The Great Western Air Ambulance Charity in the UK (GWAAC) is celebrating six months of working with Air bp to deliver life-saving medical emergency flights. Air bp is also currently fuelling Wales Air Ambulance Charity (WAAC) and Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA).

Since October 2018, Air bp has provided Jet A-1 fuelling services for GWAAC's Airbus EC135 at its Almondsbury, South Gloucester base in the UK. GWAAC provides critical care and an air ambulance service for 2.1 million people across Bristol, Bath, north and north east Somerset and Gloucestershire.

GWAAC chief executive Anna Perry says: “We were impressed with the reliable service that Air bp has been providing to the National Police Air Service (NPAS). We knew that it would provide a reliable service to us, delivering fuel just when we need it to make sure we never have excess nor run out.

”As we handle over five missions a day on average, we cannot afford downtime whilst we wait for fuel. I am pleased to report that we've received excellent service from Air bp to date.”

Russell Halley, Air bp's general aviation regional sales manager, UK, adds: “We've had a great start supplying GWAAC and are immensely proud to be supporting it, along with all our air ambulance customers. By providing safe and reliable fuelling services we are supporting the charities to go about their work providing life-saving, rapid response emergency services to millions of people.”

The contract to supply GWAAC builds on the strength of Air bp's successful five-year relationship with NPAS, which is co-located with GWAAC at its south Gloucestershire base. During the course of the relationship, Air bp's focus on operational safety and reliability, coupled with support from a dedicated account manager, has ensured that NPAS can provide a seamless service, crucially responding to call-outs rapidly and effectively.

Air bp supplies Jet A-1 to support WAAC's four helicopters at three of its four locations across Wales including Cardiff, Caernarfon and Dafen. WAAC's team is capable of reaching a critically ill patient anywhere in Wales within 20 minutes of receiving a call. Air bp also supplies Jet-A1 fuel to long-standing customer YAA's two Airbus H145 helicopters at its two locations at Nostell Priory and RAF Topcliffe. YAA covers a vast topography comprising both remote rural areas and densely populated areas including major motorways and road networks such as the M62, M1, A1 and M18. Its rapid response service means that it can reach 90 per cent of Yorkshire within 20 minutes flying time from one of the two bases.