The palace is ‘defending’ Prince Andrew’s $20K chartered flight to Northern Ireland

(L-R) Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds attend the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on November 09, 2019 in London, England.

On Friday, we covered the news about the Sovereign Grant’s budget shortfalls this year because of the pandemic. The Windsors are financed by a convoluted scheme – much of their annual upkeep comes from the taxpayers, but the Queen has gradually made the effort to make some profit, mostly through tours and tourism to Crown-owned properties (castles and the like) and the selling of “official” tchotchkes in various gift shops. Because of the pandemic, the tours are at a stand-still and so of course there will be budget shortfalls. The Queen is laying off staff, there will be belt-tightening and the gold piano will probably be stuffed in a closet.

Anyway, the “pandemic audit” (I have no idea what it really was, but let’s go with that) also revealed some of the notable expenditures from the past year or so, including the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s African tour last fall. The cost of the tour (paid by the Sovereign Grant) was £240,000 – a relative bargain, I think, for about two weeks of touring, dozens of appearances, money raised for charity and good causes, etc. But because people are stupid, the Sussexes are getting nitpicked about the cost of the tour now. The Daily Mail did a hilariously unhinged piece claiming the tour would have been considered worth the cost, and a complete success, if only Harry and Meghan hadn’t… announced their lawsuit against the Mail. Yes, I will trust the Mail to tell me that it’s wrong to sue the Mail!

But it gets even better! After the Windsor auditors clearly tried to push the “Sussex costs” publicly as a way of blaming Harry and Meghan for existing, their hatefulness boomeranged back onto them. People began asking why the f–k Prince Andrew needed to spend $20,000 for a private flight to Northern Ireland to go golfing.

Queen Elizabeth’s officials have been forced to defend the expensive travel costs of the monarch’s family as they flew around the world last year. The Queen’s son Prince Andrew, who has been mired in controversy over his ties with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, took a flight to Northern Ireland to attend a golf championship in July 2019. Andrew, 60, flew to Londonderry (and back via Belfast) to attend the event at one of his patronages at a cost of around $20,000, according to new figures from the royal accounts.

Andrew, who has stepped down from his royal duties, was patron of the Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland and a past captain of the Royal and Ancient golf club.

“The arrangements in relation to the program did not enable him to travel by scheduled flight. That was taken into consideration in determining whether a charter was appropriate,” a senior royal source says.

“When we arrange travel for an official engagement, we look at all the options, including scheduled flights and charter flights and we will look at the program either side of that and we will then determine what is the most appropriate form of travel. In this case, we concluded the use of charter was the only way to get him to complete the engagement to fit in with his other programs,” the source continued.

The report also reveals that Prince Charles took a charter flight to Muscat to pay his condolences following the death of the Sultan of Oman at the cost of $268,337. He was there for two days – and it was also not possible to coordinate his travel with other members of the U.K. government in attendance, an official explains.

The visit was made at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and arrangements made “at very short notice,” the senior source says. “There was no availability for commercial flights to suit the program timing and therefore we had to use a charter arrangement to ensure the Prince of Wales was able to fulfill that engagement within that very tight timeframe.”

The final royal tour of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to southern Africa last fall totaled $313,422. The figure includes the preliminary visit made by staffers to plan the tour. Officials say that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex fulfilled the tour’s aims of bringing “attention to a number of worthwhile causes and in particular raising awareness of the work and the legacy of the Halo Trust” across more than 20 engagements, the senior royal source adds.

[From People]

Hahaha. That’s what happens when you blame the Black duchess for every single thing. That sh-t boomerangs back. Obviously, Prince Andrew took a chartered private jet to Northern Ireland for a golf thing because… he could. Because he’s mummy’s favorite and mummy’s favorite always gets the BEST! I remember that golf trip too – it was just before Jeffrey Epstein’s suspicious death in prison. I remember the golf trip because those were some of the most recent photos we had of Andrew when we were talking about Epstein’s death. Surely there are plenty of commercial flights between London and Belfast? It’s crazy how much Air Miles Andy has spent on travel over the years.

Trooping the Colour Ceremony, London, UK - 8 Jun 2019

Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.

