‘Super friendly’: Passengers in awe as Harry and Meghan touch down in Melbourne

Clueless passengers on a Qantas flight that landed in Melbourne on Tuesday morning had no idea they were sitting near Harry and Meghan, who have touched down for their first visit to Australia in nearly eight years.

The couple will visit Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra over the next four days on the unofficial visit.

The pair, who flew on a commercial Qantas flight in business class seats, were seen landing in Melbourne Airport at 6am.

Passengers shocked by Harry and Meghan’s commercial flight

Disembarking the aircraft, other passengers were dumbfounded when they saw the former royal couple slip past other passengers flanked by heavy security.

One passenger told Today they pair “basically slipped off pretty quickly off the aircraft”.

One passenger managed to sneak a chat with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex while on the flight, launching into a discussion “about their children” and got a rundown of the couple’s intense schedule.

Another said the couple were “super friendly around the toilet areas”.

Another passenger told 7News they had “no idea” they were seated directly in front of the controversial couple as they landed in the Victorian capital.

Ex-royal couple’s whirlwind trip Down Under

Despite their packed agenda and travelling under their titles the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, this is not an official royal tour.

They are no longer working members of the Royal Family.

Unlike royal tours, where the couple can interact with members of the public, they are focusing their attention on services promoting mental health, community resilience and Australian veterans.

The Duke and Duchess will kick off the trip with visit to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, followed by a meeting with families of veterans and artists at the Australian National Veterans’ Art Museum in the afternoon.

Visiting the Royal Children’s Hospital has become a tradition for members of the Royal Family.

Prince Harry’s late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, officially opened the hospital in Parkville in 1963, and returned to the facility in 2011 to open another wing of the hospital.

Prince Harry’s parents, the then Prince and Princess of Wales, also attended the Royal Children’s Hospital in 1985, where they met with sick and injured kids.

Prince Harry will visit the country’s capital on Wednesday, where he’ll pay a visit to the Australian War Memorial, meet Indigenous veterans, attend an Invictus Games reception and the Last Post Ceremony.

On Thursday, the pair will attend several events, including a guided cultural walk through significant Aboriginal sites in the Melbourne CBD and mental health engagements at Swinburne University.

In the afternoon, the pair will take part in the InterEdge Summit, where Harry will deliver a keynote speech.

They will then jet off to Sydney, where they’ll sail around Sydney Harbour alongside the Australian Invictus team before watching the NSW Waratahs face against the Moana Pasidikas at Allianz Stadium.

The Duke of Sussex is the founder and patron of the Invictus Games – a multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick veterans founded in 2014.

Meghan is also the headline attraction at a luxury women’s wellness event in Sydney on the weekend.

Tickets for the exclusive wellness event start at $2699, co-hosted by Gemma O’Neill, host of the podcast Her Best Life and manager of Jackie ‘O’ Henderson.

This is their first visit to Australia since 2018, when the newlyweds undertook a successful official visit, where they announced Meghan was pregnant with their first child, Archie.

Their children Archie and Lilibet are not joining their parents on this trip to Australia, a spokesman said.