Yorkshire Air Ambulance Charity (YAA) has launched a major fundraising campaign to raise the final £400,000 needed to complete and equip its new £9 million Northern Airbase.
The Big Airbase Build campaign marks the final fundraising push for the purpose-built facility at Skipton Bridge, near Thirsk, which will become Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s permanent operational home for the north of the region.
With construction nearing completion and more than 95% of the funding for the project already in place, the Charity is now calling on people across Yorkshire to help finish the job and get the new base ready for its operational teams.
YAA has committed £5 million to the project, while £3.6 million of the Charity’s £4 million fundraising target has already been secured thanks to support from individuals, businesses, trusts, major donors, grant funders and communities across Yorkshire.
The Charity has operated from rented facilities at RAF Topcliffe since 2012. The new base, being built by Yorkshire-based contractor HACS and due to be completed in late 2026, will provide a permanent home for YAA’s northern operations. The new base will complement YAA’s existing airbase at Nostell, near Wakefield.
The purpose-built facility has been designed around the needs of YAA’s operational teams and will include a hangar and helipad, dedicated clinical and mission planning spaces, specialist training and simulation facilities, clinical storage and preparation areas, crew accommodation and wellbeing spaces, a gym, meeting rooms and offices. The site will also have capacity to host supporter events in the future, helping create a permanent base that can aid both YAA’s operational needs and its wider work across the Charity.
The final £400,000 will help provide the equipment, fittings and infrastructure needed to get these spaces ready for use, from workstations, screens, communications equipment and IT infrastructure in mission planning areas, to clinical storage and preparation facilities, furniture and furnishings for crew accommodation, and specialist training and simulation equipment.
Kathryn Marsden OBE, Chief Executive Officer of Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said: “This is about much more than 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, and securing a permanent home for our northern operations. The new airbase will give us the space, infrastructure and facilities to support our teams properly, develop our service and continue responding to patients across a vast and diverse region. It is a significant investment in the future of Yorkshire Air Ambulance and in the communities who rely on us.
“We are now within touching distance of making that vision a reality, and this final £400,000 matters. I would ask anyone who has supported Yorkshire Air Ambulance, benefited from our service or simply wants to help protect it for the future to consider being part of this final push. When its doors open, it will belong to everyone who helped make it possible.”
During 2025/26, Yorkshire Air Ambulance 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, making the new Northern Airbase essential to maintaining this coverage and helping ensure the Charity can continue reaching 90% of Yorkshire’s population within 20 minutes’ flying time from one of its air support units.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent Charity and receives no direct day-to-day government or NHS funding. It relies on public donations to maintain its lifesaving service and continue delivering advanced pre-hospital critical care to people across Yorkshire.
The Charity is now asking supporters across the region to help close the final £400,000 gap and complete the Big Airbase Build. To support the campaign and help get Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s new Northern Airbase ready for its operational teams, visit www.yaa.org.uk/big-airbase-build.