EAAA’s 24/7 plans are still a reality despite challenging year and forecast £1.7m loss over 12 months

Despite a challenging year, plans to start flying 24/7 from our new Norwich headquarters are on track for 2021. We need to raise £13m a year to deliver a 24/7 HEMS service and expect to have to use our reserves to make up the £1.7 million shortfall in fundraising income, which is currently forecast over 12 months for the year '20/21. 

This week, our Chief Executive Patrick Peal visited the site of EAAA’s new 24/7 base at Norwich Airport to mark the end of exterior building works, which have been delayed by 16 weeks due to the pandemic.

The £7 million base project was started in January of this year and was originally planned to be finished by the end of 2020. The new base is a key development in enabling our charity to start flying 24/7, from a state of the art purpose-built facility, with improved rest and welfare facilities for the crew. The funds for the base were ringfenced from years of generous gifts in Wills and committed before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. 

Patrick Peal said: “Developing our Norwich base so that it’s fit for the future and a 24/7 helicopter operation has been a long-term goal of the charity. It is a testament to the team and our supporters that, despite all the challenges of 2020 so far, we have managed to keep this huge project more or less on track. Our goal to become the first helicopter emergency medical service in the East of England to fly 24/7 is just a few months away. 

In the financial year July 2019 to June 2020, we exceeded our fundraising target and finished our financial year with a surplus of £1.1 million. The additional income was due to a one-off government grant, our PPE appeal for unbudgeted equipment and an incredible response from our supporters since March when the first lockdown was implemented, and charity donations were at risk of declining.

However, for the current financial year we are predicting a £1.7 million shortfall as our fundraising income is hit by the effects of the pandemic. 

Patrick Peal added: “In March, we were facing a lot of hurdles and were concerned about the impact that the pandemic would have on our income, but our supporters rose to the challenge, responding to some new and innovative ways to fundraise. This surplus enabled us to maintain our reserves, which unfortunately we expect to draw on to overcome the predicted shortfall in the current financial year, even before the impact that the second lockdown will undoubtably have.