Thrifty Queen Sofia
Spain's Queen Sofia has given the British Royal family a lesson in fiscal responsibility by taking a £13 budget airline flight to London. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: Queen Sofia of Spain has given the British Royal Family a lesson in cost-cutting - by taking a £13 budget airline flight to London.

The 70-year-old monarch flew with low-cost airline Ryanair from northern Spain to Stansted on Sunday evening to visit her brother, who is recovering from heart surgery in a London hospital.

A source at the Spanish royal palace said it was 'common practice' for members of the House of Bourbon to fly on scheduled flights.

The source added: 'Members of the Royal Family regularly travel on regular scheduled flights both nationally and internationally.

'The King is the only member of the Royal Family who always travels on military flights.

'Whenever possible the royals use Spanish airlines, but in this case Ryanair was the best option for getting from Santander to London.

'It may well be first time the royals have used Ryanair.'

The source could not say whether the queen had had to pay any of the extra charges Ryanair imposes for having bags other than hand luggage, or for checking in at the airport rather than online.

Her bargain bucket air fare comes in stark contrast to the British Royal Family, none of whom - with the exception of one or two of the younger royals - have ever flown on a budget flight. >>> By Tom Worden and Rebecca English | Tuesday, June 02, 2009

On a Wing and a Prayer
BBC: The chartered flight service being launched by a Vatican-linked travel organisation along with an Italian airline has both lofty and more mundane goals. It aims to provide a journey of faith for pilgrims as well as turning a profit.

You can forget the complimentary bag of salted peanuts and plastic pot of orange juice because each plane ticket will come with unlimited spiritual refreshment, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (ORP) suggests.

Flights are planned from Rome to many of the sites which draw hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims seeking solace and or doing penance each year.

Monday's inaugural passengers are due to travel from the Italian capital to an airport just 10 minutes from the shrine of Lourdes in France.

But from December, planes emblazoned inside and out with the logo "Seeking your face, Lord" will be dropping off energetic faithful near Spain's Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route, as well as at Poland's Czestochowa sanctuary and at the shrine to Fatima, in Portugal.

Increasing demand

There will also be flights to Jerusalem in Israel and Sinai in Egypt, and special plans are even under way to jet thousands of young people to Sydney for the World Youth Congress next year. Budget flights of faith (more) By Stephanie Holmes

See a map of the pilgrimage flight routes

Mark Alexander