For the Pilgrim on a Budget, the Vatican Has Air Charters
Nuns arrived in France on Monday on the first flight of the Vatican’s charter airline. The airline will take pilgrims to holy sites around the world.
By NICOLA CLARK
Published: August 28, 2007
PARIS, Aug. 27 — It already has its own postal service, its own bank and even its own Internet domain. On Monday, the Vatican inaugurated its latest venture: a low-cost charter airline to ferry thousands of Catholic pilgrims from Italy to popular religious sites around the world.
The service’s slogan, “I’m Searching for Your Face, Lord,” is imprinted on headrest covers throughout the 150-seat cabin.
The carrier’s first flight — a one-day visit to the shrine at Lourdes, France — departed Monday morning using a Boeing 737 owned by the Italian cargo airline Mistral Air. At less than half a square kilometer, or 109 acres, the Holy See is too small to support its own runway, so the plane took off from Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome.
“The way to make pilgrimages can change over time, but their deepest meaning remains the same: to look for a deeper contact with God,” Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the vicar of Rome, told reporters before boarding the flight, The Associated Press reported. Cardinal Ruini, a former head of the Italian Bishops Conference, was also expected to serve as the official guide for the tour group, which included Italian notables and church leaders.
The Vatican pilgrimage office, the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, has signed a five-year agreement with Mistral Air to fly passengers from seven Italian airports, including ones in Rome, Verona and Brindisi. Planned destinations include the shrine of Fatima in Portugal, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the Jasna Gora monastery in Czestochowa, Poland, and the Holy Land. The airline expects eventually to transport 150,000 pilgrims a year.
It was not immediately clear how much the flight and tour packages would cost. But the Rev. Cesare Atuire of the pilgrimage office told La Repubblica this month that fares would “bear in mind that the customers will be pilgrims and do not have a great deal of money to spend.”
The Vatican may still find it tough to compete with established low-cost rivals, however. Ryanair, based in Dublin, for example, already offers cheap flights to Santiago de Compostela from Rome.
“Ryanair already performs miracles that even the pope’s boss can’t rival, by delivering pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela for the heavenly price of 10 euros,” Ryanair said in a statement.
Aboard Monday’s flight, the airline’s official slogan, “I’m Searching for Your Face, Lord,” was imprinted on headrest covers throughout the 150-seat cabin. The carrier said that its flights would be staffed with a cabin crew “specialized in voyages of a sacred nature” and that instead of standard movies, the in-flight entertainment system would play religious videos.
“We want to create the conditions to enable pilgrims to live their pilgrimage starting at their city’s airport and even before they arrive at their destinations,” Father Atuire said.
Founded in 1981 by the Italian action film star Bud Spencer, Mistral Air runs parcel transport services for the Italian post office and other logistics companies like TNT of the Netherlands. The airline is controlled by the Italian post office, but the Vatican pilgrimage office also owns a minority stake.
Press officers for the Vatican could not be reached for comment on whether Pope Benedict XVI planned to use the airline. The pontiff traditionally charters a plane for himself and his entourage for his foreign visits.
SOURCE: www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/business/worldbusiness/28vatican.html?_r=1&ref=business&ore...
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For the record, here's the eutes report yesterday - notable for the picture of Cardinal Ruini on his way to baord the plane:
Vatican airline takes to the skies
By Cristiano Corvino
ROME, Aug. 27 (Reuters) - While some passengers only turn to prayer when jolted by turbulence, the Vatican made it standard on Monday by launching the world's first airline for Catholic pilgrims.
Complete with Vatican logos on headrests and air hostesses' uniforms, the inaugural flight traveled from Rome's Fiumicino airport for the shrine of Lourdes in France.
The charter flight's slogan spoke volumes about what its clients are doing above the clouds: "I'm Searching for Your Face, Lord."
"It is a spiritual journey," explained Francesco Gherra, one of the pilgrims who boarded Monday's inaugural flight hosted by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the former head of Italy's bishops.
Cardinal Ruini, rarely seen without a cassock,
prepared to board the inaugural flight.
The Vatican aims to serve 150,000 pilgrims a year on its chartered Boeing 737, run by Italy's Mistral Air.
Destinations range from the shrine of Fatima in Portugal to Mount Sinai in Egypt, where Moses is said to have received the 10 Commandments from God.
In-flight entertainment on the way to the world's holy sites will, somewhat predictably, be religious in nature, the Vatican said.
"The crew has been informed that there are (religious) messages that will be transmitted, that films will be shown during the flight," said Father Cesar Atuire at the Vatican office coordinating pilgrimages.
Keeping costs for pilgrims low is another Vatican priority, Atuire said.
The Vatican's venture into the airline industry did not go unnoticed by competitors, including Ryanair, Europe's biggest low-cost carrier.
The Vatican hopes to fly pilgrims from Rome to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, a route already serviced by the low-budget carrier.
"Ryanair already performs miracles that even the Pope's boss can't rival, by delivering pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela for the heavenly price of 10 euros," Ryanair said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Paul Hoskins in Dublin)
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/08/2007 23:04]