Storm over THIRD jaunt on private jet
As royal couple stay in £120k-a-week billionaire’s playground...
Harry and Meghan were embroiled in a fresh hypocrisy row after it emerged they took their third gasguzzling private jet trip in little more than a week.
The royals were pictured arriving in Nice in the south of France on Wednesday after flying in on a £15million aircraft.
They travelled with baby archie in a Cessna Citation Sovereign which features a refreshment bar and is described as the ‘pinnacle of luxury’ by private jet firm and owner NetJets.
Experts said it would cost more than £20,000 to hire for a one-way flight, Harry’s fourth on a private jet in a month, which took off from Farnborough airport in Hampshire.
There are more than 20 scheduled flights from London airports to Nice each Wednesday from as little as £100 for a return.
Onlookers said Harry appeared to be trying to avoid attention, staring at the ground as he and his family were whisked from the tarmac in a blacked-out Mercedes to a secluded villa.
The flight came just two days after the ecowarrior couple flew home by private jet from Ibiza after a six-night break celebrating Meghan’s 38th birthday. There, they stayed in a ‘billionaires’ playground’ of luxury mansions costing up to £120,000 a week, with villas including a chef, waiter and personal driver.
The gated complex of Vista alegre, which boasts several sea-view villas, sits on a picturesque hillside overlooking Porroig bay.
One of the most exclusive villas is believed to be Sa Calma, and is said to cost £120,000 a week. Previous guests include DJ David Guetta and Sir Paul McCartney.
The three-storey property features an Olympic-size pool and comes with a house manager, chef and waitress and a yoga teacher and personal trainer can also be arranged.
They left for Ibiza on august 6 – again by private jet – making a total of three gas-guzzling flights in just eight days.
The choice of transport has sparked a new hypocrisy row over the green credentials of the couple who have previously claimed they will have a maximum of two children to avoid damaging the environment.
But their trip to the French riviera is estimated to have created a carbon footprint of more than three tons – producing seven times more carbon emissions per person than a
‘Doesn’t fit with public image’
commercial flight. Their earlier trip to Ibiza is believed to have had a footprint of more than four tons. The carbon footprint – the amount of carbon dioxide released as a direct result of an activity – of an average person in the UK is 13 tons a year.
The string of private jet flights comes after Harry, 34, attended Google’s ‘green summit’ in Sicily at the end of July where he gave lectures about the environment.
It was claimed Google paid for his private flights and a helicopter to a luxury resort where he is understood to have stayed on a super-yacht. Labour MP Teresa Pearce said the royal couple should be ‘leading by example’. ‘I find this quite surprising because it doesn’t fit with their public image and the way they’re so concerned about the planet,’ she said.
Ex-royal protection officer Ken Wharfe, who guarded Princess Diana, told the Sun: ‘Frankly, it’s hypocritical. Harry can’t be preaching about the catastrophic effects of climate change while jetting around the world on a private plane.’
Buckingham Palace last night declined to comment on the flights and stay in Ibiza which it described as a ‘private matter’.