Pope Leo XIV has done it again. On Monday, September 28, the pontiff spent roughly half an hour in the cockpit of an Air France Airbus A321 in flight, this time while hopping from Lourdes to Metz on the closing day of his visit to France.
The details are fun. Captain Clémence Coussonneau and co-pilot Eric Marguerite hosted the pope during cruise, and Marguerite later told AFP that their famous guest was 'passionate about aviation, cars and mechanics in general.' Mid-flight, two French Rafale fighter jets pulled up alongside the aircraft, and the pilots passed the pope a microphone so he could deliver a blessing over the radio to the military crews escorting him — and to service members working to protect people and promote peace.
If this sounds familiar, that's because it is. Back in June, Leo enjoyed a similar inflight cockpit visit on an Iberia flight between Madrid and Barcelona, complete with its own fighter escort and radio chat. Two papal trips, two cockpit invites — the man clearly likes being up front.
Air France went well beyond a casual seat swap for the trip. The airline dedicated a single A321 to three legs of the visit: Paris-Orly to Lourdes on September 26, Lourdes to Metz on the 28th, and Metz to Rome-Fiumicino later that day. The aircraft was temporarily renamed 'Cité du Vatican,' with the Vatican City coat of arms fixed beside the forward boarding door. Its two cabins carried the pope and his entourage, a Vatican delegation of more than 70 people, and over 80 journalists. The flights were treated as state flights with priority handling, and more than 100 Air France employees worked on the operation.
Air France also took the chance to dust off a piece of history: it once flew Pope John Paul II on Concorde from Réunion to Lusaka in 1989. Hard to beat supersonic papal transport.
Why should a traveller care? Partly because it's a charming human story — a head of state who genuinely seems fascinated by machines, asking pilots questions at 35,000 feet. But there's a practical angle too: it's a neat window into how state flights operate, from dedicated aircraft and priority handling to the choreography of a military escort. And for anyone flying within France, the Lourdes–Metz routing is a reminder that the country's regional air network connects pilgrimage towns and lesser-served cities that many visitors never think to pair on one itinerary. Lourdes itself draws millions of pilgrims a year, and a trip combining it with Metz and its remarkable Centre Pompidou annex is more doable than you might expect.
Whether or not you'll ever get a half-hour cockpit seat with Rafales outside your window, there's something oddly reassuring about a pope who'd rather chat with pilots than stare out at the clouds. We'd probably do the same.
