Scobie: The 2019 Flybe stunt was orchestrated by Prince William’s private secretary

In the summer of 2019, the British media had settled on a weeks-long feeding frenzy, the subject of which was “Prince Harry takes too many private jets.” To be fair, the Sussexes traveled a lot that summer and they seemed particularly interested in getting the hell out of the UK whenever possible. But the whole storyline was clearly helped along (if not orchestrated by) Kensington Palace. Which is when Prince William and Kate decided to arrange a little stunt. As they traveled up to Scotland for their annual stop at Balmoral, Kensington Palace arranged for the family to get pap’d as they deboarded the Flybe plane. Flybe is a budget airline, so it was clearly a “look at us, performatively flying commercial!” Just days later, we learned that Flybe was contacted ahead of time by the palace, and they were so eager to participate in the charade that they flew in special planes across the UK, just to ensure that their Flybe logo appeared in the prearranged paparazzi set-up. The stunt blew up in William’s face. In Endgame, Omid Scobie reveals that William’s then-private secretary Simon Case was the architect of the whole thing.

But Simon Case had another idea. Seizing this moment, which he perceived as a highly embarrassing one for Harry, he took another step in his PR long game for his boss. Just days later, William, Kate, and their three children were spotted boarding a commercial budget airline flight from Norwich to Aberdeen for a trip to Balmoral. Although there were no photographers on the tarmac, a conveniently captured phone video popped up in the press showing William, Kate, and their children casually making their way off the plane at the airport. Palace-friendly papers were quick to report that their seats on the Flybe aircraft cost only £73 per adult, adding that the cheap travel proved William and Kate were entirely comfortable taking their children on a commercial flight.

Champing at the bit to compare and contrast, the Daily Mail (who, like some other papers, was given a heads-up about the trip by a Kensington Palace aide) reminded readers about the recent row over Harry and Meghan’s trips…

A premediated publicity setup; this was all Case’s handiwork. A stroke of backhanded artifice, it was a successful stunt—at first, anyway…Of course, all is not always as it seems and, unknown to the public at the time, William and Kate’s casual trip wasn’t quite as environmentally friendly or spendthrift as it first appeared. After a Kensington Palace aide discussed their plans (and the fact that photographs would likely end up in the papers) with a Flybe executive, officials at the company made some moves of their own. As it turns out, there wasn’t a plane emblazoned with corporate branding at William and Kate’s outgoing airport—the daily flight from Norwich to Aberdeen is operated by Loganair for Eastern Airways, a franchise of Flybe. So as to not miss this golden advertising opportunity, the Flybe team decided to fly over an empty, properly branded aircraft from their headquarters in Humberside, a coastal town 123 miles north of Norwich. The plane also returned empty to Humberside after the Cambridges and other passengers disembarked in Aberdeen. All told, the two empty flights released upward of four and a half tons of carbon emissions.

Kensington Palace claimed they knew nothing about Flybe’s switcheroo, but the whole farce turned it into a fail for all involved regardless. Their perfect family trip was exposed for what it really was: a showy publicity stunt. Even in this early stage of his Kensington Palace post, some officials in the other households were less than impressed with Case’s stratagems. A Buckingham Palace aide (who was no fan of the private secretary) laughed to me at the time: “Nice try, but in the end, they looked like even bigger hypocrites than the couple they were trying to show up.” Added another communications staffer at that time, “I feel like it’s a new era with [Case]. I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad one.”

[From Omid Scobie’s Endgame]

“Nice try, but in the end, they looked like even bigger hypocrites than the couple they were trying to show up.” Yep. That one story also shows a larger pattern of awareness between the royal courts – William and his people were so focused on their idiotic stunt to slam the Sussexes, meanwhile Charles’s office watched from a distance and thought the whole thing was so childish. It’s also interesting that this incident is getting blamed on Case. I mean, I believe he deserves the blame and I believe he orchestrated the whole Flybe mess, but it wouldn’t have worked unless William was so stupid, gullible and desperate to compete with Harry.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Backgrid.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

40 Responses to “Scobie: The 2019 Flybe stunt was orchestrated by Prince William’s private secretary”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Scooby Gang says:

    Is nothing ever Peg’s fault?!? Like he wasn’t in on this from the get-go. Puh-lease. It’s always… he had no idea, it was someone else’s actions, he was unaware, he was too busy being a statesman to notice, etc. He’s the boss of KP. He knew.

