before.  

Avincis is Europe’s largest aerial emergency services operator and one of the largest civilian helicopter operators in the world. Its fleet of some 220 aircraft, mostly made up of helicopters but also some fixed-wing aircraft, dwarfs many of the continent’s air forces, as does its network of operational bases, which stretches from the far north of Scandinavia to southern Spain and the Canary Islands. 

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