Air Force One gets all the attention, but the United States is far from the only G7 country flying its head of state around in style. A recent ranking of the group's presidential aircraft shows a fascinating mix of converted airliners, tankers with fancy interiors, and some of the biggest government planes on the planet. Here's how the seven stack up.

At the bottom of the size chart sits Italy, whose Air Force 31st Wing out of Ciampino near Rome operates three Airbus VC-319As (VIP versions of the ACJ319), three Dassault VC-900s and a pair of VC-50s. Italy previously leased an A340-500 but found it too pricey for how rarely it flew. Gulfstream G650ER-based VC-650As are now arriving, with five planned to replace the Dassault fleet entirely.

The United Kingdom's best-known aircraft is 'Vespina', an RAF Voyager KC3 converted in 2016 from an A330 tanker and repainted in 2020 to better promote Britain. It carries 58 business-class and 100 economy seats, conference facilities, missile-detection kit and secure satellite comms — but oddly, it's rarely used for VIP trips these days. The government prefers a leased Titan Airways A321LR for most long-haul journeys because it's cheaper to run.

France flies the president on an A330-200 nicknamed under the callsign Cotam Unité. The jet, F-RARF, was only the 12th A330-200 ever built, delivered new to Swissair in 1998 before joining the French Air Force in 2010. Unlike the British Voyager, it's a pure VIP jet with no refueling hardware, backed up by a small squadron of Dassault Falcons.

Canada is mid-transition. Its RCAF flies four Bombardier Challengers plus the ageing CC-150 Polaris fleet, based on the A310-300. The new CC-330 Husky, an A330 MRTT variant, entered service in 2023, and nine will eventually serve — eight as tankers, one dedicated mainly to flying the prime minister.

Germany recently jumped to the front of the queue technologically with three Airbus A350-900s delivered between 2021 and 2024, each named after a former German politician. Lufthansa Technik fitted custom interiors with meeting spaces, and DIRCM countermeasure systems arrive in 2026. They replaced the A340-300s that had served since 2011.

Topping the ranking is Japan, which operates two Boeing 777-300ERs — among the largest government aircraft anywhere — carrying up to 140 passengers. Since 2019 they've replaced the two 747-400s that had flown the emperor and prime minister since the early 1990s. Uniquely, the two jets always fly together on official missions: one carries the VIP, the other acts as a backup with maintenance crew aboard. They can also be used for emergency evacuations of Japanese citizens or troop movements.

For travellers, this is a fun bit of plane-spotting trivia: many of these aircraft are visibly active at major hubs, and several were once ordinary airliners you might have flown on yourself — France's presidential A330 previously carried Swissair and Air Caraïbes passengers before its 2010 government conversion. Aviation buffs hanging around Rome Ciampino, Ramstein or Tokyo's Haneda may well catch one of these heads-of-state jets up close.