Written question asked by James Gray (Conservative) on Tuesday, 2 February 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 4 February 2010. It was answered by Bill Rammell (Labour) on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

RAF Lyneham: Weather

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment has been made of the effect of meteorological differences between RAF Lyneham and RAF Brize Norton on their operational sustainability.

Answer: An assessment of weather factors at various RAF airfields during the period 2004-09 indicated that while neither station was closed for flying operations on a frequent or regular basis, RAF Lyneham was unavailable to aircraft, because of poor weather conditions, on marginally more occasions than RAF Brize Norton.Careful consideration of all relevant factors was made in coming to the decision to base the Air Transport and Air-to-Air Refuelling Fleet at RAF Brize Norton.The runway at RAF Lyneham is not long enough to facilitate all of the aircraft in the RAF's Air Transport and Air-to-Air Refuelling Fleets. RAF Brize Norton is assessed to be fully capable of operationally sustaining the Air Transport and Air-to-Air Refuelling Fleets.

Secondary information