London Air Ambulance secures seven-year helicopter finance deal

Finance | Tania Mason | 15 Feb 2011

London’s Air Ambulance, the charity that was embroiled in scandal in 2009 when it sacked its new chief executive after he raised concerns about its governance, has agreed a new seven-year financing deal for its helicopter.

The deal has been financed through Santander Corporate Banking with the help of Virgin Group, the charity’s major corporate supporter. The charity has also appointed Santander Corporate Banking as its primary bankers.

The charity hit the headlines in the autumn of 2009 when high-profile air ambulance executive David Philpott was fired just a few weeks into the job after he began investigating complaints from inside and outside the charity about the way it was being run.

One of the allegations he made was that the organisation was trading while technically insolvent and would not be able to afford a new helicopter when the current lease expired. The charity flatly denied this was true.

A Charity Commission investigation found no misconduct on the part of the charity, though the regulator did offer some advice to the trustees on best practice in governance and management.

Last summer the charity appointed David Oakley to its most senior executive role, with the title of charity director. Now it has announced that it has boosted its team further with the appointments of Diane Richens as business development manager and Siobhra Murphy as public relations manager.

It has also put paid to Philpott’s concerns regarding the affordability of the helicopter by agreeing the new seven-year deal with Santander. The helicopter has been in service for ten years and was previously financed though a ten-year operating lease.

The charity refused to disclose the terms of the new deal, citing commercial confidentiality.

Since the Air Ambulance launched in 1989 it has attended 24,647 missions. The charity, which is based at the Royal London Hospital, said that since the service became round-the-clock in April last year, there has been a “remarkable difference in the amount of missions attended and lives saved”.

Directory: Charity Commission
Who's Who: Diane Richens | David Oakley | Siobhra Murphy

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