    • Megan says:

      It does make me wonder how they usually get to Balmoral. Drive, train, or private jet? I’m guessing private jet.

      • Cairidh says:

        Is always a plane to aberdeen but I can’t remember which type of flight.
        Oh and the Queen used to arrive via Brittania after her cruise round the western isles then to the castle of May on the east coast.

    • ML says:

      Revisiting the wastefulness, environmentally pollution, and hypocrisy of this stunt is glorious. Mr Earthsh!t gets to have this connected to his name all over again. Brilliant!

      And Scooby Gang, you’re completely correct: Simon Case can nefariously plot all sorts of stupid moves for PW, but at the end of the day the responsibility for executing the dumbs moves as to using a bit more restraint is all down to Peggington himself. He was more than happy to comply.

  2. Beverley says:

    William is so incredibly lame. How is he consistently so stupid and gullible? He really isn’t fit to be king. His repeated displays of appalling lack of judgement should be a concern for the British people. He truly is incapable of leadership, as long as he wallows in his cesspool of envy and jealous hatred of Harry.

    William desperately needs therapy.

  3. Oh come on this stunt had to be okayed by the secretaries boss and that was Peg. Hire yes men and look like the fool you are.

  4. Campbell says:

    Will’s obsession is real and obvious. He probably thought he won that years ago, then Harry and Meghan happened. With a wedding. And Harry looks great with his beard. And Invictus. And a gorgeous house in Montecito. And he dresses so well, moves confidently. How can this be happening?! So of course Will would buy into some budget airline stunt that blew up in his face.

  5. Tessa says:

    Just like his father blaming others. They did not look casual in that photo. They rushed off the plane with the children
    It reminded me of the von trapp family fleeing austria.

  6. Lau says:

    This is so embarrassing ahah. I love that for them !

  7. NickG says:

    This is the stunt that made me realize that omg we were right, Pegasus and Rictus were really trying to sabotage H & M.

  8. JaneS says:

    IMO, William and team, and Charles and his team are ALL doing a lousy job, in damn near every way they can. One PR mistake after another.

    They should all go silent, no responses, no leaking, no photos.

    Show up looking very Stepford family walking to church for Xmas, and otherwise stay down.

  9. Eurydice says:

    Lol, wasn’t there another W&K travel scheme with a trip to Scotland? Like they wanted people to think they’d taken the train the whole way, but they flew (drove?) to the border and got on the train there – sorry to be so vague about this.

  10. Jais says:

    The flybe stunt was, for me, when I realized the then Cambridges were purposely hurting Harry and Meghan. That was when I actually started reading celebitchy. I’d watched the wedding but wasn’t really a royal watcher. Then I probably just kept seeing People headlines that echoed the tabloids. Meghan made Kate cry. Duchess difficult etc. And I hated it. Figured it was the tabloids just trying to set the couples against each other. Which of course they were. But this was the moment when I realized the Cambridges were active participants. And jealous AF of Meghan and Harry if they were going to set this whole thing up to make themselves look good and the Sussexes bad. Of course, more savvy royal watchers here already knew. But that stunt was the moment I knew the Cambridges were assholes and started paying attention.

    • Nic919 says:

      Same here. I think we suspected that they were doing this on purpose for a while, but it was never as blatant as the flybe stunt.

      Prior to that we were noticing that kate was wearing repeats at a rate she had never done before when Meghan was pregnant for the first time and forced to wear new clothing.

      This was a new level of confirmation though. I think it also transcended beyond people who watched the royals.

      • Becks1 says:

        Ha, I said the same thing below! In his desperate attempt to hurt his brother William really just hurt himself.

    • Harper says:

      Same as far as Flybe being a personal turning point for me. My indifference to Wills and Kate turned into disgust and has stayed that way ever since.

    • s808 says:

      That was when a LOT of people finally realized. A complete own goal by KP.

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      I think I started posting after the Oprah interview. April 2021. Believe one of my first posts was in Oya’s Molly Yeh’s popcorn salad post. A very funny thread-the Thanksgiving food posts are mild in comparison. Anyhoo, when H&M dating became public, it was like finally the BRF are interesting, this is awesome. Then all the slag on Meghan was too much. She had a great big life before them. Meghan was not tabloid fodder before the BRF. The BM headlines and dehumanization of Meghan was so malicious towards someone (an American WOC), was/is sickening.

