§ Mr. KeetchTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was(a) the estimated purchase price, (b) the overall contract price to lease the aircraft for five years, (c) the number of original target flying hours in the lease contract, (d) the actual target flying hours used to date, (e) the estimated number of target flying hours for the full five years and (f) the estimated additional cost for exceeding the target flying hours for the C-17s of 99 Squadron; and if he will make a statement. [54646]
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 8 May 2002]: The overall cost of the seven-year lease and all supporting arrangements for the four C-17 aircraft is in the order of £750 million. The detailed lease costs and the underlying aircraft price are commercially sensitive and I am withholding this information under Exemption 13 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government information.
The lease contract does not specify either a target number or a limit on flying hours. However, funding for support of the aircraft was modelled on a total of 3,000 flying hours per full year for the fleet of four aircraft. In the first part year of operations the C-17 fleet exceeded the modelled hours by about 60 per cent. The additional support costs arising from this level of flying were in the order of £4 million. There are no additional lease costs associated with increased levels of flying activity. Future support costs will vary in line with the operational demands made of the aircraft over the lease period.