Prince William boarded commercial flight in LaGuardia,New York to Washington....Passengers excitedly took pictures.

Some members of the American public were delighted when they had a surprise passenger on their flight from New York to Washington DC first thing on Monday morning. Prince William, who is second in line to the throne, opted to take a commercial flight to go to the White House to meet President Barack Obama, instead of taking a private jet.

A flurry of excitement was sparked when the royal boarded the plane, with passengers reaching for their mobile phones to snap a photograph of the Prince, whose short visit to the USA has provoked a case of royal fever.

Passenger Sam Kim posted a shot on Instagram of the Prince searching for his seat, with the caption: "Our flight was delayed and a caravan of black suburbans pulled up to the plane.

"Then the most unexpected guest stepped onto our DC shuttle flight this morning."

Another passenger snapped a photo of William about to take a seat. Alongside the picture he tweeted: "Flying with Prince William to DC !! #PrinceWilliam #DukeofCambridge #USAirways @AmericanAir @USAirways."

CNN journalist Anderson Cooper tweeted the news of the star passenger to his more than five million followers.

"Prince William just got on my DC shuttle flight", he announced on Twitter, before joking, "I'm hoping this means an on time departure".