Red Arrows to fly over London for King's official birthday on Saturday - full timings and route revealed
11 June 2024, 09:26 | Updated: 11 June 2024, 09:30
The Red Arrows are to set to go on a flypast over London for the King's official birthday this weekend.
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Charles will celebrate his official birthday with a Trooping the Colour ceremony near Buckingham Palace.
As part of the festivities, the RAF's official aerobatic team will fly over the palace, leaving their famous red, white and blue vapour trails behind in the sky.
But their route to and from Buckingham Palace will also see the Red Arrows cross over much of the capital, East Anglia and the East Midlands.
The website Military Airshows has set out the route that the Red Arrows will take over London and the surrounding area on Saturday.
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Red Arrows' route
The flight will begin at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire at around 12.30.
The planes will head south and east, heading over the sea and skirting southwards off the coast of East Anglia over roughly the next 20 minutes.
Then they will head inland again, passing close to the towns of Ipswich and Colchester a few minutes before 1pm as they make their way south-west towards London through Essex.
A few minutes after 1pm they will be in the outskirts of east London, heading over Romford and then Stratford.
The Red Arrows will fly over Hackney, Shoreditch and the City as they head towards Westminster.
They are expected to pass over Buckingham Palace at 1.06pm before continuing to head west.
The planes are scheduled to pass over west London through Belgravia, Kensington, Hammersmith and Brentford.
They will reach Heathrow Airport by 1.09pm, before passing over Windsor Castle a minute later, as they exit London to the west.
At Windsor they will turn sharply to the north again, going over Buckinghamshire and into the East Midlands, before landing back at RAF Waddington at 1.34pm.
The entire flight is expected to last just over an hour.
What is the King's Official Birthday?
Charles' actual birthday is on November 14, but he celebrates an official birthday on the third Saturday in June.
In 2023, his official birthday was on June 17.
Over the past several hundreds years, British Kings and Queens have usually celebrated an official birthday as well as their real birthday.
Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday was held on the second Saturday in June.
The monarch's official birthday is marked in London by Trooping the Colour, a ceremonial military event that takes place on Horseguards Parade, not far from Buckingham Palace.
Some other countries where Charles is also the monarch will also celebrate his birthday with official ceremonies this Saturday.