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21 Responses to “The palace is ‘defending’ Prince Andrew’s $20K chartered flight to Northern Ireland”

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  1. My3cents says:

    I guess the other option would be to pay him not to show up, which frankly most people would prefer.

  2. bluemoonhorse says:

    People need to wake up
    “The richest 10% of the global population, comprising about 630 million people, were responsible for about 52% of global emissions over the 25-year period, the study showed.”
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/21/worlds-richest-1-cause-double-co2-emissions-of-poorest-50-says-oxfam

    • OriginalLala says:

      yep! The rich use up so many resources it’s insane. And then they turn around and donate big money to charity and rehab their image (and get huge tax breaks). Everyone should be reading up on rich people and philanthropy, it’s not as benign as we think it is.

  3. Aa says:

    The real question might be knowing how who else went on Andrew’s golf charter with him? Taking buddies via private plane to a golf tournament is what these guys do to show off.

  4. MissMarierose says:

    Isn’t that NI patronage the one where they asked Andy not to come or made some statement to the effect that they would understand if he skipped out on it?

  5. Louise177 says:

    It’s funny how the British press went insane for the Sussex’s 2-3 week tour but don’t care other Royals had trips that cost 3X+ the daily rate of theirs.

  6. Merricat says:

    No one is stupid enough to buy what they’re selling here, even if they pretend that they do.

  7. Josie Bean says:

    I am an American/Brit living in the UK and paying tax to this government. I don’t pay a lot of attention to the Royal Family but in saying that I do not want my tax money being used to maintain the “Royal” life style, especially when it is for the siblings of the heir to the throne, children of the siblings, etc etc. They need to be very careful how they use taxpayer funds. The UK is in massive debt and there is heartbreaking homelessness and poverty which will get worse as a result of this pandemic.

  8. Shirley Gail says:

    Somewhere someone did a per day breakdown, and those numbers were telling because on a per day basis, the Sussex’s tour was the LEAST expensive. Also, they conveniently forget to mention they walked away with trade deals signed sealed and delivered

  9. Coco says:

    But did he sweat on the plane?

  10. BnLurkN4eva says:

    The idea that some in the BM would like to go after H/M over a sanction tour where they got so much done for relatively little expenditure considering the others, is supremely stupid. I truly hope the British public are not falling for the narrative some in the BM are pushing.

  11. Sarah says:

    So exactly what else did Andrew have going on that prevented him just working with whatever scheduled flights were available? A trip to Spain? More golf? Skiing?

  12. Vanessa says:

    This couldn’t have happen to a better person the lengths in which the press and the royal family will go to smeared Meghan and Harry is crazy . The Ridiculousness ways the press and the royal family will tried to blame Meghan and Harry is crazy they took a work trip for the crown did their part working for the queen and now people wanted to make a big deal about costs when Andrew who is a creep gets to jets to with all expensive trip to play golf .

  13. VIV says:

    We’ll pretend for a moment I believe they did try to find a commercial flight. For an event like this, there are probably a lot of people flying in, and if he needs RPO, assistants, whatever they probably need a few tickets. It might be hard. To that I say, you’re the patron. You know this event is coming, why are you waiting until the last minute to look for transport options? Are they waiting so long on purpose so they can justify it because “nothing is available, poor dear has no other options!” It wouldn’t surprise me. Their travel planning is as good as their PR.

  14. Chelsea says:

    Serious question: does Charles ever fly commercial? I know that for their big trips in 18 and 19 Harry and Meghan flew commercial for the long haul and i think W&K did as well but i feel like I have literally never heard of Charles flying commercial which was why it was so bizarre last summer when they were talking like no royal ever took private jets.

  15. Wow2 says:

    Like, at least he didn’t fly pedo airlines 🤷🏻‍♀️

  16. Charfromdarock says:

    One of the richest people in the world has to make up budget shortfalls on the backs of her employees? Can’t she sell off a bauble or two?

  17. Sjatwood72 says:

    It looks like a bird pooped on his arm!

  18. Maevo says:

    Disgusting. I would be livid if I was a British taxpayer!