Wales Air Ambulance is delivered through a third sector, public sector, and private-sector partnership – with an aviation and medical partner.
The charity funds the helicopters and rapid response vehicles, so every mission we attend is funded by your generous donations.
In March 2022, we announced our new aviation partner, Gama Aviation Plc, and work began on moving the transition from our old provider over to Gama. The contract, which is valued at £65 million, was decided upon by our Trustees following an extensive 18-month procurement process which included input from both aviation and medical professionals.
Gama Aviation provides our pilots and engineers, and is contracted to run the helicopter operation and maintain our fleet of H145 helicopters. They are also responsible for providing a back-up H145 aircraft to provide resilience during periods of maintenance.
As forecast, the global increase in costs relating to goods and services, along with a new long-term aviation contract, resulted in a significant increase in the funds needed to deliver this lifesaving service. The target to maintain the air operation, alongside the rapid response vehicle capability, therefore needed to rise from £8 million to £11.2 million per year.
We can only operate with your support!
The transition to a new aviation provider
Moving aviation provider brings with it a huge amount of complexity from the valued people delivering services – in this instance as well as the pilots who remained with the service, 11 H145 HEMS ATPL pilots who could operate in Wales needed to be sought along with the imperative engineers.
The transition was made much smoother by the collaboration between the previous provider, Babcock, who had partnered with the charity for several years and the incoming service provider GAMA Aviation.
Due to their hard work, the transition was in fact moved forward 18 days! The work completed between the two organisations ensured that people were looked after, engineering equipment was transferred in an efficient manner and that’s before we consider the mammoth task of WAAC taking on the lease responsibilities for three of the aircraft directly – a decision taken to provide an additional level of protection in a time of growing economic uncertainty.
Taking Flight
The first flight following the transition took off from Cardiff Heliport just two weeks before Christmas and it was an emotional moment for seasoned pilot James Grenfell, Gama Aviation’s Head of Flight Operations in Wales.
He said: “Wales Air Ambulance can, and does, take the emergency department to the patient in any part of Wales. The H145 aircraft is the absolute pinnacle of what we need for Wales and HEMS aircraft. They can carry the fuel, have the endurance, and can still land in someone’s back garden.
“When it comes to safety, the aviation industry has strict protocols. All the aircraft are put through a thorough servicing regime. There is everything from daily inspections to weekly inspections, so many hours, 100-hour, 200-hour, 400-hour, 800-hour – annual inspections, avionic inspections.
“Aircraft are maintained at such a high level.”
I see those helicopters regularly, but to see that first helicopter with the Gama sticker as part of Wales Air Ambulance’s new operation, it almost brought tears to my eyes.
It was fantastic.
What comes next?
Our next exciting move for these aircraft will be to upgrade our H145’s to the D3, a 5 bladed version of the aircraft, with the GAMA engineering retrospectively upgrading some of the aircraft to introduce another blade. The upgrade offers significant patient benefit due to reduced vibrations, improved handling and stability and a greater useful load. The work itself will take around X number of hours, take X number of people and will of course be programmed to ensure that only one aircraft is away for this modification at any given time ensuring that the full fleet of four aircraft are always available to those in need.
The livery process
Have you ever wondered how our helicopters are converted from a standard helicopter to an air ambulance? Or how they are turned into the recognisable Welsh dragon’s that you see in the skies. This video will show you how:
