Labour scraps £40m private helicopter service favoured by Rishi Sunak
Labour scraps £40m private helicopter service favoured by Rishi Sunak
Senior ministers set to travel in government-owned aircraft after ‘grossly wasteful’ contract axed
Senior ministers set to travel in government-owned aircraft after ‘grossly wasteful’ contract axed
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In 2023, Mr Sunak reversed an initial decision to stop leasing the two Agusta Westland helicopters.
Senior ministers will instead use government-owned vehicles such as RAF helicopters when needed for operational reasons
It looks like these Sloane guys operate AgustaWestland 109E helicopters.
https://www.sloanehelicopters.com/flight-operations/32-squadron
So what are these RAF helicopters that will replace them?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_United_Kingdom_military_aircraft
They do have one category there of RAF helicopters for transport of government ministers
Leonardo AW109SP Used for transportation of senior military commanders or government ministers.[31]
I mean, that's...the next model of the same helicopter. Is that actually less-expensive?
Pretty sure the expensive part is hiring a 3rd party to do the job instead of themselves, not the operating costs of the vehicle.
I mean, that’s…the next model of the same helicopter. Is that actually less-expensive?
I would guess the government doesn't need to profit from buying flights from itself. A private company certainly isn't going to provide service without a percentage of profit on top charged to the government.
A "benefit" of using RAF helos is it the flight hours. Pilots typically need a certain number of flight hours every month to maintain their certs, so they'll likely be flying anyways. Having them fly senior ministers around instead of other training flights technically is free, as the flights were going to happen anyways.