Delta Air Lines’ newest Olympic plane has touched down in Atlanta, fresh from the Airbus factory in France with a special paint job for its sponsorship of Team USA ahead of the Paris Olympics this summer.
The livery, or the design painted on the plane, has TEAM USA emblazoned across the side of the Airbus A350-900, atop curving lines of red and blue that evoke the shape of the Eiffel Tower on its side.
“When you see the aircraft horizontally, it just looks like a beautiful sweeping forward motion design. ... One of our designers actually came up with this incredible icon ... that is both a jet stream and the Eiffel Tower, if you will,” said Alessandra Rabellino, art director on Delta’s brand and sponsorships marketing team, who flew in on the plane with the livery she helped design. “Once you see it, you won’t be able to unsee it ... especially as the plane takes off and it takes more of its vertical shape.”
Atlanta-based Delta is not a sponsor of the Paris Olympics, but it is the official airline of Team USA and is sponsoring a team lounge at the Paris Olympics.
A bigger part of Delta’s Olympic investment is as a major sponsor of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, with a multi-year partnership leading up to it.
This year, the airline plans to feature Team USA athletes it sponsors in television commercials in the leadup to the Paris Olympics, which starts July 26 and runs through Aug. 11, followed by the Paralympics Aug. 28-Sept. 8.
In a presidential election year like this one in the United States, “typically consumer anxiety is high,” said Delta Chief Marketing Officer Alicia Tillman. She said Delta sees Team USA and sports “as a unifier of people.”
One of the Team USA athletes Delta sponsors, Rod Townsend, who won Paralympic gold medals for high jump and long jump at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro and the Toyko Games in 2021, has never been able to have his wife or mother there to watch him live.
“Rio, we were dead broke, didn’t have the opportunity financially to do it,” Townsend said. Then in Tokyo, access was very restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, as a Delta-sponsored athlete, Townsend will be able to fly to the Paralympic Games on Delta and have his mom, wife and son who is now about six months old also travel to Paris to watch him compete.
“Our family’s gonna be able to see me, and that truly means the world to me,” Townsend said.
Delta’s new Team USA jet is one of multiple Delta Olympic planes with special livery. The first Team USA jet unveiled in 2021 was a smaller Airbus A330.
This newer Team USA livery is on a larger, flagship Delta Airbus A350 jet. The plane was assembled earlier this year, and went through painting, maintenance and inspections in Toulouse, France. The delivery flight to Atlanta on Friday carried some of Delta’s top employees who won the company’s Chairman’s Club award.
The flight had a party-like atmosphere and was greeted with a water cannon salute after landing at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage
The new 275-seat Team USA A350 will head to Delta’s TechOps maintenance facility to be modified and prepared to go into commercial service. The plane won’t be flown on any specific route, but as a widebody aircraft will likely be used on many international flights.
The list price for the A350-900 was $317.4 million in 2018, the last time Airbus published list prices. Delta operates more than 28 A350-900s and will have more than 60 by the end of the decade.
Delta will also soon add another new A350 Olympic plane to its fleet, this one with an LA28 livery. That plane is still undergoing final preparations for delivery.
While Delta’s Olympic sponsorship started in 2020, its visibility was more limited early on due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the closing ceremonies of this year’s Paris Olympics, the Olympic flag will be handed off to the LA Olympic committee, which Delta will fly back to the United States on the new LA28 plane.
About the Author
