NPAS increases aircraft available for deployment

Image courtesy NPAS

NPAS continues to provide vital aerial support to police forces across England and Wales. This update outlines their performance in January 2026, highlighting key achievements and their ongoing commitment to operational resilience.

Aircraft availability
In January, NPAS aircraft were available for deployment 83.4% of the time, a significant improvement on December. It should be noted that due to routine annual maintenance and engineering requirements necessary for an aviation fleet, it is not possible to achieve 100% availability.

Engineering downtime fell further to 7.7%, continuing the reduction in maintenance‑related unavailability and supporting improved operational resilience.

Response times
NPAS crews continued to respond quickly to incidents where air support can make a difference:

• Priority 1 (urgent) incidents: Average response time was 10 minutes and 34 seconds
• Priority 2 incidents: Average response time was 20 minutes and three seconds

These times reflect the average from call received to arrival on scene.

Operational impact
In January, NPAS received 3,253 calls for service, a decrease from December.

NPAS crews continued to deliver results: 91.4% of attended deployments led to a positive outcome*.

Between April 2025 and January 2026, NPAS crews located:

• 1,031 vulnerable people
• 3,304 suspects
• 1,594 vehicles

Flying hours so far
Since the start of the financial year:

• Rotary aircraft have flown 8,049 hours
• Fixed wing aircraft have flown 659 hours, supporting 36 forces and completing 165 hours of patrols

* A positive outcome means the task met the operational objective set by the requesting force. For example, if an aircraft is asked to search an area for a missing person, it counts as a positive outcome even if the person isn’t found there. Clearing the area quickly saves time and resources compared to ground searches, often by a factor of 20 or more.