Pope Benedict XVI travels to Sydney
Alitalia will accompany His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on his apostolic journey to Sydney, Australia, on the occasion of the 23rd World Youth Day.
It will be the ninth apostolic journey abroad by the pope after Cologne (August 2005), Warsaw (May 2006), Valencia (July 2006), Munich (September 2006), Ankara (November 2006), São Paulo (May 2007), Vienna (September 2007) and the United States (April 2008).
Once again Alitalia is the airline chosen by the Holy Father for his journey abroad. Onboard the Boeing 777, named the Sestriere, (the same used for the journey to the United States) which will host the pope and the pontifical delegation, there will also be journalists from the press, news agencies, television, radio and photographers from all over the world. The Boeing will take off on July 12 at 10 a.m. from the Leonardo da Vinci Airport at Fiumicino in Rome and will arrive at the Richmond RAAF Military Air Base at 3.15 p.m. on July 13.
During the journey, the Alitalia Boeing 777 will fly over Italy, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is the longest non-stop flight made by Alitalia with a twin-jet and will last 15 hours and 45 minutes.
The crew will consist of 18 members. The Flight Coordinator will be Captain Alfonso Maria Pacini, Alitalia Flight Operations Manager, who has 12,500 flight hours and is making his seventh papal journey (Zagreb and Warsaw in 1998, Toronto in 2002 for World Youth Day, Valencia in July 2006 for World Family Day, São Paulo in Brazil in 2007, the United States in April, 2008 and now Australia).
The Flight Attendant Coordinator will be Giovanni Luigi Romani, who has been long-haul senior purser for 13 years and is making his fourth papal flight (the first was to Sarajevo in 1997).
As on previous occasions, Alitalia will have the honour of placing the papal coat-of-arms beside its own emblem on the plane for the Holy Father’s flight.