Julie Bishop must Go!, page-35

Look up the concept of 'sunk costs'... The airforce has pilots sitting around twiddling thumbs basically. They get paid a salary whether they fly a plane or not.

The capital cost of owning the plane is also sunk. So are hangar costs etc.

Like I said the only cost is the fuel. And even that may be sunk because the military fly around all the time - 'just because'