East Anglian Air Ambulance increases flying capacity with new hangar
Crews will now be able to spend an extra 180 hours a year on shift.
Last updated 21st Apr 2021
East Anglian Air Ambulance says the completion of a new hangar at their base at Cambridge City airport will mean life-saving crews will be able to work for an extra 180 hours a year.
The new helicopter hangar is next to the charity's operational base, and will save the half an hour a day previously spent by crews towing the aircraft across the airport.
It means that teams flying missions covering Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, will be online for an extra 30 minutes a day.
Matthew Jones, Director of Operations at EAAA said: "Half an hour of extra flight time a day may not seem like a huge increase, but we're really pleased to have been able to construct this new hangar to give us the maximum response time possible.
"That half an hour could make a huge difference to someone who needs our help and be the difference between life or death in some situations.
"Having a designated hangar next to the base will also be of huge benefit to our pilots during periods of bad weather and will cut down immensely on their workload at the start and end of the day, meaning they can focus more on being online and ready to respond to an emergency."
Due to some future changes at the airport, the hangar had to be moveable and able to be dismantled and rebuilt in a different location, if required.
Matthew Jones continued: "There has been a lot to think about in the build up to this project, mainly the cost and practicality of construction.
"We were very fortunate to qualify for a one-off government grant to cover the main cost of the build and to find a design which met all of our requirements.
"This has been a challenging project to undertake under the current circumstances and has been affected by both the pandemic and Brexit, but now it's up and running and we're really pleased with the extra flight time and added functionality it gives us here at Cambridge."
EAAA has been operating one of its yellow helicopters from Cambridge Airport since 2007. In 2016, the charity upgraded and relocated its Cambridge operating base further airside at the airport; however, this did not include moving the aircraft hangar as well.