With just a few days left before Princess Leonor completes this military phase, the Royal Family has chosen to bid her farewell with a thoughtful and meaningful gesture. The new images from her time at the San Javier General Air Academy feature an additional key figure: King Felipe, who joins his daughter for the most special training flight of her entire program.
There are photos, a video lasting over four minutes, and, most importantly, there are gestures.
Princess Leonor and King Felipe’s Military Flight
What’s interesting about the footage is that it blends two dimensions that are usually kept separate: the institutional and the purely family-related. Leonor first greets her father as expected, saluting him as the king and the Army’s highest-ranking commander, following all protocol.
But then comes the hug, that reunion of two people who haven’t seen each other for a long time, even though they’re already used to the distance. And that’s the beauty of it: watching the heiress explain the technical details of the flight to her father, who listens attentively, almost like a student in his own home, because San Javier has been her domain for the past ten months. In that context, Felipe is a special guest.
This isn’t the first time; something similar happened over two years ago at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza. But this time, the focus shifts. The aim is not so much to showcase daily life together, but rather to highlight the almost symbolic parallel between the two military careers—father and daughter, each at the helm of their own vessel, with an instructor behind them.
The uniform is identical, as is the equipment, and only one detail sets them apart: the Ortiz surname that Leonor adds to the Borbón on her patch. It’s a small gesture, but it says a lot about who she is beyond her title.
The footage was recorded days ago, but the Royal Household chose to hold it back until it no longer competed with other matters, such as the King’s international agenda or the recent visit of Pope Leo XIV. And the date chosen isn’t random either; it coincides with June 19, the 12th anniversary of Felipe VI’s accession to the throne.
Seen this way, the message seems quite clear: the present and future of the Crown, sharing the cockpit. These are likely the final images we’ll see of Leonor in San Javier before her graduation, so let’s appreciate them as the conclusion of a chapter that already marked another historic milestone: her first parachute jump in early June, an achievement neither her father nor her grandfather accomplished.
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