So, here are the costs per Force and flying hours for 2016/17. When I started this, way back in 2014, not all Forces were part of NPAS. Those Forces are shown by the white spaces, which are where I don’t have information for them.
As usual, there are winners and losers. The biggest loser is Avon and Somerset. They are paying £644,713 more than the previous year and £695,613 more than before they joined NPAS. Their hours are slightly down from 2015/16, but up from 2014.
The biggest winner, in terms of money saved, are North Wales. The’ve saved £809,776 on 2015/16 and last year’s payment is a massive £1,547,337 less than prior to NPAS. Mind you, their Air Support budget prior to NPAS was always a bit extreme, 1.5% of the total Force budget when the average for the North West was 0.5%.
Flying hours continue to drop, 15,432 last year, 1,705 down on the previous year. More telling though, I think, the 2014 Forces had 11,960 hours, that’s 9,149 less than prior to NPAS. How many of those 15,432 were taken up with 20, 30, 40 minute transits?
The cost per flying hour don’t seem to follow any logic: from £985/hour for Cumbria to £3,616 for West Yorks, an increase of £1,749 for them. I’ve asked for an explanation as why they are so different and how they are calculated.
Total cost of Air Support prior to NPAS: approx £46M with approx 25,000 flying hours and 30 aircraft. Now: £38.3M for 15,432 hours and 17(?) aircraft. Value for money?