RAF Planes May Be Used For Holiday Flights

[Rockville]

RAF war planes may be leased out to airlines for holiday flights to save cash, it has emerged.

The aircraft will be hired by commercial airlines and quickly painted in their flagship colours for use.
If the RAF need them back during a time of crisis they will be painted back again.
It is the first time that aircraft not needed by the military will be leased out to commercial airlines.
The idea is part of new measures to save the Ministry of Defence money.
Fourteen Airbus A330s are being bought by the company AirTanker and these will be leased by the Ministry of Defence.
The deal will cost the taxpayer an estimated £13bn over almost 30 years and is the world's biggest defence Private Finance Initiative.
When the aircraft are not being used by the RAF, AirTanker will make them available for commercial hire.
"They (the RAF) pay us for two things," said Phill Blundell AirTanker's chief executive.
"They pay us to make aircraft available to them, and then they pay when they fly.
"If they don't want the aircraft, or they don't want to fly them, then we take those aircraft and earn some money out of them."
Eleven years in negotiation, the deal helps the air force solve problems with its transport and airborne tanker fleet.
The 14 planes will replace elderly second-hand TriStar and VC10 airliners which have caused frustrating delays for troops waiting to fly home from duty in Afghanistan.
"These aircraft are like vintage cars," said Group Captain Peter Dixon. "They require a lot of care and attention to keep them going.
"The new fleet will be provided on time, hopefully exactly to cost and that's a rare thing these days, certainly for military procurement."
From 2011, five A330s will be permanently available to the air force, with another four on standby and the remaining five hired out to commercial airlines.
AirTanker supplies the aircraft and all their support services. The RAF will only provide the crews to fly them and the fuel.
The first planes will spend 12 months in Spain being converted to tankers.

Sky News, 10:02am UK, Thursday September 17, 2009

[ehusmann]

That is going to be interesting. Especially concerning the serial/registration. Flying an A330 with refuelling pods and a RAF serial, how cool is that! Reminds me of the Saha B747s early nineties. Flying with a boom under the fuselage and both military and civil registration into Amsterdam. That was only cargo as far as I know, this could be even better!

Erwin

[Belgianboy]

In the late seventies one Boeing 727-29QC of the Belgian Air Force was leased by Sobelair for the summer season. (Basic Sabena c/s kept by the BAF when two aircraft ere purchased with Sobelair titles)

Willy

[SPERX]

It makes me ashamed to see just how bankrupt, both financially and morally, my country has become. The tanker fleet we have is ageing and over-stretched with current Operations. We are told that the "war on terror" will last for many years. It seems inconceivable to me that these 14 A330s will ever be surplus to operational requirements and available for re-painting, not a 5 minute job, and leasing out to charter airlines. So why is this story out there? Answer, to try and con the British public into thinking that it is a good value deal. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The UK Government have Bankrupted the UK economy with useless projects and two illegal wars. Although the VC10 and Tristar fleets need to be replaced, the Government cannot afford to buy the airframes it needs. So they claim PFI represents good value for money. It is not. It is a crafty politician's ruse to deceive the public into thinking that they are getting both capital expenditure and controlled current account expenditure. Its a myth: no sane Government contracts to rent airplanes for 30 years. Lets remember that just 10 years ago, pre 9/11, there was no conception of the UK being at war in Afghanistan, far less softening-up the electorate for a war with Iran and most probably Somalia.

For £30Bn the RAF could buy the planes outright; operate them and have military crews ready and available to operate and maintain them. I do not see private contractors queuing up to be based at Bagram in order to service the planes.

This is a nonsense scheme dreamed up by a Government which knows very well that it will not be in power after next June 10th and will never have to explain the consequences of yet another over-priced PFI.

[aviodromefriend]

From the start it was known something like this would happen, the big news is the machines will not be leased to the RAF as they need them, and not be owned by the commercial civvie airlines, as was thought up till now.