Royal helicopter bill tops £2m as palace emissions rise
The King and Queen are taking delivery of two new helicopters, as the cost of helicopter travel for the members of the Royal Family topped £2 million last year.
The new choppers will be used to their “maximum” capacity, royal sources disclosed, following the hefty investment in them.
The annual Sovereign Grant report, which was delayed by the election campaign, reveals an increase in costs of helicopter travel of £200,000 from the £1.8 million the previous year.
It leaves King Charles open to criticism that his travel choices contrast with his well-known views on climate change and carbon emissions.
Total greenhouse gas emissions for the Royal Household were up four per cent which the palace attributes to “an increase in travel and electricity use”.
Royal sources insist decisions to use the helicopters are taken sparingly and they enable the royals to attend multiple engagements that would not be possible by train or car.
The average charge for each short helicopter journey – of which there were 170 - is £6,450.
The cost of chartering planes for the Royal Family also rose last year, to £1.1 million.
And the Royal Train – which was used just once to take the King from Windsor to North Yorkshire and back to London - cost £52,000.
Buckingham Palace says the two state Bentleys used by the King and Queen are to be converted to run on bio fuels and they will eventually be replaced, along with the rest of the fleet, by electric models.
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Two new AW-139 helicopters are being purchased following a tender process which was won by the Anglo-Italian manufacturer Agusta Westland.
They can operate with higher levels of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and a permanent tank will be installed at their base at RAF Odiham in Hampshire.
Following an investment of some “magnitude” in the new helicopters, a palace spokesperson said I made sense to “sweat the asset” and maximise their use.
The King’s helicopter flight is currently comprised of two Sikorsky S-76C choppers.
Royal sources say they are 15 years old and are already two years beyond their service period.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said that helicopters “enable members of the Royal Family to be seen throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom”.
They added that they are focusing on increasing the use of SAF in all air travel.
The Sovereign Grant report says the “new helicopters can operate with the maximum industry standard of 50% SAF”.
Shorter helicopter journeys which cost under £17,000 are not listed individually but the report shows there were 170 of them at an annual cost of £1.1 million.
The single most expensive trip of the year was the King and Queen’s State Visit to Kenya last November on board the RAF Voyager aircraft which they often use for royal tours.
The travel costs for Kenya came to £167,000 followed by the State Visit to France in September which cost £118,000.
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