Editing Hovercraft (section)

===Civilian non-commercial===
[[File:Hovercraft Hiivari2.jpg|thumb|Russian-built hovercraft "Hiivari" in [[Tampere]], Finland]]

In Finland, small hovercraft are widely used in maritime rescue and during the [[rasputitsa]] ("mud season") as [[archipelago]] liaison vehicles. In England, hovercraft of the [[Burnham-on-Sea]] Area Rescue Boat (BARB) are used to rescue people from thick mud in [[Bridgwater Bay]]. [[Avon Fire and Rescue Service]] became the first Local Authority fire service in the UK to operate a hovercraft. It is used to rescue people from thick mud in the [[Weston-super-Mare]] area and during times of inland flooding. A Griffon rescue hovercraft has been in use for a number of years with the Airport Fire Service at Dundee Airport in Scotland. It is used in the event of an aircraft ditching in the Tay estuary. Numerous fire departments around the US/Canadian Great Lakes operate hovercraft for water and ice rescues, often of ice fisherman stranded when ice breaks off from shore. The Canadian Coast Guard uses hovercraft to break light ice.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/Fleet/CCGS-Mamilossa |title=CCGS Mamilossa |access-date=2015-12-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208073153/http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/Fleet/CCGS-Mamilossa |archive-date=2015-12-08 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/Fleet/CCGS-Sipu-Muin |title=CCGS Sipu Muin |access-date=2015-12-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208063150/http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/Fleet/CCGS-Sipu-Muin |archive-date=2015-12-08 }}</ref>

[[File:Kaiman-10 hovercraft on snow field.jpg|alt=Hovercraft Kaiman-10|left|thumb|Multipurpose civilian hovercraft Kaiman-10]]

In October 2008, The Red Cross commenced a flood-rescue service hovercraft based in [[Inverness]], Scotland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=SVCO |url=http://www.scvo.org.uk/scvo/NewsAndEvents/TFNetArticle.aspx?pid=4406 }}{{dead link|date=September 2016|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> [[Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service]] received two flood-rescue hovercraft donated by [[Severn Trent|Severn Trent Water]] following the [[2007 United Kingdom floods|2007 UK floods]].<ref>{{cite news | title = County lends Cumbria hovercraft | work = BBC News
|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/8370380.stm | date = 2009-11-20 | access-date = 2010-05-04}}</ref>

Since 2006, hovercraft have been used in aid in Madagascar by HoverAid, an international NGO who use the hovercraft to reach the most remote places on the island.<ref>
{{Cite web| title = hoveraid.org - Home| publisher = hoveraid.org| url = http://www.hoveraid.org| access-date = 2014-02-10| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140213000339/http://www.hoveraid.org/| archive-date = 2014-02-13| url-status = live}}
</ref>

The Scandinavian airline [[Scandinavian Airlines System|SAS]] used to [[charter]] an AP1-88 hovercraft for regular passengers between [[Copenhagen Airport]], Denmark, and the SAS Hovercraft [[Ferry terminal|Terminal]] in [[Malmö]], Sweden.

In 1998, the US Postal Service began using the British built [[Hoverwork AP1-88]] to haul mail, freight, and passengers from [[Bethel, Alaska]], to and from eight small villages along the [[Kuskokwim River]]. Bethel is far removed from the Alaska road system, thus making the hovercraft an attractive alternative to the air based delivery methods used prior to introduction of the hovercraft service. Hovercraft service is suspended for several weeks each year while the river is beginning to freeze to minimize damage to the river ice surface. The hovercraft is able to operate during the freeze-up period; however, this could potentially break the ice and create hazards for villagers using their snowmobiles along the river during the early winter.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

[[File:СВП Хивус-10 на Таймыре.JPG|thumb|Hivus-10 hovercraft on Taimyr peninsula in April 2013]]

In 2006, Kvichak Marine Industries of [[Seattle]], US built, under licence, a cargo/passenger version of the Hoverwork [[BHT130]]. Designated 'Suna-X', it is used as a high-speed ferry for up to 47 passengers and {{convert|47,500|lb}} of freight serving the remote Alaskan villages of [[King Cove]] and [[Cold Bay]].

An experimental service was operated in Scotland across the [[Firth of Forth]] (between [[Kirkcaldy]] and [[Portobello, Edinburgh]]), from 16 to 28 July 2007. Marketed as ''Forthfast'', the service used a craft chartered from [[Hovertravel]] and achieved an 85% [[Load factor (transportation)|passenger load factor]]. {{as of|2009}}, the possibility of establishing a permanent service is still under consideration.<ref>{{Cite web | title = Forthfast| publisher = Stagecoach Bus| url = https://www.stagecoachbus.com/ | access-date = 2009-09-12 }}</ref>

Since the Channel routes abandoned hovercraft, and pending any reintroduction on the Scottish route, the United Kingdom's only public hovercraft service is that operated by [[Hovertravel]] between [[Southsea]] ([[Portsmouth]]) and [[Ryde]] on the [[Isle of Wight]].{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

From the 1960s, several commercial lines were operated in Japan, without much success. In Japan the last commercial line had linked [[Ōita Airport]] and central [[Ōita, Ōita|Ōita]] but was shut down in October 2009.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} However, the commercial line between Ōita Airport and central Ōita is scheduled to reopen in 2024.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}
 
Hovercraft are still manufactured in the UK, near to where they were first conceived and tested, on the Isle of Wight.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} They can also be chartered for a wide variety of uses including inspections of shallow bed offshore wind farms and VIP or passenger use. A typical vessel would be a Tiger IV or a Griffon. They are light, fast, road transportable and very adaptable with the unique feature of minimising damage to environments.