THE BIG BASES APPEAL
You can’t schedule an emergency.
You can help build a base that’s always ready.
Your Donation Helps to Build the New Bases
Protect lifesaving care for future generations.
Donate today and help secure the future of The Air Ambulance Service
When someone’s life is hanging in the balance, seconds matter. Your support helps ensure lifesaving care is always ready, always close, and always there when it’s needed most.
Welcome to the Big Bases Appeal — our most ambitious capital campaign to date.
Together, we are creating two new purpose-built air ambulance bases that will support both Your Local Air Ambulance and the National Children’s Air Ambulance.
These modern facilities will give our specialist crews the space, equipment and operational resilience they need to reach patients faster, train smarter and deliver critical care for generations to come.
We are seeking £9 million from public and philanthropic donations to deliver our first new base. The remaining costs will be covered by our reserves, allowing us to build sustainably while protecting our day-to-day lifesaving services.
We receive no government or NHS funding for our daily operations. Every mission we fly is powered by people like you.
Track Our Progress to £9 Million
Every donation brings us closer to building a base that’s always ready to respond.
Follow our progress as we move from planning and groundworks through to construction, fit-out, and the moment our crews respond from a new mission-ready base for the first time.
See the difference your support is making — every step of the way.
Why We Need to Act Now
We must act now to deliver the first phase of the Big Bases Appeal — the new South Base — due to significant operational challenges affecting our current locations.
Your Local Air Ambulance (Warwickshire & Northamptonshire) operations are currently based at Coventry Airport, a site facing closure. At the same time, the National Children’s Air Ambulance operates from London Oxford Airport, where ongoing operational restrictions and long-term uncertainty limit future planning.
These challenges directly affect our southern operations and mean we need to move quickly to secure a new, purpose-built base.
Bringing Your Local Air Ambulance and the National Children’s Air Ambulance together into a single modern South Base will protect response times, provide the specialist facilities our teams need, and deliver the best long-term value for our supporters.
Following delivery of the South Base, future phases of the Big Bases Appeal will focus on strengthening lifesaving coverage across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland through the development of a new North Base.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build the right bases, in the right places, for the right reasons.
Support Us
Securing the future of The Air Ambulance Service.
Together, we save more lives.
The minutes we save on the ground could mean reaching someone in time.
A parent still there for their family.
A child getting the specialist care they need.
Your support helps make that possible.
Help build the base that keeps our crews ready to respond — whenever the call comes.
Be Part of the Foundation
Who will your brick be for?
A virtual brick is a simple way to play your part in building a mission-ready base — supporting both lifesaving emergency response and critical care transfers for children across the UK.
For someone you love.
For the crews who save lives.
For the next patient who needs us.
Your brick helps lay the foundations of a base that will save lives for years to come.
Big Bases Appeal Stats
How You Can Support the Big Bases Appeal
However you choose to support, you are helping build a base that keeps our crews ready to respond.
Fundraise
Bring your community together and turn your time and energy into lifesaving support.
Volunteer
Give your time and skills, at events, in shops or behind the scenes, and help power this appeal in your local community.
Corporate Partnerships
Partner with us to support the development of a new base and create meaningful, measurable impact.
For the next patient. For the next child. For the next call.
When someone’s life is at risk, or a critically ill baby or child needs urgent transfer, our crews are ready to respond.
But we never know when the next call will come.
The next life-threatening emergency. The next critically ill child needing specialist care.
Play your part. Help build the base that keeps two lifelines mission ready.
Where the New Bases Will Be
Strategically located to efficiently serve our communities.
The new bases will be located within our operational areas to ensure:
no loss of coverage for local communities; efficient national coordination
for children’s transfers, and best value for money for supporters.
See the interactive map below for more detail.
Base locations
FAQs
You can donate, fundraise, buy a virtual brick, volunteer your time, or support the appeal as a corporate partner.
We are seeking £9 million from public and philanthropic donations to help deliver the first new base. Additional funding will come from charity reserves to ensure the project is delivered responsibly.
Our current bases face long-term uncertainty and no longer meet the needs of modern emergency care. New bases will protect response times, improve facilities for our crews, and ensure services remain sustainable for decades to come.
The Big Bases Appeal is a major fundraising campaign to help build new, purpose-built air ambulance bases that will secure the future of lifesaving care for communities and children across the UK.