Porrohman
19th Nov 2015, 05:36
According to the BBC;
Prime Minister David Cameron and senior ministers are to get their own plane for official trips. An RAF Voyager A330 air-to-air refuelling aircraft will be refitted at a cost of about £10m.
The government says the move will save about £775,000 a year as the plane will be cheaper than chartering flights. The BBC's Ross Hawkins said despite the predicted savings, the announcement was likely to prove controversial ahead of next week's Spending Review.
Most government departments are facing budget cuts of at least 25% over the next four years. A source said the PM's flights, using either Royal Squadron planes or long haul charter, cost on average £6,700 per flying hour and the RAF aircraft would cost £2,000. It would be available for refuelling when it wasn't in use. The flight would also be available to the Royal family.
Full article; PM to get own plane for official trips - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34864328?SThisFB)
I'm not sure where the £2,000 per hour figure comes from but it looks like nonsense to me. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Strategic_Tanker_Aircraft), the contract for 14 aircraft costs the MoD £390m per year.
This works out at £76,321 per aircraft per day made up of £15,656 running costs and the remainder covers the contractor's financing and profit. I don't know the full details of the contract so there may be additional costs to add on top of this.
The £2,000 per hour figure is therefore just a tiny part of the true cost. AFAIK, a standard A330 burns around 5,400kg to 6,100kg of fuel per hour in the cruise and I expect that the extra drag of the mission equipment on the tankers will add slightly to fuel burn, so £2,000 per hour would barely cover the fuel bill.
These costs exclude the £10 million it will cost for the VIP interior, the cost of which would need to be spread across the life of the interior fit (perhaps 10 years before it needs renewed / refurbished?) divided by the number of hours it is used in its lifetime. If the aircraft flies 300 hours per year in VIP configuration, and if the life of the VIP interior is ten years, this would work out at £3,333 per hour for the VIP interior. This figure could be more or less depending on the life of the interior and the number of flying hours it is used.
A round trip to Washington would involve around 16 hours of flight time, probably over at least two days and possibly longer depending on the duration of the visit. The true cost of such a trip is likely to be £76,321 per day (possibly more) times two days (and possibly more) divided by 16 hours which works out to be at least £9,540 per hour plus perhaps £3,333 per hour to recover the cost of the VIP interior giving a total of £12,873 per hour.
A trip to the G20 Summit in Antalya would likely involve around 4 hours flying time there and 4.5 hours on the way back. If the flight out is on the day before the summit and the flight back on the day after then the cost is likely to be £76,321 per day (possibly more) times four days divided by 8.5 hours which works out to be at least £35,916 per hour plus £3,333 per hour to recover the cost of the VIP interior giving a total of £39,249 per hour.
My numbers might be out for various reasons but £2,000 per hour sounds like a gross understatement.
Prime Minister David Cameron and senior ministers are to get their own plane for official trips. An RAF Voyager A330 air-to-air refuelling aircraft will be refitted at a cost of about £10m.
The government says the move will save about £775,000 a year as the plane will be cheaper than chartering flights. The BBC's Ross Hawkins said despite the predicted savings, the announcement was likely to prove controversial ahead of next week's Spending Review.
Most government departments are facing budget cuts of at least 25% over the next four years. A source said the PM's flights, using either Royal Squadron planes or long haul charter, cost on average £6,700 per flying hour and the RAF aircraft would cost £2,000. It would be available for refuelling when it wasn't in use. The flight would also be available to the Royal family.
Full article; PM to get own plane for official trips - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34864328?SThisFB)
I'm not sure where the £2,000 per hour figure comes from but it looks like nonsense to me. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Strategic_Tanker_Aircraft), the contract for 14 aircraft costs the MoD £390m per year.
This works out at £76,321 per aircraft per day made up of £15,656 running costs and the remainder covers the contractor's financing and profit. I don't know the full details of the contract so there may be additional costs to add on top of this.
The £2,000 per hour figure is therefore just a tiny part of the true cost. AFAIK, a standard A330 burns around 5,400kg to 6,100kg of fuel per hour in the cruise and I expect that the extra drag of the mission equipment on the tankers will add slightly to fuel burn, so £2,000 per hour would barely cover the fuel bill.
These costs exclude the £10 million it will cost for the VIP interior, the cost of which would need to be spread across the life of the interior fit (perhaps 10 years before it needs renewed / refurbished?) divided by the number of hours it is used in its lifetime. If the aircraft flies 300 hours per year in VIP configuration, and if the life of the VIP interior is ten years, this would work out at £3,333 per hour for the VIP interior. This figure could be more or less depending on the life of the interior and the number of flying hours it is used.
A round trip to Washington would involve around 16 hours of flight time, probably over at least two days and possibly longer depending on the duration of the visit. The true cost of such a trip is likely to be £76,321 per day (possibly more) times two days (and possibly more) divided by 16 hours which works out to be at least £9,540 per hour plus perhaps £3,333 per hour to recover the cost of the VIP interior giving a total of £12,873 per hour.
A trip to the G20 Summit in Antalya would likely involve around 4 hours flying time there and 4.5 hours on the way back. If the flight out is on the day before the summit and the flight back on the day after then the cost is likely to be £76,321 per day (possibly more) times four days divided by 8.5 hours which works out to be at least £35,916 per hour plus £3,333 per hour to recover the cost of the VIP interior giving a total of £39,249 per hour.
My numbers might be out for various reasons but £2,000 per hour sounds like a gross understatement.