of the district. With local funding, the state gave permission to open a base from 1 January 1988. A facility was built at the municipal medical center, with Dovre Municipality and Lesja Municipality paying for the construction. However, a more suitable base was needed and a new heliport opened on 8 March 1991. In Bergen it was not possible to establish a helipad at the hospital. Instead Bergen Heliport, Nygårdstangen was built, close to the city center. From there patients were transported by ambulance to Haukeland Hospital. The helicopters would on occasion land on a lot at the hospital, although the physician had to claim necessity as the site lacked certification. During the summer of 1986 NLA stationed its reserve helicopter in Arendal. This proved popular and they continued to have a temporary base their each summer. The commission stated that Agder and Telemark were well within the catchment areas of Stavanger and Lørenskog. When the national commission decided not to establish a base in Agder, several local agencies started working to establish a permanent base anyway. This also resulted in a local location struggle. Vest-Agder County Municipality argued that the base should be situated at Vest-Agder Central Hospital in Kristiansand, while Aust-Agder County Municipality wanted it at Aust-Agder Central Hospital in Arendal. Parliament approved the Arendal Heliport, Hospital, allowing it to start operations in 1991. In Northern Norway there had since the 1930s been operated fixed-wing seaplane ambulances. These were often flowing in a combination of ambulance and charter services. In the public procurement process, NLA allied themselves with Widerøe and Air Express. The latter two would operate the aircraft, while NLA would man them with medical personnel. The consortium won the contracts for Tromsø Airport, Alta Airport and Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen. NLA established a Northern Norway operations central at Widerøe's offices at Bodø Airport. Acquisitions Due to a strenuous cooperation with Air Express, NLA decided to establish a fixed-wing division in 1989. This included taking over the two aircraft at Kirkenes and the jet used for international flights at Oslo Airport, Fornebu. For this work NLA bought a Cessna Citation II, when they operated between 1989 and 1995. Førde Heliport, Central Hospital was established in 1992 and the contract was issued to Airlift. In 1993 there was a new contract tender, and Airlift won the operations out of Førde, Bergen and Dombås. Within NLA there was a debate