Prince William’s family flew into Scotland yesterday – on board a £73-a-head budget airline service.
Yesterday’s Flybe trip from Norwich to Aberdeen was in stark contrast to brother Harry’s recent gas-guzzling private jet journeys with Meghan.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge boarded the £73-a-head Flybe flight with their children George, six, Charlotte, four, and
one-year-old Louis yesterday.
It comes just days after Harry and Meghan were branded hypocrites for preaching about saving the planet while using private jets to fly to Nice and Ibiza within 11 days.
Harry had told how the couple planned to have two children to help the environment and recently said “every choice, every footprint, every action makes a difference”.
But a private jet flight creates a carbon footprint seven times bigger per person than with a commercial airline.
Royal author Phil Dampier said: “The contrast between William, Kate and family travelling on a cheap budget flight to Scotland and Harry and Meghan using private jets couldn’t be starker.
“A cynic might say the Cambridges have done it deliberately, bearing in mind the recent stories about the two brothers and their wives not getting on.
“Harry and Meghan made a point of saying there were only have two children to save the planet knowing William and Kate have had three.
“Could this be William and Kate hitting back?”
Phil – who wrote Royally Suited: Harry and Meghan In Their Own Words – added: “At the very least they know they would have been criticised if they had taken a private jet.”
William and Kate, both 37, took the 8.45am Flybe flight from Norwich International Airport, understood to be for a visit to Balmoral to stay with Queen and Prince Philip.
They were pictured carrying bags at Aberdeen Airport and heading to waiting cars.
The cost for their flight is estimated to be about £365. In contrast, a private Cessna jet such as the one Harry, 34, and his 38-year-old wife took is about £20,000 to hire.
Pal Sir Elton John said he paid for the trip to Nice. The singer insisted it was a carbon-neutral flight as he made an “appropriate contribution” to a carbon footprint fund.
But Greenpeace’s Doug Parr said the move is “not the answer that’s meaningful in terms of the climate challenge we face”.
A passenger on the same Flybe jet to Aberdeen as the royals said: “The family were sat right at the front. No one knew they were on the flight. Later, I realised Kate’s mum was a few rows in front of me.”
Another added: “I couldn’t believe my eyes. You don’t expect to see royalty on a budget airliner.”
It is not the first time Wills and Kate have used Flybe. In 2011, they flew from Edinburgh to Manchester for cousin Zara Tindall’s wedding.
Kensington Palace would not comment on the trip to Aberdeen.
