Final £400,000 push for new Air Ambulance base

Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) has launched a final fundraising push to complete work on its new purpose-built base.

Work began last year on the £9m Northern Airbase near Thirsk, which will provide the service with a permanent home in the area.

YAA said 95% of the funding was already in place, but that it still needed £400,000 to complete and equip the facility at Skipton-on-Swale.

Chief executive Kathryn Marsden said the charity was within "touching distance of making that vision a reality".

The new base will replace the charity's rented facilities at RAF Topcliffe where it has been stationed since 2012.

It is due to be completed in late 2026 and will include a purpose-built helipad, a larger hangar space and a wellness area for crew.

Marsden said it was much more than just "completing a building".

"It is about creating the right environment for our crews to deliver the highest standard of critical care, now and for the future," she said.

YAA said between April 2025 and March 2026, crews treated 1,312 patients across the region, including 647 in North and East Yorkshire.

Crews based at RAF Topcliffe typically respond to incidents across these areas, which the YAA said was what would make the new Northern Airbase essential to maintaining the coverage.

It said it would help ensure the charity can continue reaching 90% of Yorkshire's population within 20 minutes' flying time.

The new base is being built on land which was used by the RAF during World War Two but has been vacant since 1950.

It was part of a satellite station for RAF Leeming, but was abandoned after the war and the land reverted to agricultural use.

Marsden said the completion of the building would be "a significant investment in the future of Yorkshire Air Ambulance and in the communities who rely on us".

The charity also leases a site at Nostell, near Wakefield, as its air support facility.

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