When is a private jet not really private? If you are a couple and your names happen to be Harry and Meghan, there is a good chance that stepping out onto the tarmac probably feels a bit as if Oprah Winfrey had walked into the middle of Times Square in Manhattan and started shouting, “Look at me.”
A Google query “Meghan Markle private jet” brings back 6.3 results. “Prince Harry private jet” offers 9.9 million responses. Together, the former Royals get 6.5 million mentions. By contrast, “Oprah private jet” turns out just 3.1 results. The queen of the private jet lifestyle, Kim Kardashian, generates only 2.4 million items.
It’s not known if the use of private jets will be part of Winfrey’s interview. Criticism about the couple’s private flights largely stems from the fact that both have been ardent advocates of cutting carbon emissions.
With the Sussexes set to share their story tonight on CBS in a two-hour interview with Winfrey, we take a quick look at the couple’s most notable and newsworthy private jet flights.
As Harry and Meghan open up with Oprah Winfrey tonight on CBS, we take a look at the very public … [+]
Since the couple doesn’t own a jet that we know of, their access is via friends, hosts, companies they are doing business and chartering.
The most recent report on Harry and Meghan’s private flying dates from last May. Actor, director and producer Tyler Perry, worth $1 billion according to Forbes, reportedly loaned his Embraer Lineage 1000E to fly the couple from Vancouver to Los Angeles, where they were relocating.
According to Business Jet Traveler, the new price is $53 million. The airplane is also used by airlines in its E190 version. JetBlue and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines fit 100 seats. Embraer Executive Jets allows buyers of its private version to choose the way they want the cabin configured. You can have a bedroom, shower, separate meeting rooms and living areas, and typically seating is limited to 19 passengers.
Tyler Perry reportedly loaned his Embraer Lineage 1000E to Harry and Meghan when they relocated from … [+]
However, it was 2019 when the travel habits of Harry and Meghan came into the spotlight in a negative way. A trip to take baby Archie to visit Elton John aboard a Cessna Citation Sovereign drew reams of criticism. Their host responded that he had purchased carbon offset credits and the use of a private jet was defended for security reasons. Unlike Perry’s jet, the Sovereign is more typical, a large midsize private jet with a cabin height of 5 feet, 8 inches, and usually seating eight passengers.
The Daily Mail noted that in the weeks before the couple had flown from the U.K. to Ibiza and Prince Harry had flown by private jet to a Google Summit in Sicily.
Going back to 2018, private jet coverage of the couple was more celebrity-driven. A Dassault Falcon 7X they were flying to Amsterdam was struck by lightning in flight, although it landed without incident.
A Dassault Falcon 7X similar to the one struck by lightning during Harry and Meghan’s trip to … [+]
During a Royal trip Down Under that year, Harry and Meghan were pictured deplaning from an Australian government Bombardier Challenger 604.
Before Harry met Meghan, the youngest son of the late Princess Diana was spotted in 2014 flying from Miami to Memphis on another Challenger. The “newly single” scion was seeking to soften his breakup with Cressida Bonas, according to the Daily Mail.
While their private flying has become a media lightning rod of late, loaner aircraft isn’t new. A 2014 trip with Bonas to Kazakhstan drew coverage when the pair reportedly flew on “a helicopter belonging to a controversial ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
It wasn’t always this way. In 2009, the press lauded Harry for flying business class on a trip to the United States. Coverage contrasted his flights to a previous trip by his father, Prince Charles, and stepmother Camilla Parker Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall. That trip reportedly cost around $450,000 in charter bills. It also noted his uncle, Prince Andrew, had run up a tab of over $150,000 in private jets during a 2008 trip across the pond.
One former resident of Washington D.C. who recently relocated to Palm Beach, Florida, and is quite happy to be pictured with private jets, surely will be pleased to know that “Donald Trump private jet” has yet to be canceled. It generated by far the most Google results – 16.1 million. That’s considerably ahead of billionaire rivals like Bill Gates (7.5 million), Jeff Bezos (2.4 million) and Mark Zuckerberg 1 million).
If you want a taste of the celebrity life, but don’t have friends or sponsors who can give you a loaner, you too can fly in the same private jets as celebrities and other VIPs. Virtually all can be rented on the charter market, and many are also available for fractional ownership or jet cards. And, in case you’re wondering, Oprah owns a long-range Gulfstream G650.