The Vatican agency for religious tourism OPR (Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi) and the airline MistralAir, owned by the Italian Post (Poste Italiane), have signed a five-year contract for the organization of cheaper pilgrimages to Marian shrines around the world, it was announced at a press conference on Monday at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport.
On Monday, the first such organized pilgrimage flight to the French Marian shrine of Lourdes also commenced, but true low-cost travel will begin in April 2008 when OPR plans to organize trips for as many as 150,000 believers. OPR organizes trips to the shrines of Lourdes, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela, and Czestochowa, as well as to the Holy Land using regular airline routes, and from now on will be able to offer cheaper arrangements thanks to the contract with MistralAir.
Such trips will be at least 10 percent cheaper than current prices, said Father Caesar Atuire, the director of OPR. OPR, which is under the direct jurisdiction of the Roman Vicariate, announced that such pilgrimages will also be organized to Croatian Marian shrines. The airline MistralAir has leased three Boeing 737s, which transport mail at night and will carry pilgrims during the day. The headrests on the seats in the aircraft on these flights will bear the inscription "I seek your face, Lord!" (Hina)
