The British Royal family constantly finds novel ways to light a fire in the public’s imagination. From Diana quipping in 1995, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” to photos of Prince Harry playing strip billiards in Vegas hitting the tabloids in 2012, there have been plenty of scandals over the years to shock, horrify and pique interest (and that’s before we even get into the last couple of laps around the sun).
Suffice to say: the Royals are scrutinised for a whole lot more than their fashion choices. What has so far gone without much analysis, however, is their flight patterns. Specifically: the number of air miles the family flies.
Enter: new research conducted by Stratos Jet Charters Inc. This analysis shows which members of the royal family have racked up the most miles in the last five years as well as how many miles the family’s 13 members have accrued combined.
The investigation took into account only the family’s business mileage. But even without including pleasure travel, the household garners some serious numbers in their fulfilling of official duties, trips and tours, and charity endeavours.
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Stratos Jet Charters went through the Royal Family’s financial reports from the past five years (from 2015 to 2020), focusing on the official international trips conducted by each member of the ménage, dissecting the number of trips made, the cost of these trips and also the number of air miles travelled for each one.
From this they created the Royal Travel Index (seen at the bottom of this article).
In total, when the top 13 members of the Royal family’s international travel plans in the last five years were put together, they had flown enough miles “to get them to the moon and back, and then complete three loops of the earth’s equator,” Stratos Jet Charters claims.
“In total, between 2015 and 2020, the Royal family have flown 545,161 miles over 92 trips with a cost of £6.5 million / $9 million.”
Though the bulk of these trips are on private jets, by DMARGE’s calculations, even if they had all been done with Qantas, this number of miles, astonishingly enough, would only be enough to net the royals 50 odd toasters.
Even the cheaper stainless steel toasters in the Qantas shop cost approximately 10,260 points each. The British Royal family has flown 545,161 miles in the given time period. Assuming one mile equates to about 1 frequent flyer point (which is usually does) then, depending on the exact value of points at any given moment in time, the royals could buy between 50 and 60 toasters for their prolific flying efforts.
Other than this notable statistic (one which, we might add, puts even the world’s most prolific frequent flyers to shame), further findings included:
- The Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) is the “most travelled” Royal, with 25 trips taking him over 120,213 miles and amounting to a cost over £2.4 million / $3.3 million
- Charles’ longest trip took place in 2017 and took him to Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and India – totalling up to 18,000 miles (the equivalent to making five trips between London and New York)
- Charles’ most expensive trip cost over £416,000 / $573,000 , which took place in 2019 during an extensive tour around the Caribbean
- The majority of times a Royal flies, they fly private; 61% of the official trips taken internationally in the last five years were via private jet charters – none more so than Prince Charles and Camilla (18 and 12 trips respectively)
- Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex had the highest average cost per trip at £163,323 / $224,292
- Prince Andrew, the Duke of York had the lowest average cost per trip at £25,060 / $34,511
- Sophie, the Countess of Wessex had the highest average mileage per trip of 11,735
- The Queen and Prince Philip had the lowest average mileage of 1,876, and also made the least trips – both of them only made two international trips in the last five years
- Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester was the only Royal not to travel via private jet in the last five years
- The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are most likely to travel private, while Prince Charles made the most private jet flights
Joel Thomas, President of Stratos Jet Charters, said of the findings: “It has been fascinating to… find out just how many air miles one of the world’s most famous families have racked up in the last five years. However, it is hardly surprising that the Royals choose to use private jets for their transport, they are extremely useful for utilizing time, and as we know, the royal visits are often very busy with a lot of appointments. Also, private jet hire means that the family can travel safely and securely to their destinations, with anonymity which wouldn’t be possible using regular airlines.”
“At Stratos Jets the past 12 months have definitely been strange for many of our customers. It’s important to remember that by using private jets in the last year as opposed to alternative options, we can be assured that the Royals are recognizing the threat of COVID-19 and taking the necessary precautions when carrying out their noble duties.”
The full Royal Travel Index (via Stratos Jet Charters) can be seen below:
1. Prince of Wales – Prince Charles
120,213 air miles. 25 trips.
£2,468,501/ $3,395,855. 88% private jet flights.
2. Duke of York – Prince Andrew
77,668 air miles. 9 trips.
£225,544/ $310,275. 33% private jet flights.
3. Duchess of Cornwall – Camilla
69,425 air miles. 13 trips.
£1,703,039 / $2,342,828. 92% private jet flights.
4. Duke of Sussex – Prince Harry
51,362 air miles. 7 trips.
£442,900/ $609,286. 43% private jet flights.
5. Duke of Cambridge – Prince William
48,496 air miles. 10 trips.
£477,054/ $656,271. 70% private jet flights.
6. Princess Royal – Princess Anne
42,331 air miles. Eight trips.
£287,778 / $395,889. 75% private jet flights.
7. Countess of Wessex – Sophie
35,204 air miles. Three trips.
£73,291/ $100,824. 33% private jet flights.
8. Earl of Wessex – Prince Edward
32,248 air miles. Three trips.
£81,167/$111,659. 33% private jet flights.
9. Duchess of Cambridge – Catherine
24,322 air miles. Six trips.
£288,196/ $396,464. 83% private jet flights.
10. Duke of Gloucester – Prince Richard
19,990 air miles. Two trips.
£47,725/ $65,654. 0% private jet flights.
11. Duchess of Sussex – Meghan
16,398 air miles. Three trips.
£326,645/ $449,357. 50% private jet flights.
12. The Queen – Queen Elizabeth II
3,752 air miles. Two trips.
£83,575/ $114,972. 100% private jet flights.
13. Duke of Edinburgh – Prince Philip
3,752 air miles. Two trips.
£83,575/ $114,972. 100% private jet flights.