And people aren't very happy about it...
The Royal Air Force plane is obviously highly exclusive, and given the fact that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are yet to travel on it, the chances of any of us ever getting a ride are slim.
It turns out there’s a strict priority list in place, something that surfaced only recently when it was claimed that the Prime Minister was snubbed a ride on the plane.
PM Theresa May flew to the Middle East earlier this month for a three-day state visit in a Boeing 757 due to the fact that the Royal Air Force plane was taken.
The jet was used instead by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, during their nine-day visit to Romania, Italy and Austria, organised by the Foreign Office.
The snubbing caused a bit of an uproar with the Prime Minister’s visit deemed highly important, involving crunch talks with King Abdullah of Jordan and King Salman of Saudi Arabia to discuss trade and security.
Despite the uproar, royal sources were quick to explain that the rumours that Prince Charles had ‘bumped’ the PM off the official plane were false and that the royal trip was booked months in advance when the plane was free.
A Downing Street spokesman backed this up, claiming ‘The royal visit was organised some time in advance of the PM's Middle East visit, in discussion with the government. Two visits at the same time means one aircraft will always have to be chartered.’
According to the Royal Air Force plane’s priority list, however, Prince Charles does have dibs to the jet over Theresa May, no matter the trips in question.
Unsurprisingly the Queen is at the top of the priority list, given that she’s supposedly not allowed to fly commercial for security reasons and well, she’s the Queen. Next on the list is Prince Charles, heir to the throne, followed by the Prime Minister in third place.
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An official explained: ‘Ever since we first thought up the idea of the Voyager, it was always designed for use by the Queen and the Prime Minister or anyone attending international events representing the Queen or PM. The Prince of Wales is using it right now as he is representing the Queen on this tour he is on.’
