The Queen and the Prince of Wales suspended their use of the Royal Flight and switched to commercial charter companies for all official tours after the Government ordered the RAF to increase its charges more than eightfold, it emerged yesterday.
Buckingham Palace revealed details of the decision to stop using 32 (The Royal) Squadron as it announced that Royal Household spending fell by 5.3 per cent last year. Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, warned that the Queen would struggle to make further cuts without reducing activities.
The latest royal accounts, published yesterday, show that:
• Prince Andrew spent £120,000 chartering a private jet to visit the ruling family in Kazakhstan who controversially bought his house;
• Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall spent £29,786 hiring a private jet to fly to Balmoral and back for a private four-day break not involving public engagements;
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• Refurbishment of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle has been scrapped as spending on the maintenance of royal residences was cut by 25 per cent.
The accounts show that spending on travel increased from £3.9 million to £6 million last year, with the Queen’s state visit to the United Arab Emirates and Oman costing £356,253, while Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall’s tour of India cost £298,089.
The Prince of Wales also paid £12,990 to charter a jet from Balmoral to Clarence House on June 8. Four days later he paid £15,301 to return to Aberdeen and on June 16 a further £14,485 for a flight back to London without making any official engagements.
The Royal Train was used for 14 journeys, five fewer than the previous year, at an average cost of £69 per mile.
Charges for the Royal Squadron increased sharply in April last year, use of a 26-seat BAe 146 jet going up from £1,846 to £13,806 per flying hour. The Royal Household resumed use of the squadron, based at RAF Northolt in West London, only when the Government backtracked in December and reduced the charges to £5,000 an hour.
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A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The Royal Household has used the RAF for 70 years but with the increase in charges it was not economic to continue to use the service. If a charter operator is coming in extraordinarily cheaper than the RAF then we will use that. The Ministry of Defence has reduced the charges and the preference is to use 32 Squadron if an aircraft is available.”
The published list of travel does not include 269 charter flights and other scheduled trips costing less than £10,000 each, with a total cost of £1.4 million.
Prince Andrew visited Kazakhstan in April last year as part of an 11-day tour of Italy and Central Asia. During the trip he met President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose billionaire son-in-law Timur Kulibayev bought the Prince’s marital home, Sunningdale Park in Berkshire, for £15 million, reportedly £3 million more than the guide price.
Total spending by the Royal Household fell to £32.1 million as the Queen deferred maintenance of property, froze staff wages and increased the amount of money generated from the royal assets. The accounts do not cover Prince William’s wedding.
Last week Prince Charles reported that his personal spending had increased 50 per cent to £2.5 million.
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The latest accounts were the first to be prepared on the basis of the Sovereign Grant, which from 2013-14 will replace the Civil List and the grant-in-aid for royal travel, palace maintenance and communications.
Under the new arrangement, the Queen will get 15 per cent of Crown Estate profits, an estimated £34 million in the first year.