From the government that handed a £13.8m contract to a ferry company with no ships, comes the latest idea in its preparation to beat no-deal traffic jams at Dover: fly fully-loaded trucks carrying food and medicines into Britain on freight aircraft.

The Daily Telegraph has seen new tendering documents for a £300 million no-deal contract that show the Department for Transport (DfT) wants firms to supply aircraft to airlift “freight vehicles” carrying vital supplies if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal.

The contract asks for companies who can ensure that goods that are “identified by the government as being critical to the preservation of human and animal welfare and/or national security” continue to come into the UK, says the newspaper.

The newspaper quotes that the government “is seeking to put in place a framework of operators of vessels, trains or aircraft that can be used for the provision of capacity for the transportation of freight vehicles (meaning wheeled goods vehicles including vans, trucks, lorries, HGVs and other equivalents) or wheeled trailers or semi-trailers … between the UK and the EEA and/or between Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.

Has no-one in Whitehall simply thought to unload the trucks and put the cargo on the aircraft?