On 30th June, Pilatus handed over the 1,500th PC-12 to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) of Australia, a loyal customer that operates a fleet of 33 PC-12s..

A handover celebration was held to mark this milestone in the history of the Pilatus PC-12, with almost 2,000 Pilatus employees and guests watching as the aircraft with its special livery was handed over to the RFDS by Oscar J. Schwenk, Chairman of Pilatus.

The anniversary aircraft had been earmarked for the RFDS as a symbolic thank you for its longstanding loyalty.

Back in 1994, the RFDS was amongst the first customers to take delivery of a PC-12. The Australian institution currently uses 33 PC-12s to provide medical assistance to people living in the remotest areas, across the continent.

The handover celebration for the 1,500th PC-12 was combined with the inauguration of a new assembly hangar. The new hangar provides a further 10,000 square metres (107,639 square feet) of space and will be used for series production from July onwards. Pilatus produced 91 PC-12s in 2016.