London 2012 Olympics: Airlines Redesign Planes For Olympic Games

The London 2012 Olympics are almost upon us. With the Opening Ceremonies this Friday, July 27, excitement is building. Thousands of athletes and tourists are already in London awaiting the start of the epic Summer Games.

The travel industry is particularly excited about the Olympics as tourism to London increases from traveling athletes and anxious spectators. To get in the spirit, several airlines have redecorated some of their planes with an Olympics theme.

When a country is hosting an Olympics Games, it is common for the country's main airline to redecorate their planes. With the Olympics being hosted in London this year, and it's fourth time in history, British Airways has redecorated some of their planes, but some other country's airlines have also jumped on board.

Here are some airlines that have decorated their planes for the 2012 Olympics, according to Jaunted.

British Airways

British Airways is hoping their English athletes go for the gold this summer at the Olympics in London. They took this theme and applied it to their planes. Nine of their planes are painted as a gold dove. It features gold painted feathers, a beak, and the Union Jack on the tail in gold. The dove idea was choen by designer Pascal Anson who saw the animal as a symbol of peace and unity and noted that it has been used in previous Olympic Games. British Airways' "Firefly" aircraft was also painted mostly gold and has the official London Olympics logo on the nose. This special plane was used to carry the Olympic torch from Athens to London.

Qantas Airlines

This Australian airline also got into the spirit. They're flying some of their Olympic athletes in a newly redesigned 747. The Red Roo plane added a minor change to their kangaroo logo on the tail of the plane. For the Olympics, they painted boxing gloves on the kangaroo which also appears near the nose. With this, Qantas is making a play on how kangaroos box, while representing one of the many sporting events in the Summer Games. The kangaroo is also gold, showing that Australia is looking for some first place medals this summer as well. The usual 'Spirit of Australia' slogan has also been modified to read 'Spirit of the Australian team'. See it here.

South African Airways

The South African Olympic team is flying to London in a plane which has a special design created by a young contest winner from Stellenbosch University. The design was chosen from over 400 contest entries. The Airbus A430-300 features colors of the South African flag as well as a design of various athletes like swimmers, runners, soccer players, and other stars . See the design here.

Japan Airlines JAL

This Japanese airline is also redecorating for the Games. Some of their planes feature the faces of famous Japanese athletes. The plane also reads "Ganbare! Nippon!" The Japanese phrase means "Go for it, Japan!." One of their Boeing 777-200's was spotted with the design. Check it out here.

All Nipon Airways ANA

JAL isn't the only Japanese airline cheering on their Olympic participants. ANA also put photos of Japanese athletes on the sides of their Olympic 767 aircraft. The plane also contains a phrase which translates to "Messages of cheer to the Japanese Olympic athletes, London 2012 Olympics."