Guernsey Judge Rules Air Ambulance Tender Was Fair, Rejecting Gama Aviation Challenge

A Guernsey judge has ruled that the States of Guernsey did not break any procurement rules when it awarded the Channel Islands air ambulance (medevac) contract to a new company. Gama Aviation, which lost the contract earlier this year, had called for a judicial review of the tender process.

Gama Aviation was awarded the contract to provide air ambulance services for both Jersey and Guernsey in 2020. That contract expires at the end of 2026, so the States of Guernsey and Jersey put the service out to tender. Gama Aviation and Ireland-based 247 Aviation applied. The tender asked bidders whether their aircraft were suitable for Guernsey stretchers and whether they had the staffing and resource capacity to run the service. During the process, the criteria on the type of aircraft required were changed. 247 Aviation won the contract and will take over the service from 2027.

Gama Aviation argued the change was unfair because it did not have enough time to amend its tender application, and said the process had "inconsistencies". On Monday 26 October, after a five-hour summing-up, Lieutenant Bailiff Hazel Marshall ruled the tender process was "fair and genuine". She found that Gama Aviation had misjudged the situation and had assumed it would be awarded the contract. She said the States of Guernsey made the best decision for the island, and that granting a judicial review, or even rerunning the process, would be "a waste of taxpayers' money".

Government-funded air ambulance services are typically bought through fixed-term tenders, which means every incumbent faces a renewal contest at the end of its contract. This ruling shows the limits of challenging an outcome after the fact: a change to the aircraft criteria mid-process was not enough to establish unfairness, and the court treated the incumbent's assumption that it would keep the contract as a misjudgement on its side.

For operators in the segment, the practical reading is that the decisive work happens inside the bidding window. Aircraft suitability for the stretcher specification and demonstrable staffing and resource capacity were the stated test, and a bidder that needs time to adapt its offer when criteria shift is exposed if it does not raise that during the process itself.

The next milestone is operational: the existing contract runs to the end of 2026 and 247 Aviation takes over the Channel Islands service from 2027.