Our air ambulance service provides a vital lifeline to the people of Scotland, especially those in remote, rural and island communities. We aim to provide a rapid and reliable service for those communities to allow ease of access to mainland health care facilities.

Unlike the rest of the UK, where air ambulance services are funded by charitable donations, in Scotland the service is fully funded by NHS Scotland.

We operate two helicopters and two fixed wing planes, all of which have been purpose built to our specifications.

The two Eurocopter EC 135 helicopters are based in Glasgow and Inverness. They respond to emergency calls and requests from remote, rural or island clinicians to transport patients to mainland health care facilities.

The two King Air 200c planes are based in Aberdeen and Glasgow and mainly respond to medical requests to transfer patients between hospitals.

All of our aircraft operate with paramedics on board and fly over 3,000 missions every year. In addition to those purpose built aircraft we have access to Search and Rescue aircraft of the Ministry of Defence and HM Coastguard to support us during periods when our aircraft are unable to operate.