Regarding the repainting or other wise: I can't see the great unwashed revelling in the "kudos" of going on their hols in a grey aeroplane. Quite the opposite. I would assume that in the event of surge aircraft being recalled to military service it would be more a case of removing or painting over company logos and flying them in a predominantly white colour scheme.
Not really the end of the world, after all we used to operate a fleet of white, wide body MRTTs did we not?
The leasing deal does make a lot of sense to me, as it should to the many on here who base their opinions on this website on perceived value for money issues. If you want 14 tankers in time of crisis but only need 8/9 the rest of the time it sort of makes sense given the alternative of parking 1/3 of your fleet.that said, having a large number of aircraft but only flying a small portion of them has always been in vogue in the RAF.