[1][2][3] The award of the decoration was discontinued in the United Kingdom on 1 April 1999, when it was superseded by the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal.

[1][8] Since, at the time, the Air Efficiency Award was unique, being a decoration which could be conferred on officers and other ranks alike in recognition of the unique relationship between the officers and men of an aircraft crew, recipients were initially not granted the right to use post-nominal letters.

[16] The period of reckoned service required to qualify for the award was ten years, of which at least five years of actual service had to have been in an Auxiliary or Volunteer Air Force of the United Kingdom or the Dominions, Colonies, Protectorates, India or Burma.

[17] In the order of wear prescribed by the British Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, the Air Efficiency Award takes precedence after the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service Medal and before the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal.

Of the official British medals which were applicable to South Africans, the Air Efficiency Award takes precedence as shown.

[1][13][21][22] In the United Kingdom and some countries of the Commonwealth, the Air Efficiency Award was gradually superseded by new medals.