Pope Leo XIV spent the Lourdes to Metz cruise in an Air France cockpit
By Michal Zembol
Published .
On 28 September he sat with the crew of an Airbus A321 and blessed the pilots of two French Rafale jets by radio. Air France had assigned the aircraft to three state flights during his first visit to France.
Pope Leo XIV spent about half an hour in the cockpit of an Air France Airbus A321 on the morning of 28 September 2026, on the flight from Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées to Metz-Nancy-Lorraine. Co-pilot Eric Marguerite told Agence France-Presse that the pope was there for the whole cruise. The crew handed him the radio. Marguerite said the pope blessed the pilots of two Rafale fighters flying with the airliner, and military personnel who protect people and work for peace. He also greeted the cabin crew.
Captain Clémence Coussonneau was in command. Marguerite, speaking to AFP after landing, said the conversations were informal and that the pope is interested in aviation, cars and mechanics. Flight attendant Landee Van Keeken told the agency that a blessing in person, after the planning that went into the trip, was a rare moment for the crew. AFP described the pope as 71 and as an aviation enthusiast. The French regional paper Le Républicain Lorrain, quoting the co-pilot, said he asked about the aircraft's systems.
The fighters were close. AFP reported that the two Rafales flew about 50 metres from the Air France jet. An escort of that kind is part of how France handles a state flight, not a normal airline service. Air France said the mission was run under state-flight procedures, with the French authorities, the Vatican and the airports involved for weeks beforehand.
The airline had published the plan before the visit, which it described as Pope Leo XIV's first to France. Three special flights were set for 26 to 28 September: Paris Orly to Lourdes at 17:45 on Saturday, leaving from Orly's honorary pavilion; Lourdes to Metz at 07:40 on Monday; and Metz to Rome Fiumicino at 19:00 that evening. A second crew was to take the Rome leg. Tracking records for the Airbus registered F-GTAU list those sectors as AF4004, AF4005 and AF4006. The same records show the Lourdes departure a little after the published 07:40, and the Metz arrival around 09:00 rather than the scheduled 09:20.
Air France also asked Transavia, another airline in the Air France-KLM group, to fly a separate party of cardinals, bishops and journalists from Orly to Lourdes. That flight was not the pope's aircraft.
For the papal flying, the A321 carried a special livery with his coat of arms and was renamed Vatican City for the trip. On 26 September, before the Orly departure, Benjamin Smith, chairman of Air France and chief executive of Air France-KLM, gave him a collector's poster signed by Plaquet. The airline said the gift pointed to its history of pilgrimage flights and earlier papal journeys. In 2008 it used an A321 for two flights when Pope Benedict XVI visited France, Orly to Lourdes and then Lourdes to Rome.
F-GTAU did not stay on the special operation. By 30 September, flight-history listings show the same aircraft on ordinary Air France routes, including Paris-Algiers. The Vatican City name was temporary. Lourdes was the middle stop because of what the city means to Catholic pilgrims. Coussonneau, in Air France's pre-visit statement, called it a place of real symbolic weight, and said she and her crew had been preparing for weeks.