The aircraft will be handed over to AirTanker by Airbus, before being placed on the military aircraft register (MAR) as ZZ341. It’s first task will see it present at this year’s Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford as part of the static ground display.
ZZ341 will be available to provide additional capacity in support of MoD tasking. Director of Aircraft Leasing said, “It’s great to see the arrival of this second ‘surge fleet’ aircraft. It will allow AirTanker to offer the MoD extra capacity on top of its core fleet, meaning we can provide an increased level of service and resilience to our core customer.”
The FSTA contract sees a fleet of nine Airbus A330-200 multi role tanker transport (MRTT) aircraft delivered to the RAF, which have so far amassed over 26,000 hours of flight time. Eight Voyagers are operated by the RAF, with a single A330-200 operated on the Civil Aircraft Register and flown by AirTanker crews.
A further five aircraft will form a ‘surge fleet’ capability and will be available for use by AirTanker either for commercial or military leasing when not required by the RAF.
Since the start of air transport operations in April 2012, these core fleet aircraft have together clocked more than 11,000 hours, flying more than 2,950 sectors, carrying more than 205,800 passengers and 12,500 tonnes plus of freight.”
Voyager 02, which flies on the Civilian Aircraft Register, has flown more than 4,200 hours and 680 sectors, carrying over 78,200 passengers and more than 4,900 tonnes of freight, since the start of AirTanker’s civilian airline operation at the beginning of 2013.