France’s Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) has published an arrêté creating a temporary prohibited zone—designated “ZIT PAPE”—over Lourdes and surrounding airspace from 06:00 UTC on 26 September until 20:00 UTC on 27 September. The restriction, printed in Saturday’s Journal Officiel, aims to protect the Pope’s visit to the Marian shrine and applies to all VFR traffic, drones and balloon flights within a 7-nautical-mile radius up to FL085. Commercial IFR flights into Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport (LDE) are authorised but must follow DGAC-issued arrival and departure procedures that include slot coordination and mandatory transponder operation. Non-scheduled charter operators have had several weekend rotations cancelled or rerouted to Pau or Toulouse, while private-aviation movements are effectively grounded unless they obtain a ministerial exemption. The no-fly zone mirrors the model used during the 2024 Olympics and illustrates France’s increasingly standardised approach to short-notice airspace closures for high-profile events. Business-aviation brokers report that demand for last-minute helicopter transfers to Lourdes has shifted towards rail and road options, adding up to three hours to door-to-door journey times for VIP entourages. Insurance and risk advisers are warning corporate flight departments that unauthorised entry into a ZIT can trigger both administrative fines and criminal charges under Article L6232-4 of the Transport Code. Operators should file revised flight plans via Eurocontrol’s Network Manager and check NOTAMs F1847/26 and F1848/26 for the latest vectors. For multinational companies moving staff or equipment to southwest France this weekend, contingency planning should prioritise high-speed-rail connections and overnight trucking to circumvent the airspace closure and potential ground-handling bottlenecks at alternate airports.
Source: Journal Officiel / Légifrance
