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Iberia will be the airline responsible for transporting His Holiness Pope Leo XIV during his upcoming visit to Spain, scheduled to take place from 6 to 12 June 2026.

The airline will operate the flights planned during the visit, accompanying the Pontiff on his journey through several Spanish cities. Scheduled sectors include Madrid–Barcelona, Barcelona–Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria–Tenerife, as well as the return flight from Tenerife to Rome at the conclusion of the official visit.

For this special operation, Iberia will make one of its aircraft available to the Holy See, ensuring the highest standards of safety, comfort and privacy for His Holiness, his delegation and the other accredited passengers travelling on board. Iberia’s participation in this event reinforces the airline’s longstanding commitment to major institutional events and highlights its operational capability to coordinate flights of significant international importance.

Iberia has a longstanding association with papal visits to Spain, facilitating both domestic journeys within the country and return flights to Rome. In 1982, Pope John Paul II made his first historic visit to Spain, during which he travelled to 18 cities across the country. Many of these journeys were operated aboard a Boeing 727-200 named Navarra. Likewise, during his visits to Santiago de Compostela and Asturias in 1989, as well as on his return to Rome in 1993 following the conclusion of his pastoral visit to Spain, he travelled aboard a Boeing 727 named Castilla la Vieja.

Continuing this tradition, Pope Benedict XVI returned to Rome following his first visit to Spain in 2006 aboard an Airbus A321 named Villa de Uncastillo. During his second visit to Spain, Benedict XVI travelled from Santiago de Compostela to Barcelona and subsequently returned to Rome aboard the Airbus A321 Delta de Llobregat. His Holiness also flew back to Rome on an Iberia aircraft following his final visit to Spain in 2011.