My point was really about how any delay, whether it is technical or operational, costs money. The VC10 and Tristar AT/AAR fleet are costly to operate and very unreliable.
The Government cocked up years ago by keeping the VC10 and Tristar in service too long. Maintenance and operational costs rose as reliability fell. Now they have no money so they have had to pay for the replacement aircraft on the 'never, never'.
Of course it is going to cost more but it would appear that there is no other option?
It is hard to accept, but ATrS are providing a service that the MOD were unable to do due to the government's lack of forward thinking. Moving on......