Pope's arrival

[Grant Smith]

Originally Posted by Mike Scott

Dont be surprised when this pope show's up on Lufthansa !!!!

MS

I'll wager against Biman bringing him in!

[Philip Argy]

Originally Posted by Mark Grima

QF are the official WYD08 airline partner, I would be very very surprised if the pope arrived in to Australia on anything other then a QF 744.

Cheers

M

I found this 2007 contribution on flagspot.net (my emboldening) but I don't know how authoritative it might be:

Aircraft Marking

The Holy See, naturally, doesn't have an air force. As far as I know it doesn't even have planes. However, when the pope is taking a flight, his arms appear next to the front door of the plane. See: <www.airliners.net/351454>, <www.airliners.net/261961> and <www.airliners.net/522829>. It seems that those arms are left on the plane afterwards as a declaration "The Pope flew in this plane" as seen on the out-of-service ex-Viasa plane at <www.airliners.net/484315>.
Dov Gutterman, 28 June 2004
The pope travel only in "Catholic" airlines. When he visit a "Chatolic" state he uses the local flag carrier airline to his flight. If there are more then one flag-cattier, he don't insult anybody and used all of them.
In his visit to Mexico, the pope JP II used Mexicana on one way and Aero-Mexico on the other
It seems that the pope emblem is not removed afterwards and the plane still carry it as a token and to show that this is a "papal plane".

When visiting a non-Catholic state, the pope use Alitalia planes.

Dov Gutterman, 4 July 2007

[adam c]

Originally Posted by Philip Argy

I found this 2007 contribution on flagspot.net (my emboldening) but I don't know how authoritative it might be:

When visiting a non-Catholic state, the pope use Alitalia planes.

Is Australia considered a Catholic state? Officially Australia doesn't have any religion, but according to the 2006 census Christianity is the most common, and Catholicism is the most popular sub-category of Christianity...

[Mark Grima]

hmmm, good question, I think Australia is officially a Catholic state. Surley, WYD which is obviously a catholic event, would only be held in Catholic nations.

I still think he will be here on a QANTAS jet. The Popes coat of arms will be a nice addition to one the QF 744s.

Cheers

M

[Jethro H]

In the sense of the meaning from the Papal notes, no we are not a Catholic state. A Catholic State is where the government runs law in line with the belief of that religion. This can not happen in Australia as per Section 110 of our Constitution, we are not permitted to have a state religion.

There are only a few countries that are such as Italy where this is so such as Italy where the population is close to 90% Catholic. (Australia is 26%)

[Anthony J]

Originally Posted by Anthony J

I don't think that's correct. It should be a 747-400 of another carrier!

Too subtle?
It will be a 747-400 of an Australian Airline, wearing a red and white livery, on the VH register, maybe Rolls Royce or GE engines..........

[Jethro H]

Originally Posted by Mark Grima

I still think he will be here on a QANTAS jet.
M

Going by earlier quoted post:

The pope travel only in "Catholic" airlines.

Does Qantas fall in that category?

Just on the previous post about "Catholic States", Spain is a declared Catholic State. Hence I would guess why we have seen the Holy See has used Iberio aircraft in the past.

Interesting though, the Pope has also used AeroMexico as well. Whilst 90% of Mexican's are Roman Catholics, they are do not have a Catholic State status (like us, it's against their Constitution).

Qantas have announced in their Media release they have a "charter flight" booked for WYD from Europe. They have not released any other details...yet!

[Ken N]

Seems we're all having a stab in the dark here, well, here's my guess.....he arrives on AZ, then the AZ acft postions to RJAA.
Ciao...

[Andrew P]

the last time a Pope (Pope John Paul II) was in Australia was 1995, and he arrived on Air Niugini, a great Catholic airline IMHO.

he flew MNL - POM on Philippine Airlines

Banjo

[Stephen Brown]

And lets just review this once again for those who are bereft of intelligence...

Originally Posted by Anthony J

Too subtle?
It will be a 747-400 of an Australian Airline, wearing a red and white livery, on the VH register, maybe Rolls Royce or GE engines..........