Royal Family reveals true cost of trips abroad with over £2.6m spent on travel

In that schedule, which includes both total travel spending and a detailed run-down of trips costing £17,000 or more, data shows the family and its staff splashed a minimum of £2.63million on a range of engagements in the UK and abroad.

The King's two state visits to Kenya and France topped the list, coming in at over £100,000 each - while a trip to Pickering in North Yorkshire aboard the Royal Train cost taxpayers some £52,000.

Other notable outlays on travel included a visit by Princess Anne to Sri Lanka in January this year, at £48,000, and Prince William's trip to Kuwait in December 2023 following the death of the country's Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Despite the King's cancer diagnosis, Charles still made the most high-value trips compared to other royals - but Princess Anne's wide-ranging series of engagements at home and abroad will only serve to bolster her reputation as one of the hardest-working members of the family.

But it wasn't just the King, Princess Royal and Prince of Wales spending thousands; other names which appeared in the high-value travel schedule included Prince Edward, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, and the Duke of Kent.

Also included was a "staff reconnaissance" trip to Singapore, Australia, Samoa and New Zealand ahead of the King's royal tour halfway across the world for a Commonwealth summit in October - which totalled some £31,000.

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While the majority of the reported spending is funded by the Sovereign Grant, an unspecified amount was also funded by the UK's Foreign Office, as well as Prince William's climate foundation the Earthshot Prize.

The government and prize-funded trips included journeys to New York, Singapore, the UAE and Namibia - the former three all for climate change conferences, and the latter to the state funeral of the country's late President Hage Geingob.

The majority of the expensive trips were completed aboard charter flights - with just a handful on helicopters, commercial aircraft, or, of course, the Royal Train.

A number of the King's foreign engagements, including both his state visits, were undertaken on the British government's own private plane, RAF Voyager - which can be used by royals or ministers for official business.

While the family had to declare its £17,000+ outlays, the report also outlined a further £1.7million on hundreds of lower-cost trips on helicopters, private jets, and commercial rail or air travel.

The Sovereign Grant report said that the King and Princess Kate's cancer diagnoses had meant travel requirements for the last year had decreased compared to the one before - with 2,327 official engagements listed versus a prior 2,710.

The report also outlined that the Royal Family had ordered two new helicopters to be introduced in the coming year to replace its existing pair of 15-year-old rotorcraft.

And it was keen to highlight the family's "pro-active" work to increase sustainability on its foreign travel via the use of "Sustainable Aviation Fuel" and a transition to an all-electric motor fleet.

Though the report noted that emissions will "continue to fluctuate each year depending on requests from Government for tours involving long haul charter flights".