      @Nic919, you’ve always been consistent in your opinions. Yep, looked back, and Celebitchy covered it back then. Simon Case is the only new thing. Loling @ the idea of Mr. Incandescent being bossed about by his private secretary. Though, it’s actually not unbelievable.
      https://www.celebitchy.com/632357/the_cambridges_budget-flight_stunt_involved_two_empty_jets_being_flown_across_the_uk/

  11. Amy Bee says:

    William’s an idiot.

  12. Jaded says:

    So two empty planes were rerouted to pick up the Family Phony, all for a stunt to show up the Sussexes. You can bet those planes were ONLY for them and their “staff”, no regular plebes like us allowed on board. I’m glad this has been verified by Scobie — I’m about a quarter of the way into his book and although he hasn’t done any mind-blowing reveals, his stamp of approval is all over the Wales’s rumoured falsehoods and stunts.

  13. Becks1 says:

    I think this was a turning point for a lot of people, who maybe had given W&K the benefit of the doubt when it came to the leaks and H&M. but this made it crystal clear that they were the leaders of the smear campaign.

    I know for me, that was the moment where I said “wow, so William just really is an asshole.” Like i wasnt a fan before, didn’t like him all that much, but that was the moment when it just clicked that he just 100% sucks.

    Reading about it again is just making me angry. his brother was being destroyed in the press and he thought “nows a great time to pile on!” Especially knowing how close Meghan had been to suicide? this was the summer when people like Ellen and Elton John were begging the press to leave H&M alone and William just decides to add to the problem.

    • SueBarbri33 says:

      It was this and the “I already have a nephew” statement when Archie was born that showed me William was the problem. I think I chalked a lot of things up to the prèss and the palace machine, but this made it clear as day that it had been William all along. He’s just so obviously terrible with no redeeming qualities.

      • Kittenmom says:

        The nephew statement, and the pix of Kkkate ignoring Meghan and baby Archie at polo 😿 Both made me so sad, and pissed off, at how they were being treated.

      • windyriver says:

        @Kittenmom – yes, the polo match. Not just Kate, but also George and Charlotte ignored Meghan and baby Archie, that’s what I found especially sad, particularly Charlotte, who was barely four. I would’ve expected her to have some normal interest, like toddler Louis did. I knew it meant first, the Wales kids probably had seen very little of Meghan, so had a minimal relationship, and second, that the older two had either heard things, or else been instructed to stay away from Meghan and Archie. And despite his interest, Kate made sure Louis had nothing to do with them either.

      • Christine says:

        The polo match was the day I realized Kitty is just evil. She had to actively work to keep Louis from Archie. A baby. She was plotting against a fucking baby, in full view of the rota cameras.

      • Jais says:

        In fairness to Charlotte, her mom likely told her not to speak to them. Which is horrifying to think of a mother telling her daughter not to interact with her mixed race cousin. Like that’s next-level.

      • Beverley says:

        This is precisely why I frown on all the comments about hoping the Wales and Sussex children will be friends someday. From the day Archie was born, Kkkhate and Will have been poisoning their minds against their Uncle Harry and his family. It’s difficult to fathom that the Wales haven’t transferred some of their bigotry to their children, and any Black person of any age has recollections of white youngsters being racist and horrid to them.

        I, for one, hope Prince Archie and Princess Lili never have to be exposed to their vicious relatives. Life is too short to put up with that noise from one’s own family members, “royal” or not.

  14. Tina says:

    This was the day I realized how truly awful William and Kate are. What a stupid self own this was.

  15. Mary Pester says:

    Mmm famous double acts in our time, Tom and gerry, little and large, Eric and Ernie, Wallace and Gromit, THE PRESS AND THE PALACE. Honestly you couldn’t make this sht up, only people as vain, and desperate for GOOD publicity, could take part in this farce! Hey Billy, how’s earthsht looking now!?

  16. Jay says:

    As a quick reminder: Even though this ridiculous and reactive stunt was quickly revealed, Simon Case was not demoted. He was actually promoted back into a top position in the civil service, where to this day he is hanging on, trying to evade testifying about how different COVID measures were decided on and the infamous lockdown parties. Just to give you a sense of what kind of genius we are dealing with, he started out helping to conduct the investigations before his own part in the scandals were revealed.
    Truly, the palace was hiring the very best people!

    But as odious as he is, Case certainly didn’t act alone or without the express permission of his principal, William. That’s the kind of loyalty and willingness to take blame that probably endeared him to the Boris Johnson government in the first place.

