The charity has to raise money to build its new site

An airport in Cambridgeshire is set to close forcing a charity based there to relocate. The East Anglian Air Ambulance has been forced to relocate its Cambridgeshire air base following the upcoming closure of Cambridge Airport.

South Cambridgeshire District Council has approved the charity’s application to build a new air ambulance facility at New Shardelowes Farm on Balsham Road, Fulbourn. The charity has a second base in Norwich to ensure its two helicopters can reach anywhere in the region within 25 minutes.

East Anglian Air Ambulance has had to carry out research at potential sites across Cambridgeshire to find a new location suitable for its Cambridge-based service. The Fulbourn site ranked the highest against the charity’s specialist aviation, clinical, and rapid-response criteria.

The charity now has to raise the money needed to build the new base. The site is located around 2km southeast of Fulbourn and will extend to around 10.35 acres.

The new site will feature helipads and a hangar as well as a garage area for the charity’s critical care cars, crew facilities, a medical store, a training and educational area, and overnight accommodation and resting facilities for night shift and visiting crew, and office space for ground staff.

Richard Hindson, East Anglian Air Ambulance Director of Operations and Infrastructure, said: “East Anglian Air Ambulance and the owners of Cambridge City Airport, Marshall, have worked together since 2007 to ensure that the charity’s Cambridge crew can swiftly attend local people in their moment of greatest need. But that chapter is coming to an end with the planned closure of the airport. We have acted quickly to identify a new site for our Cambridge-based operation that will allow us to continue providing this vital service, which directly treated over 900 people in 2025.

“We are delighted to have been granted planning permission for our new base in Fulbourn, and grateful to all those who supported our application. However, this is just the start of our journey to a new home. Creating a new Cambridgeshire air base, from scratch, is our biggest ever project and we need to raise a significant sum of money to make this happen.

“Our bases aren’t ordinary buildings. They are vital lifelines for countless families, friends, and colleagues – anyone whose life would be devastated by the sudden tragic loss of a parent, a child, a spouse, a caregiver, or a friend. The new base will safeguard the continuity of our lifesaving air ambulance service and deliver vital improvements in crew welfare, training facilities and public engagement. This is a hugely exciting opportunity for the future of critical care in our region, and we will be launching an appeal in the coming weeks to help us raise the money needed to build our new home and ensure we can meet the region’s future critical care needs for generations to come.”