Immaculate Virgin Airways?

The Vatican might be characterized as "traditional" in its religious doctrine, but it has an entirely modern approach towards facilitating religious observance: Think "vertically integrated pilgrimage."

The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican's pilgrimage office, now has its own airline dedicated to flying the faithful on popular religious quests.

It's what you might call a niche carrier—a fleet of three 737s and two BAE 146 aircraft, which the pilgrimage office expects to transport about 150,000 pilgrims annually.

The Vatican signed a five-year agreement with Mistral Air, an Italian cargo airline, to fly passengers from seven Italian airports to select pilgrimage sites (alas, Vatican City itself is too small for its own runway).

Planned destinations include the shrine of Fátima in Portugal, Santiago di Compostela in Spain, the Jasna Gora monastery in Czestochowa, Poland, and the Holy Land.

Seat prices have yet to be determined. And while the Vatican's new service is not intended as a money-making operation, the Vatican will still face steep competition for passengers from deep-discount rivals. RyanAir already offers bargain basement flights to Santiago de Compostela from Rome.

But no matter how low discount airfares go, the end-to-end holy pilgrimage is something only the official carrier of Christ can provide. The Vatican plans to attract the flying faithful with touches such as a crew "specialized in voyages of a sacred nature" and by offering religious videos rather than blockbuster movies as in-flight entertainment.

The seats even carry the motto "I'm Searching for Your Face, Lord," imprinted on headrest covers—in Latin, the official language of the Vatican.

by Liz Gunnison