I heard this news while sat in Jake's in Yeovil on Tuesday. The people chatting about it were all civvies and they all thought it was an appalling decision, made for all the wrong reasons, by someone who should know better.
How much better would the company have appeared to the rest of the country - if not the aviation world - if they had not only let the air ambulance stay, but offered to provide an extra, free, brand new model that they make. What fantastic publicity that would have been, instead of having publicity which shouts "tossing Italian CEO with an inflated idea of his importance and no feelings for the local community and its needs" into the ether.
Shame - because the people who work there that I have met have been great.