The UK EMS operator Essex & Herts Air Ambulance have announced that the UK CAA has issued them with their own Air Operator Certificate.

This completes the second main stage of their transition away from a turn-key operation via a third-party AOC holder to be fully responsible for their own flight operations, after appointing a maintenance provider.

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance operate two Leonardo AW169 helicopters from their main base at North Weald, and a second at Earls Colne.  As their name suggests, they primarily cover the English counties of Essex and Hertfordshire – the immediately adjacent counties to the east and north of London.

Earlier this month, Sloane Helicopters of Northampton announced that they had won the maintenance contract for the two helicopters.  Sloane, the longest established onshore AOC operator in the UK, have been recently been providing an AW109 backup aircraft to Essex & Herts Air Ambulance.