Buckingham Palace speaks out on Royal Family’s extensive helicopter travel

Buckingham Palace has defended the Royal Family’s extensive use of helicopters following a report detailing the scale of royal air travel over a nine-month period.

According to the recent report, the members of the Royal Family flew the equivalent of twice around the world in helicopters during a nine-month period.

The flight records revealed that the Royal Family’s two AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters logged around 58,000 miles between late February and the end of November.

The aircraft were airborne for a total of 420 hours, with at least one helicopter flying on more than half of the days during that period.

Now, a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace has spoken out on the matter, saying helicopters remain an essential part of royal travel due to their ability to reach remote areas of the UK that are not easily accessible by other forms of transport.

“Helicopters are a key component of the royal travel plan due to their unique capability to access remote regions of the UK, which are not otherwise readily served by other modes of transport. They also allow members of the Royal family to undertake multiple engagements in a given day,” the spokesperson stated.

The helicopters, which entered service earlier this year, replaced two Sikorsky aircraft that had been in use for 15 years.

Princess Anne was the most frequent user, with dozens of flights linked to her home at Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire.

Price Wiliam also made extensive use of the helicopters, with 47 recorded stops at Windsor and five at Forest Lodge, where he relocated to in October.