Prime Minister David Cameron and senior ministers are to get their own aircraft for official trips.
An RAF Voyager aircraft will be refitted at a cost of about £10m, the move is expected to save about £775,000 per year as the plane will be cheaper than chartering flights, delivering significant savings for the government.
The Airbus A330 Voyager is an aerial refuelling tanker aircraft with transport capabilities and is based on the civilian Airbus A330. The multi-role A330 tanker/transport has been ordered by the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Air Force, United Arab Emirates Air Force, Royal Saudi Air Force and Republic of Singapore Air Force.
Official flights using either Royal Squadron planes or long haul charter, cost on average £6,700 per flying hour while using a Voyager aircraft would cost £2,000. It would be available for refuelling when it wasn’t in use.
A government spokesperson said:
“As part of the government’s defence review, we have been looking at ways to make better use of the RAF fleet to transport senior ministers and consequently deliver savings for taxpayers.
We have decided to adapt one of our existing Voyager aircraft so that, in addition to its primary air tanking role, it can transport Ministers and it will also be available for the Royal family to use.”
The Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport is an aerial refuelling tanker aircraft based on the civilian Airbus A330. The A330 MRTT has been ordered by the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Air Force, United Arab Emirates Air Force, Royal Saudi Air Force and Republic of Singapore Air Force.
About damn time.
Bloody embarrassing see our PM turn up at official visits in a BA charter flight.
Of course all the class warfare plebs will object but they’re a waste of space anyway.
Whose budget is the £10m coning from?
Very good news, though fingers crossed they change the grey to white ?
Why don’t they just customise it like Airforce One? The way things are going these days, London will be getting attacked weekly and we need a back up command centre just like the USA.
At £10 million cost don’t know why they don’t convert 2 of them so that there is a backup. Seriously in the defence environment £20 million is a drop in the ocean
Because £10 million buys an awful lot of other stuff that is much more important! £10M most certainly isn’t a drop in the ocean in Defence today.
Our defence budget is £33 billion. You have your opinion, I have mine ?
Smart move.
it,s not really to save money,it is more than likely to make sure no one sneaks a bomb on board as the plane is military so any tom dick or harry can,t go on or get near it…
I hope that the Royal family get to use it for official trips too. 🙂
You serious I understand the PM as he runs the country and has to get places and make decisions, the royal family are just very expensive figure heads
Danny Winson Err No there not, the queen is the head of state, the rest of the family have helped with billions upon billions of overseas business for the UK over the years 🙂
Put the royals on Ryanair! 😉
They have their own aircraft.. its called the “Queens Flight”
AirCam One?
Or Air Con or reverse this to become Con Air.
Quite right. US Pres has AF1 we need an AF1
Why can’t he fly easy jet like we have to !!!
Very sensible move and to the doubters, he is sticking with the budget airline philosophy. One of the air refuelling tankers is already used by Thomas Cook Airlines although that is one of the 5 surge aircraft. I wonder if this is going to be one of the 9 core or 5 surge aircraft.
Details of surge vs core & Thomas Cook involvement here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Strategic_Tanker_Aircraft
– Julian
Royal Air Force 1!!
Taking the piss!!!
Her Majesty had to give hers up, this is political corruption at its worse. This is an absolute disgrace
money should be spent on buying some aircraft for the royal air force we ain’t got enough
I do wish report were factual. The Airbus MRTT offering from the A300, A310 Variants and now the A330 have not, repeat not, been bought by the RAF. The RAF version is a standard A330 adapted for Air to Air refuelling from it’s existing standard tanks. It does not have the large freight door cut into the upper fuselage and is therefore not able to be configured for large 108 x 88 inch cargo pallets upstairs. It is definitely not the MRTT commentators are reporting.
Further, whilst the VC10 was in service, and because of the adaptable cargo main deck floor and large freight door that allowed fast role changes into or out of VIP fit, an aircraft out of the 13 in 10 Sqn Service was always available for Royal or Government Ministerial use, in addition to 32 The Royal Sqn’s 6 HS 125s and 2 BAe 146-100s. Seems cheap to me to have retired the expensive and out of date VC10 fleet, whilst configuring a single relatively modern wide-bodied jet from the new fleet of quieter more efficient and longer range aircraft for… Read more »
As for the Queen and the Royals having their own “Queens Flight”, not strictly true. The Prime role for No 32 Sqn is as a communications fleet, meaning the ferrying of Service personnel as part of their Operational duties, ie, moving slip crews and replacement pilots around, as well as allowing senior commanders of all 3 Services to conduct their Military Business without carrying State Military Secrets through international airports or indeed on Ryanair!!! That said, you have to be really senior to get close to using one of these assets as they are very tightly controlled.