Two-day Royal visit to NI by King and Queen last year led to travel bill of over £30,000

Charles and Camilla carried out a series of engagements here following the coronation in May 2023, including visits to Armagh and Fermanagh. They also attended a garden party at Hillsborough Castle.

The trip to Belfast by plane cost £32,976, according to Royal accounts published today.

They also show the royal family made few foreign trips in 2023/24, perhaps reflecting a need to stay closer to home as both the King and the Princess of Wales spent time in hospital for cancer treatment.

There are 27 separate journeys by royal family members listed in the official report where travel costs were at least £17,000, only eight of which involved the King.

This includes the most expensive trip in the 12 months to March 2024, the five-day state visit by the King and Queen to Kenya in October and November 2023, which had travel costs totalling £166,557.

The King was also involved in the second and third most expensive trips on the list: a three-day state visit to France with the Queen in September 2023 (£117,942) and a solo two-day journey on the royal train in June 2023 to Pickering in North Yorkshire, to mark the centenary of the Flying Scotsman (£52,013).

Of the five other journeys mentioned in the report that involved the King, the cost is given for four of them, including the Northern Ireland visit.

The other three were:

• a day trip to Liverpool with the Queen, by plane, ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest in April 2023 (£23,596)
• a flight from Aberdeen to Farnborough in September 2023, returning to a royal residence (£22,248)
• a flight from Aberdeen to Northolt in October 2023, to attend a reception in London for leaders of African nations (£22,208)

The travel costs of the King’s eighth and final journey on the list, a three-day visit to Dubai in November and December 2023 to attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), is not disclosed, as it was funded by the Foreign Office.

The most expensive trip not involving the King was a six-day visit by the Princess Royal to Sri Lanka in January 2024, undertaken on behalf of the Foreign Office, with travel costs of £48,112.

Aside from the visits to Kenya, France, Dubai and Sri Lanka, the only other journeys outside the UK to feature on the list are:

• a day trip by the Prince of Wales to Kuwait in December 2023, to pay condolences after the death of Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah (£41,597)
• a two-day visit to Marseille in France by the Prince and Princess of Wales in October 2023, to watch the quarter-final of the Rugby World Cup (£30,975)
• a three-day trip by the Princess Royal to Johannesburg in South Africa in February 2024, to attend the state funeral of the former president of Namibia (funded by the Foreign Office)
• a five-day visit by the Prince of Wales to Singapore in November 2023, to attend the Earthshot Prize ceremony (funded by Earthshot)

Seven of the 27 royal trips listed in the report were carried out by the Princess Royal, four were undertaken by the King, and four involved the King and Queen together.

Three trips were carried out by the Prince of Wales, with a further three by the Prince and Princess of Wales together.

Two trips involved the Duke of Edinburgh, one the Duchess of Edinburgh, one the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh together and one the Duke of Kent.

The Queen appears by herself just once on the list, for the solo trip she made to the Isle of Man and Belfast in March 2024.