Air ambulance prepares for potential fuel shortage

The Midlands Air Ambulance Charity is preparing for a possible global fuel shortage and soaring costs due to the conflict in Iran.

The organisation said it could rely more heavily on critical care cars and to use its helicopters more selectively if fuel supplies became restricted.

Chief executive Hanna Sebright said the priority would remain maintaining patient care.

She said fuel costs had doubled as global supply routes remain under strain due to disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.

"As well as managing the rise in cost, we are continuity-planning for the event of a global aviation fuel shortage," she said.

"We currently have enough to last us until June when we will next need to refill them, but at double the cost of what it was in March."

She added that even if the conflict ceased now, the organisation expected prices and supply to remain volatile.

The charity operates one of the largest air ambulance services in England, covering Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands.

It attends 4,000 to 4,500 emergency call-outs each year with annual running costs of about £20m, funded through donations.

Sebright said: "Our priority is to protect our clinical service and not compromise patient care. That will never change."

Wider aviation pressures are rippling across the sector. Airlines have cancelled about 13,000 flights in May as jet fuel prices surged.

There is currently no shortage in the UK, but the International Energy Agency has previously warned that Europe could face tightening supplies by early summer.

Last week, plans were put in place to enable European airlines to use US-grade jet fuel to ease potential shortages.

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