News: BA favourites to become official airline of London Olympics
Flights > News > # 1499 (02/10/2007)
The Evening Standard has reported that British Airways is leading the race to become the official airline of the London Olympics.
While no agreement has yet been reached, BA is thought to be on the verge of becoming a primary sponsor of the 2012 games.
The Standard has also revealed that two other contenders, Virgin and Emirates, are no longer in the running.
The London Games organising committee, Locog, are eager to sign up an airline before the end of the year as they need to arrange more than 1,000 flights for British athletes and officials to next summer's Beijing Olympics. These would be provided free as part of the deal.
Planes from the official 2012 airline will also be used to fly inspectors from the International Olympic Committee into London for their regular visits over the next five years.
The value of any potential airline deal is not known, although the three existing 2012 partners - Lloyds TSB, EDF Energy and Adidas - have paid between £50m and £80m to sponsor the games.
BA was a "premier partner" during the bid stage and provided free flights to Singapore for the 2012 vote in July 2005.
A BA spokesman told The Standard: "British Airways was one of the top sponsors of the London 2012 bid to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games to London and was delighted when the bid team won the contest. We are always interested in such opportunities but no decision has been made on the airline's involvement with the Games in 2012."
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