A GOVERNMENT plan to acquire a VIP fleet of aircraft for ministers and members of the royal family - dubbed “Blair Force One” - is struggling to get off the ground.

A high-level Whitehall study recommended the fleet should be operational at the end of this year. However, senior sources in the airline and business-jet industry say delays in implementing the project, combined with a dearth of suitable aircraft, mean the planes may not take wing for at least two years.

Britain’s lack of a well-equipped transport service, along the lines of America’s Air Force One presidential fleet, has provoked ridicule, such as the occasion last year when Tony Blair arrived at a European council meeting in an aircraft sporting Austrian livery. But arrangements for VIP flights have long been politically sensitive and royal and ministerial use of planes at taxpayers’ expense regularly generates headlines.

VIP flights are at present the preserve of a special RAF unit, 32 (the Royal) Squadron, which is based at RAF Northolt near London. It has at its disposal two British Aerospace 146s, and six smaller business jets, as well as three helicopters.

While the fleet serves well for short trips, the aircraft are not large enough to carry a full press corps on a major ministerial trip, and do not have sufficient range to get to the Middle East or across the Atlantic without making stops.

For these long-haul trips, the government can use RAF VC10s, but has recently chosen instead to charter aircraft - a policy that is not without risks. In February last year Blair missed a key Commons vote when the ageing Douglas DC-8 on which he was travelling struck engine problems on take-off from Johannesburg.

The age of the Royal Squadron aircraft, and their other duties for the Ministry of Defence, are also a problem. According to a statement to parliament last year by Hilary Armstrong, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, the squadron’s overall availability for VIP transport “has been in the order of 60%-70%, and owing to technical problems or operational priorities, around 10% of VIP bookings have either been declined or subsequently cancelled”.

In an attempt to find a solution, the government asked Sir Peter Gershon, the former GEC executive who gained prominence as the author of a report on public-sector cost-cutting, to study the issue.

Last June he issued several recommendations. The government should establish a new VIP air service based on two dedicated aircraft, he said. One would be big enough “to allow proper work and rest en route”, and both would have a range of at least 4,000 miles.

Industry executives consulted by Gershon interpreted this to mean one aircraft the size of a civilian airliner — a Boeing Business Jet (based on the ubiquitous Boeing 737) or the Airbus Corporate Jet (based on the A320 family of aircraft) — with the second being a more conventional business jet.

Gershon, who is now chairman of the electronics group Premier Farnell, also said the service should be run by the private sector, rather than by the RAF. Industry experts said a range of companies, including specialist service groups such as Serco, business-aviation specialists such as BBA Aviation, and aircraft-chartering experts such as Air Partner would be interested in bidding for the contract.

The government welcomed the report, and passed it to the Department for Transport to implement. “It is anticipated that the new service will commence between the end of 2007 and early 2008,” Armstrong told parliament.

Since then there has been silence. Companies that had planned to bid for the contract have told The Sunday Times they have heard nothing from the DfT. “We have had difficulty even finding out who is looking after it at the department,” said one services-company executive, who asked not to be named.

The DfT, however, said it was working on proposals and expected the go-ahead from ministers in the summer. Even if that happens, the service is unlikely to be up and running by the end of the year. Charter-industry experts point out that finding the right type of aircraft — in particular the larger-capacity aircraft specified by Gershon — is extremely difficult.

Boeing and Airbus have full order books for the next five years for the civilian airliners on which their VIP aircraft are based.

Last week the American investment group Petters Worldwide announced it had ordered an A318 Elite from Airbus, but it did not expect delivery for between 16 and 18 months, a spokeswoman said. It is possible, however, that the prestige of being associated with the UK government’s official transport service might persuade either manufacturer to be accommodating on delivery dates.

But there is another potential hurdle. Gershon said the aircraft should be leased rather than purchased outright, a canny move to avoid accusations of imprudent use of taxpayers’ money, and also a policy that avoids a tricky long-term choice between Boeing and Airbus. But the market for long-term leases of planes of this type is, if anything, tighter than that for brand-new aircraft.

“The companies and individuals who buy these aircraft want to use them, not lease them to someone else. You might be able to get one for a week at a time, but not for a year or two years,” said one industry source. Another experienced charter broker said he could recall only one such deal in recent times, when a Russian oligarch managed to persuade the owner ofa Boeing VIP aircraft to rent it to him for a year. “He must have paid way over the odds for that,” the broker said.

While Britain’s leaders dither, other nations are pressing ahead into the jet age. Last month the Kremlin took delivery of a brand new Airbus Corporate Jet, as did the Czech government. so if inventories are expanding, why don’t the news networks emphasise there are 224m barrels of gasoline in reserve in America today, and 125m barrels of oil in inventory?

On the US economy, I still think America doesn’t like to think of itself as a service economy, yet. The loss of manufacturing jobs attracts more concern than any gain in service jobs.