Fewer foreign Royal Family visits slash travel bill to £3.9 million

Royals slash their travel bill by £600,000 to £3.9 million as family members take fewer foreign visits at the request of the government

• The King and Queen’s Commonwealth visit to Rwanda cost taxpayers £186,500 

The bill for royal travel dropped by £600,000 last year, to £3.9 million, as family members undertook less foreign visits at the request of the government.

The single most expensive trip was the then-Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s official visit to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda last year which cost taxpayers £186,500.

This was closely followed by their first state visit as King and Queen to Germany in March which came in at £146,219.

Working members of the Royal Family undertook more than 2,700 engagements across the UK and overseas over the last year.

When the new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh travelled to the Caribbean on behalf of the late Queen for an official Platinum Jubilee tour the travel bill was £85,000.

The single most expensive trip was the then-Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s official visit to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda last year (pictured) which cost taxpayers £186,500

When the new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh travelled to the Caribbean on behalf of the late Queen for an official Platinum Jubilee tour (pictured) the travel bill was £85,000 

And the Prince and Princess of Wales’s trip to Boston for the Earthshot awards in December cost £48,000.

Some of the most eye-opening journeys, however, took place in the UK, with extensive use of helicopters and private planes by all senior royals.

Princess Anne spent £18,000 on a charter plane for a day of engagements in Scotland last November, plus almost £20,000 on a charter flight to Edinburgh to attend a Scotland v Wales rugby international in February from her Gloucestershire home.

The late Queen Elizabeth spent £40,902 travelling up to Balmoral and back for a short break in May last year.

And the new King and Queen spent £26,000 travelling down to London from Scotland to undertake their first official duties following the death of Queen Elizabeth in September, plus a further £43,000 travelling from London to Scotland and Northern Ireland where they met dignitaries and accepted condolences.

A further £27,000 was also spent from them to travel back up to Aberdeen.

In all, £1.02 million was also spent on 179 helicopter journeys costing less than £17,000 each, £389,000 on 40 charter flights, £117,000 on scheduled flights and £86,000 on scheduled rail journeys.

And the Prince and Princess of Wales’s trip to Boston (pictured) for the Earthshot awards in December cost £48,000 

The royal train – which was only used four times last year at an average cost of £30,656 – will keep on chugging for the time being after receiving a royal reprieve.

Palace staff had previously indicated that the maroon-liveried train, which can only be used by the monarch and the heir to the throne, would be reviewed after she died.

However, a senior palace official said yesterday that it was ‘too early’ in His Majesty’s reign to determine what the future usage of the train might be.

He argued that it has always been a ‘helpful asset’ in its travel portfolio because it was ‘effective and operationally efficient’, allowing senior royals to travel securely overnight to remote locations and carry out a full programme of engagements.

The official indicated that they would monitor the situation before deciding whether there should be a plan to decommission it.

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