Years ago, during Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, the Windsors tried to limit their use of private planes and helicopters. The optics of “private” air travel were terrible, and at some point, they made the commitment to try to fly commercial or take the train whenever possible. In the last years of QEII’s life, however, Prince William demanded his own helicopter for private and work use. That sort of set in motion a loosening of the standards about royal use of private planes and helicopters. Suddenly, all of the Windsors began choppering everywhere all the time, even for shorter journeys which could easily be made by car or train. Well, now that King Charles is in charge, the helicopter use has gotten completely out of control. They use their royal helicopters like regular people use taxis or Uber. From the Telegraph:

Two new royal helicopters that came into service earlier this year have already flown a total of 58,000 miles – the equivalent of travelling twice around the Earth. The AgustaWestland AW139s, used by senior members of the Royal family in the UK, racked up 420 hours of flying time between Feb 25 and the end of November.

The Princess Royal, who consistently carries out many public engagements all year, appears to have made the most use of the new aircraft, with her Gatcombe Park home in Gloucestershire the most frequently visited destination with 68 stops, according to flight data.

The Prince of Wales, who has made the environment a key plank of his work, has also proved an enthusiastic user of the new fleet, with 47 stops made in Windsor and a further five at Forest Lodge, the family home he moved into in October. The data suggests the Prince flew by helicopter to multiple jobs each month, including a referee training course in Walsall, a women’s rugby match in Exeter, a visit to the England women’s football team at their training base in Staffordshire, a Homewards job in Sheffield and an Earthshot job in Norwich. On Nov 25, one royal helicopter flew just under 500 miles, from its RAF Odiham base to Forest Lodge, before taking the Prince to his first stop in Wales, then onto Hawarden Airport, then Llandudno South before flying back to Forest Lodge and back to base.

When the Princess of Wales visited a wellbeing garden at Colchester Hospital on July 2, her helicopter made seven separate journeys totalling 390 miles: from its base at RAF Odiham to Windsor, then on to Merville Barracks in Colchester and from Merville Barracks to Anmer Hall, the Prince and Princess’s private residence in Norfolk. After what appears to have been a refuelling stop at RAF Marham, it flew back to Windsor two and a half hours later, and finally, on to its base at Odiham.

On Armistice Day, when the Princess laid a wreath at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the helicopter flew from RAF Odiham to Forest Lodge, then onto Staffordshire and back the way it had come.

The Prince and Princess together travelled by helicopter to various joint engagements, including one at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff, where they watched a Six Nations match, one in Southport, where they met families bereaved in the 2024 knife attack and a visit to the Scottish islands in April.

It was announced in June 2024 that the Royal household was to take delivery of two new leased helicopters to replace two 15-year-old Sikorsky aircraft and was committed to maximising their use. The choppers made 45 stops at Kensington Palace, 32 at Bagshot Park, home to the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and 14 at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. There were 14 stops in Lacock, Wiltshire, near the Queen’s private home, 11 at Sandringham, six at Dumfries House, home to the King’s Foundation, and five at Buckingham Palace.

[From The Telegraph]

This piece says that King Charles actually isn’t a big fan of helicopters and his staff used to look for any other option besides choppering hither and thither. But even Charles has let go of some of those qualms these days, making semi-regular use of the helicopters… but nowhere near the levels seen by Princess Anne and the Waleses. William and Kate have always been like this, they’ve always preferred to travel everywhere by helicopter, and they’re always using the helicopters to travel back and forth from their many forever homes too. QEII basically had to give them a dedicated-use helicopter just to get Will and Waity off their asses to do the bare minimum amount of work. As we can see from W&K’s work numbers for 2025, all of the helicopters in the world couldn’t convince them to keep up a schedule of five “work events” a week.

Something that always pisses me off is that William is never, ever called out on his spectacular eco-hypocrisy. These same outlets regularly scream about Prince Harry “preaching environmentalism” when he hops a ride on a friend’s private plane, but there’s none of that smoke for William, who literally preaches about environmentalism whilst flying his helicopters between his half-dozen forever homes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.