Prince George celebrated his 12th birthday on 22nd July and whilst this was an exciting moment personally, it has potentially got his dad facing a difficult decision. This is the age when Prince William reportedly started travelling separately from King Charles and Prince Harry to help safe-guard the royal line of succession.
With Prince George next in line after him, the Prince of Wales might have to make a choice over whether to strictly uphold this rule. According to former BBC Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond, it’s likely that there’ll be "considerable" pressure to adhere to it which creates a bit of a dilemma.
"This is going to be a bit of a conundrum for William and will make long-haul flights very tricky," Jennie claimed to the Express. "There will be a considerable amount of pressure on them to adhere to the rule."
However, the expert added that she’s "not convinced" that Prince William will "stick to it rigidly" with Prince George. She reflected that part of the reason could be due to concerns over the environmental impact of taking two planes.
She added, "I suppose he could assuage his conscience by making sure they continue to all take scheduled flights, in which case their carbon footprint would remain the same."
Another reason could be that it’s a rather lonely way for a 12-year-old to travel long distances, completely apart from his family. Speaking previously on Hello’s A Right Royal Podcast, King Charles’s former pilot Graham Laurie alleged that this was the protocol they followed when Prince William reached this age.
As per The Mirror he explained, "Interestingly, we flew all four: the Prince [King Charles], the Princess [Princess Diana], Prince William and Prince Harry, up until Prince William was 12 years old. After that, he had to have a separate aircraft and we could only fly all four together when they were young with the written permission of Her Majesty."
After turning 12, he would apparently normally fly "in a 125 from Northolt" whilst Graham would "fly the 146 out with the other three on". If the Wales family were to follow this tradition, that would mean Prince George would be solo, whilst his younger siblings had each other and their parents for company.
Like Jennie, I’m not entirely convinced that Prince William and Kate will ensure they and Prince George stick "rigidly" to this rule. After all, they’ve taken a very hands-on approach to royal parenting, with a focus on giving George, Charlotte and Louis as normal an upbringing as possible.
Never flying with your dad again would certainly count as an out of the ordinary experience. It’s possible they’ll only stick to it for certain official occasions rather than treating it as a blanket rule to adhere to. The reason behind flying separately is to protect the heir to the throne and minimise the risk of losing heirs together if there was any kind of accident.
Writing in his 2024 book, Catherine, The Princess of Wales: A Biography of The Future Queen, Robert Jobson claimed that King Charles has supposedly raised "concerns" about his son and grandson travelling together because of this.
"'One recent source of disagreement is William's stubborn refusal to take his father's advice on safeguarding the succession," Jobson alleged, as per the Express. "Earlier this year, the King had raised concerns with his son about the wisdom of William using his helicopter to fly his entire family around the country.
