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How soon is too soon? There are three and a half years to go until the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games begin, but that isn’t stopping Delta from leveraging its sponsorship.
The Atlanta-based carrier is the official airline of Team USA and an inaugural founding partner of the Los Angeles 2028 Games. Delta hasn’t disclosed the commercial terms of the deal, but similar sponsorships typically cost at least $100 million. The Sports Business Journal reports that Delta’s contract for the 2028 event is worth upwards of $200 million.
It’s therefore no surprise that Delta is keen to get maximum marketing bang for its buck.
A little after 11 pm on Wednesday, the airline launched its latest ultra long-haul route. The nonstop service from Los Angeles to Brisbane crosses the International Date Line and is due to touch down in the Australian city on Friday morning local time. The journey is scheduled at more than 14.5 hours.
To capitalize on the launch, Delta rostered its flagship ‘LA28’ aircraft to operate the maiden flight. The Airbus A350-900 sports a special design celebrating the upcoming Games and effectively acts as a flying billboard for Delta’s big-budget partnership.
More than Just LA28
The significance of the route extends far beyond Los Angeles. In 2032, the Games will come to Brisbane, meaning the flight connects two sequential host cities.
Brisbane Airport spokesperson Peter Doherty said Flight DL93 is expected to be one of the most tracked globally as it approaches Australian airspace. Websites such as Flightradar24 allow aviation enthusiasts to monitor the progress of commercial aircraft in real-time.
From the airport’s perspective, the arrival of DL93 on Friday morning also marks a major marketing opportunity. A special livestream of the landing will be available via what Doherty describes as a “world-first live runway-cam.”
In August, Delta operated the flight transferring the Olympic flag from Paris to Los Angeles. Photo: Delta Air Lines/Ben Rose Photography
Brisbane represents Delta’s second Australian destination after Sydney. The nonstop route will operate three times weekly during the southern hemisphere’s summer season until March 28, 2025.
The Delta inaugural comes just a few weeks after American Airlines launched its own service to the Queensland city. The 17-hour, 7,200+ mile link from Dallas Fort Worth is the longest nonstop flight in the entire American network.
A High-Profile Loss-Leader?
For all of the prestige of hosting the Olympics, recent history tells us that the immediate return on investment can be questionable. Just last month, Air France posted its third-quarter earnings and quantified the negative financial impact of the Paris 2024 event.
The Olympics cost the firm €160 million ($173 million), weighing heavily on its operating income for the all-important June-September quarter. A bonus pot of around €50 million ($54 million) to Air France staff “rewarding strong operational performance” during the Games was also a significant one-off cost.
Given Air France’s ‘official partner’ status at Paris 2024, the hit could feel counter-intuitive.
Speaking in November, Air France-KLM Group CEO Ben Smith insisted that the investment and opportunity cost will pay dividends. “Beyond their financial implications, the Olympic Games provided a unique platform to demonstrate the Group’s operational expertise and capabilities while offering unparalleled visibility for France as a destination. In the long term, this will be advantageous for the Group,” said Smith.
His assessment mirrors that of Paris tourism chief Corinne Menegaux. Speaking to Skift ahead of the Games, she insisted that the Olympics would be a strategic global tourism advertisement for the city, rather than an immediate driver of international visitors.
Surging Interest in Sports Tourism
The rise of sports tourism is a key industry trend. The market is exploding and is projected to reach $2.1 trillion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.5% according to Grand View Research.
Speaking at the Skift Global Forum in New York City in September, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma highlighted that three of the world’s largest sports events are due to take place in the United States before the end of the decade. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2026 Winter Olympics, and 2028 Summer Olympics will deliver what Verma coined as “sports diplomacy.”
Skift editor-in-chief Sarah Kopit explored this fascinating sub-sector in more detail in a recent deep-dive feature.
Watch American Airlines CEO, Richard Isom, at the Skift Aviation Forum 2024:
Recorded November 2024
Airlines Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date
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