30 March,2009 11:20 AM IST | | Agencies
Prince William has reportedly instructed his staff to seat him in economy class whenever possible.
u00a0
"He is determined to get his travelling costs down," said a senior courtier. "Obviously there will be occasions when his security team will advise him against this, but he has told us that his default position from now on will be to turn right when he enters an aircraft. He is acutely aware that this is no time for ostentatious expenditure."
When the 26-year-old prince flew off to Courchevel for a skiing holiday with his girlfriend Kate Middleton and her family earlier this month, it went unreported that the second in line to the throne sat among the economy passengers on the British Airways Heathrow to Geneva flight.
u00a0
"There was a security presence, but it was all very low-key and William sat with Kate, her sister Pippa and a group of friends among the other passengers," the courtier adds.
"I think a lot of people on the flight didn't even realise who they were. William actually hates having a fuss made of him when he travels and said that he found it a lot more relaxing than having the cabin crew all nervously hovering around him at the front of the aircraft."
Prince William's decision to switch from business and first to economy u2013 a policy that has also been adoped by a great many businesses lately u2013 contrasts with Gordon Brown's increasingly grandiose travel arrangements.
