Scobie: The 2019 Flybe stunt was orchestrated by Prince William’s private secretary

In the summer of 2019, the British media had settled on a weeks-long feeding frenzy, the subject of which was “Prince Harry takes too many private jets.” To be fair, the Sussexes traveled a lot that summer and they seemed particularly interested in getting the hell out of the UK whenever possible. But the whole storyline was clearly helped along (if not orchestrated by) Kensington Palace. Which is when Prince William and Kate decided to arrange a little stunt. As they traveled up to Scotland for their annual stop at Balmoral, Kensington Palace arranged for the family to get pap’d as they deboarded the Flybe plane. Flybe is a budget airline, so it was clearly a “look at us, performatively flying commercial!” Just days later, we learned that Flybe was contacted ahead of time by the palace, and they were so eager to participate in the charade that they flew in special planes across the UK, just to ensure that their Flybe logo appeared in the prearranged paparazzi set-up. The stunt blew up in William’s face. In Endgame, Omid Scobie reveals that William’s then-private secretary Simon Case was the architect of the whole thing.

But Simon Case had another idea. Seizing this moment, which he perceived as a highly embarrassing one for Harry, he took another step in his PR long game for his boss. Just days later, William, Kate, and their three children were spotted boarding a commercial budget airline flight from Norwich to Aberdeen for a trip to Balmoral. Although there were no photographers on the tarmac, a conveniently captured phone video popped up in the press showing William, Kate, and their children casually making their way off the plane at the airport. Palace-friendly papers were quick to report that their seats on the Flybe aircraft cost only £73 per adult, adding that the cheap travel proved William and Kate were entirely comfortable taking their children on a commercial flight.

Champing at the bit to compare and contrast, the Daily Mail (who, like some other papers, was given a heads-up about the trip by a Kensington Palace aide) reminded readers about the recent row over Harry and Meghan’s trips…

A premediated publicity setup; this was all Case’s handiwork. A stroke of backhanded artifice, it was a successful stunt—at first, anyway…Of course, all is not always as it seems and, unknown to the public at the time, William and Kate’s casual trip wasn’t quite as environmentally friendly or spendthrift as it first appeared. After a Kensington Palace aide discussed their plans (and the fact that photographs would likely end up in the papers) with a Flybe executive, officials at the company made some moves of their own. As it turns out, there wasn’t a plane emblazoned with corporate branding at William and Kate’s outgoing airport—the daily flight from Norwich to Aberdeen is operated by Loganair for Eastern Airways, a franchise of Flybe. So as to not miss this golden advertising opportunity, the Flybe team decided to fly over an empty, properly branded aircraft from their headquarters in Humberside, a coastal town 123 miles north of Norwich. The plane also returned empty to Humberside after the Cambridges and other passengers disembarked in Aberdeen. All told, the two empty flights released upward of four and a half tons of carbon emissions.

Kensington Palace claimed they knew nothing about Flybe’s switcheroo, but the whole farce turned it into a fail for all involved regardless. Their perfect family trip was exposed for what it really was: a showy publicity stunt. Even in this early stage of his Kensington Palace post, some officials in the other households were less than impressed with Case’s stratagems. A Buckingham Palace aide (who was no fan of the private secretary) laughed to me at the time: “Nice try, but in the end, they looked like even bigger hypocrites than the couple they were trying to show up.” Added another communications staffer at that time, “I feel like it’s a new era with [Case]. I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad one.”

[From Omid Scobie’s Endgame]

“Nice try, but in the end, they looked like even bigger hypocrites than the couple they were trying to show up.” Yep. That one story also shows a larger pattern of awareness between the royal courts – William and his people were so focused on their idiotic stunt to slam the Sussexes, meanwhile Charles’s office watched from a distance and thought the whole thing was so childish. It’s also interesting that this incident is getting blamed on Case. I mean, I believe he deserves the blame and I believe he orchestrated the whole Flybe mess, but it wouldn’t have worked unless William was so stupid, gullible and desperate to compete with Harry.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Backgrid.