    Anybody want to take bets on whether Case will make his way back to the palace now that he has thoroughly disgraced himself in the civil service?

    • May says:

      @jay, as soon as the top CEO position was announced for Kensington Palace, I felt that this would be a convenient way to bring Simon Case back to KP.
      The Palace would want him for his devious shenanigans and the civil service would be only too happy to get rid of him, if he’s not thrown out sooner. I fully anticipate Case heading over to KP as soon as he is off his “medical leave.”. Mind you, this theory was roundly blasted by fellow commenters here but I think it would be a nice, soft landing for Case, given his current troubles.

  17. Harper says:

    I’m glad Omid detailed the Flybe stunt but I thought his coverage was too dry and stilted. This was a prank pulled by William and Kate and involving their children and it was done solely to humiliate Harry and Meghan. Remember this was only two months after having given birth to Archie! Yes, Scobie called Will and Kate hypocrites in the end, but he could have drawn a much bigger picture of how mean this was.

    Scobie needed to remind the reader about William’s obsession with not having his family photographed in their private life. Scobie needed a comparison of all the times William freaked out and had photos taken down to illustrate that, with the Flybe stunt, William was not beyond using his children’s images when he wanted to score points against his brother. William is a hypocrite in more ways than one.

  18. Teagirl says:

    Has the UK geography been altered? There’s no town called Humberside, it’s a region around the Humber!

  19. TheOriginalMia says:

    I remember that time on another royal gossip site. Folks swore on their kids that WanK were so frugal and H&M were just wasting money by flying private. It didn’t matter about the pressure the Sussexes had been under, that they were traveling with their small baby. None of that mattered. Even with the history of the Cambridges flying private for many years with their kids to the Maldives or where they were going, the Sussexes were in the wrong. Always. Ugh…

    I will say I thought it was Carole taking the pictures. To hear the tabs were involved was surprising. Awful. To purposedly harm your brother for no reason other than jealousy and meanness, is pathological. Diana would be so ashamed of William.

  20. Nanea says:

    Good for Omid to remind the (tax-paying) public of this cute little stunt that so gloriously backfired.

    Simon Case is still true to form, even back in his old job as Cabinet Secretary.

    He’s on indefinite sick leave, and much too sick to even testify from home for the ongoing parliamentary inquiry to help clear up all the things that went wrong during COVID at #10 re parties and ignoring the advice of their panel of scientists. And that despite the Tory government planning on requiring sick people on benefits to work from home in the not too distant future.

    Meanwhile the Tory climate hypocrites Rishy Sunak and David Cameron each took a private plane to Dubai for the United Nations Climate Change Conference aka COP 28.

    As did the noted environmentalist Charles.

    So that’s 3 planes, and, as far as I know, the government only has one official jet, the RAF Airbus that BoJo had painted in the UK flag’s colors, despite the RAF needing it in military grey when it’s not used by the government.

    Meaning they have to lease two jets, waste money, and pollute the skies some more than is absolutely necessary.

    Some royalist on Xwitter defended this, saying it’s for security reasons.

    Right. Because no democracy anywhere lets the head of state travel together with some of their ministers…

    • kirk says:

      Three private flights to COP 28, including one for the supposedly nonpolitical royal Chuck? Wow. Thanks for sharing.

  21. tamsin says:

    I don’t recall Meghan ever speaking about the environment. Harry seemed mostly concerned with conservation. If I recall this flap erupted when Elton John offered them a long week-end at his home in Nice and sent his plane. I think the Sussexes had gone to Spain as well. Harry was labelled a climate hypocrite. I think he said at the time that for security reasons he took the offer of a private flight. Meghan was still recovering and Archie was a newborn. The press was absolutely vicious. I think that William and Kate borrow the Duke of Westminseter’s private jet to make the annual Balmoral trip as well as for holidays. I think Edward and Sophie also borrow private jets for holidays. Charles has never flown anything but private his entire life- Mr. Save the Environment. I still steam at the vileness and meaness and unjustness of it all. William and Kate have no compassion or empathy or even decency- at least they haven’t demonstrated any so far.

    • Nic919 says:

      Knowing what we do now, Harry was trying to get Meghan out of an environment that was making her suicidal, and being a new mother, where post partum can be intense, the trips to Nice and Spain were not holidays so much as an escape from being in the royal prison.

      That William and Kate used their kids to increase the press attacks on someone who they know was suicidal at one point is simply vicious. Karma is waiting for them both.