AirTanker's partners: Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Britain's record bribery fines

The Guardian reported that Airbus was fined £3 billion "after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an 'endemic' basis to land contracts in 20 countries." The Airbus case concerned contracts in those 20 countries, not the UK's AirTanker contract.

The Guardian said the settlement "surpasses the previous UK record for a corporate fine for bribery – the £671m paid by Rolls-Royce, Britain's leading multinational manufacturer, in 2017." No evidence of bribery has been exposed in relation to the UK government's private finance initiative (PFI) with AirTanker, and the sources reviewed do not link either case to that contract.

#What is their link to AirTanker?

AirTanker is a private company partly owned by Airbus. Its consortium shareholders have included Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Thales and Babcock. The Voyager fleet's engines are Rolls-Royce Trent 700s, and the aircraft are Airbus A330 MRTT conversions.

Rolls-Royce sold its stake in AirTanker in 2021. Sky News reported that the sale was in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air travel.

Rolls-Royce and Airbus also played a practical role after the Brize Norton protest. AirTanker's chief executive, Mark Alexander, said the suppliers "pulled out all the stops" to get the damaged planes flying again (The High Ground podcast). The repair timeline covers his account and the flight data.

#What are the wider value-for-money questions?

The Public Accounts Committee's 2010 verdict on the FSTA contract is the main public record on the deal's value for money. The committee said: "Throughout the project the MOD has lacked the robust financial and performance data needed to make sensible decisions. In this respect, FSTA is illustrative of a wider problem for the Department which fundamentally affects its ability to deliver value for money."

Its criticism was of the process. It faulted the failure "to conduct a robust evaluation of alternatives", and said it "took the Department over nine years to negotiate a PFI contract". The AirTanker and Voyager deal explainer gives the contract terms.

The committee placed part of the responsibility on government rather than on suppliers. It said the decision to use PFI was taken against "a background of prevailing support for this procurement route", and that the failure to evaluate alternatives "should have been challenged by the Treasury".

According to the annotated fleet listing, the contract runs for 27 years and is worth roughly £10bn or more.

The Voyagers are owned by AirTanker, not the MoD. A King's College London report argues that this affects what the RAF can change on them. The boom problem and US dependence article covers that argument.