Italy is one of the developed countries where the national health system and the application of political legislation fail to address the painful and costly need for the most seriously ill or urgent patients to have to resort to medical travel, often to be carried out with extreme urgency to require the intervention of exceptional means.

The 31st Formation is an Air Force flight unit of the Ministry of Defence, located at Rome's military airport (Ciampino).
The tasks performed are:

- Carry out air transport activities to meet the needs of State, Interforce and Armed Forces Authorities. In this context, the main task of the 31st Wing is to transport State Authorities, from the President of the Republic to the Prime Minister, from Ministers to Military Authorities. State transport missions are carried out on request by the Flight Office of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers through the 3rd Nucleus of the Aeronautical Staff.
- Contributing to air rescue and public interest operations:
Air aid and public interest operations take the form of emergency medical transport and humanitarian transport whose performance is guaranteed by the presence, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, of two crews ready to take off within two hours of the call and apply to:

-patients with serious illnesses
-organ transplants
-Transport of teams of doctors specialising in organ removal/transplantation
-Transport of organs, plasma.