The Alitalia plane flying Pope Francis to Columbia for a five-day visit will change route to avoid the ferocious Atlantic storm Hurricane Irma, a Vatican spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
The papal plane will "slightly change its route" to avoid Irma, the deputy director of the Vatican press office, Paloma Garcia Ovejero, said.
Hurricane Irma, a "potentially catastrophic" Force 5 tropical storm, is expected to wreak havoc across swathes of the Caribbean this week.
Francis took off from Rome’s Fiumicino airport shortly after 11 am Rome time and was due to land in the Colombian capital, Bogota at 23.30 Rome time on Wednesday, according to the Vatican.
Besides Bogota, Francis will also visit the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena during his trip, whose chief aim is to consolidate the peace process in Columbia after five decades of bloody conflict between government forces and left-wing rebels.
In a statement ahead of his trip, Pope Francis reaffirmed the importance of peace and dialogue around the world.
"Freedom is what Colombia has sought for a long time and what it is working towards," Francis said in a video message on Monday.
"A stable, enduring freedom, so that we regard and treat each other as brothers and sisters and never as enemies."
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