Royals Share Behind-the-Scenes Look at Private Jet Used by King Charles

The British royals shared a rare insight into their luxury travel arrangements on Monday, as King Charles and Queen Camilla made the journey from London to Kenya to begin the first state visit of their reign to a Commonwealth nation.

The king and queen will tour Kenya from October 31 to November 3, attending a number of high profile events, including a glittering state banquet in Nairobi and a visit to a naval base in Mombasa.

To get to the East African country, Charles and Camilla used the British government's VIP aircraft commonly known as "RAF (Royal Air Force) Voyager." The plane is part of the national fleet, which can be used by members of the royal family, the prime minister and members of the government for state business.

The plane maintains an official function as an aerial refueling tanker and is able to dispense a fuel payload to another aircraft mid-air. It was configured to accommodate VIP passengers in 2016, and in 2020 underwent an exterior makeover, being painted in a white and gold livery with the Union Jack flag on the tail.

RAF Voyager has 58 business class style seats, in addition to 100 standard style seats and an average flight requires a crew of 13, including two pilots.

For events such as state visits, the king and queen are expected to be accompanied by members of their senior staff, as well as representatives from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the U.K. government, and a representative group of journalists, photographers and videographers from the royal rota press corps.

Owing to the high profile status of its passengers, images and videos from inside Voyager's VIP cabin have rarely been seen, but the public have been offered a rare glimpse of the interior by the royal family's official social media channels, which uploaded footage of Charles and Camilla en route to Kenya on Monday.

Captioned "✈️ The King and Queen flew to Kenya today ahead of their State Visit, which begins tomorrow," the seven-second clip shows the king and queen reading through official papers in the cabin during their flight.

Charles is seen reading from red bound folders emblazoned with his "CRIII" royal cypher in gold, stamped with "THE KING."

Both royals are sitting in large, business class-style seats, with the king working from a desk in a rare appearance wearing his glasses.

Members of the royal family have faced scrutiny over their travel arrangements in the past, with particular interest being paid to Charles as he has been a passionate voice for environmental causes over the course of his public life.

In the financial year 2022 to 2023, Charles took nine private jet flights, according to an appendix published with the annual sovereign grant report by Buckingham Palace, which details official travel of the royals exceeding £17,000 or more per journey.

Earlier this year, the monarch faced backlash for using a government plane known as the "Baby Voyager" when he and Camilla traveled to France for a state visit, instead of using the Eurostar train.

At the time, the former politician and author of And What Do You Do?, Norman Baker, told Newsweek that Charles' use of the plane for a visit that could have easily been done using less environmentally impactful means of travel undermined his authority as an eco-advocate.

"It's a bad look and it undermines his message, which is an important one," he said. "He needs to get his house in order."

Buckingham Palace stated that the travel arrangements for official tours were made on the advice of the government, but that the king had requested that wherever possible sustainable jet fuel be used.

Newsweek approached Buckingham Palace via email for comment.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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