Actually Air Canada operates 13 jets of which 8 are owned. The average age of this fleet is 15.9 years. Thus there may be some opportunities depending on acceptable age requirements for conversion.
John,
You might find this interesting:
This is the list of KC-30A (A330-200) aircraft in RAAF service, you’ll notice that the list shows the five ‘new’ built airframes, and at the bottom the two additional ex Qantas aircraft, VH-EBI and -EBH, that were converted.
What’s also interesting is the Airbus construction numbers, the two ex Qantas aircraft are younger than the first built KC-30A and a little bit older than the four other new build aircraft.
Here’s another list you’ll find interesting too (you don’t need to log in, just click on and scroll down):
m.planespotters.net
The Plane Spotters list shows the current status of the Qantas fleet, including A330-200 aircraft, you’ll notice that most of the -200 fleet are ‘parked’ at the moment (15 of 18 -200 series are parked).
You might want to send the list to your Def Min (Ha Ha!) and let him know that maybe they could buy a ‘job lot’ of ex Qantas aircraft, all built at approx the same time, same basic configuration.
Cheers,
Edit:
Just to be clear all A330MRTT/KC-30A aircraft are based on the -200 airframe, not the -300 airframe, if Canada was in the hunt for ‘pre loved’ aircraft, then -200 series would have to be the ones chosen, otherwise I’d imagine Airbus would have to test and recertify for pre loved -300 airframes adding to cost.
en.wikipedia.org
