2travel2know2 From Panama, joined Apr 2010, 1995 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (9 months 1 week 17 hours ago) and read 16337 times:
Several guesses:
1 No Greek airline flies to Brazil.
2 Organisers of flying the flag, didn't ask a Greek airline if interested to fly flag from LON to RIO.
3 The founder of the modern Olympics was French.
4 The official language of the International Olympic Committee is French
5 BA and JJ were out-bidden by AF to fly the flag to GIG.
AF086 From France, joined Jan 2007, 1032 posts, RR: 10 Reply 3, posted (9 months 1 week 17 hours ago) and read 16322 times:
Some brazilians are actually questioning that. It's true that JJ keeps a 3x weekly service to GIG but it only operates Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays from LHR.
The information is that the Brazilian Olympic Comittee and Rio's local government consulted JJ first if they had interest in flying the flag to GIG nonstop from LHR. JJ wasn't interested in making a stop at GIG on their scheduled LHR-GRU flight (making it LHR-GIG-GRU for a day) monday night to carry the Olympic Flag and the 30 members of its entourage (with a large number of them flying business class).
JJ wasn't also interested in flying a special LHR-GIG charter using the 77W that arrives at LHR in the morning (and flying a reserve aircraft to LHR to cover the schedules LHR-GRU service).
I don't know why BA wasn't chosen given that they serve LHR-GIG nonstop on mondays. But it would be the same: Brazil's flag carrier wasn't interested in carrying home the Olympic flag. Kinda sad. And bad PR for TAM.
I heard from some cariocas that if the Olympics were at São Paulo, TAM would not only bring the flag but make an event of it.
On the other hand, AF scored a home-run. They had their brand exposed worldwide and associated with Rio and the Olympics. Oh and they got paid for that since plane tickets are not free and not particularly cheap.
Bthebest From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2008, 413 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (9 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 15877 times:
I'm surprised BA didn't do it as they are the official airline, sponsor or whatever. Maybe the Rio delegation didn't want BA involved as they've already had their turn?
AF Cabin Crew From French Polynesia, joined Sep 1999, 1036 posts, RR: 38 Reply 10, posted (9 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 15877 times:
Quoting jumpjets (Reply 8): JJ has 3 non-stops to GIG but the daily GRU service from LHR is also shown as extending to GIG. So they could have taken the flag home to Rio.
Or they could have flown it from Paris to Rio after travelling on the EuroStar... Well, I am proud to see that we scored that though !
AF086 From France, joined Jan 2007, 1032 posts, RR: 10 Reply 12, posted (9 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 15838 times:
Quoting jumpjets (Reply 8): JJ has 3 non-stops to GIG but the daily GRU service from LHR is also shown as extending to GIG. So they could have taken the flag home to Rio.
The nonstop doesn't operate on mondays ex-LHR. The onestop flight isn't actually flown all the way to Rio with the same plane. There is an aircraft change at GRU from the 77W to the 320.
It was important for the BOC and Rio's government that the flag's first stop in Brazil was in Rio, home of the 2016 games. That's why they consulted JJ to fly LHR-GIG-GRU instead of LHR-GRU for a single time.
Quoting Bthebest (Reply 9): I'm surprised BA didn't do it as they are the official airline, sponsor or whatever. Maybe the Rio delegation didn't want BA involved as they've already had their turn?
I guess BA was probably outbidded by AF. Since their first choice (JJ) didn't take the mission they made a bid for the service.
PPVRA From Brazil, joined Nov 2004, 8492 posts, RR: 43 Reply 14, posted (9 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 15794 times:
The picture of the mayor I've seen with the plane in the background is so chopped up that you can't tell which airline it is. So this doesn't seem like a big issue at all. . .
As for BA, remember AF has a stronger presence in GIG. . . although I am surprised as well they didn't choose a non-stop flight.
Quoting AF086 (Reply 3): I heard from some cariocas that if the Olympics were at São Paulo, TAM would not only bring the flag but make an event of it.
GRU has daily flights, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch. I am sure if GIG had daily flights they would have brought the flag and thrown a party.
"If goods do not cross borders, soldiers will" - Frederic Bastiat
Quoting AF086 (Reply 12): The nonstop doesn't operate on mondays ex-LHR. The onestop flight isn't actually flown all the way to Rio with the same plane. There is an aircraft change at GRU from the 77W to the 320.
Irrelevant since there is no AF non-stop between England and GIG either so the flag did no go non-stop to GIG anyway.
grimey From Ireland, joined Jun 2005, 434 posts, RR: 5 Reply 21, posted (9 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 6499 times:
What I find a bit funny if it did LHR-CDG-GIG is that Paris was competing for the 2012 Olympics back in 2005 and lost out to London.
It is really odd that JJ didn't do a one off stop at GIG, it would have only been an extra hour onto the flight and a good few of the pax on that flight would have been part of the Olympic delegates.
bongo From Colombia, joined Oct 2003, 1858 posts, RR: 5 Reply 22, posted (9 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 6184 times:
I guess there is no reason and no difference if the flag flew AF or TAM or whatever other airline. It is a globalised World and maybe they chose AF for no particular reason.
MDE: First airport in the Americas visited by the A380!
VV701 From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 6617 posts, RR: 17 Reply 23, posted (9 months 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 5866 times:
Quoting AF086 (Reply 12): I guess BA was probably outbidded by AF.
Quite likely.
The inflation figures (the Consumer Price Index or CPI for the UK for July) showed an unexpected increase of 0.2 per cent over the previous month. According to the UK Office for National Statistics:
"The biggest factor in the increase in CPI was air fare prices, which rose 21.7% on the month."
Whether or not this more than signidficant increase was related in any way to London 2012 is probably a matter for conjecture. But I think it is likely to have played a significant part.
When the Brazilian delegation were looking for a good deal for their return trip to London BA and indeed TAM would likely be unwilling to compete with the likes of AF with the sort of yields they were obtainig on day-to-day tichet sales for direct flights.
The Brazilian delegation was, according to the link to the AF web site, quite big:
"On this occasion, members of the Brazilian olympic delegation are also flying London-Paris-Rio with Air France today. 35 passengers including the mayor of Rio, the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, athletes, journalists and the governor of the state of Rio are bringing back the olympic flag with them."
So whether or not to offer a significant discount to a party of dignatories many of whom were likekly to demand to travel in a premium class seat would likely be a no brainer for BA yield management.
Vasu From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2005, 3761 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (9 months 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 5661 times:
Am I the only person linking this to the sad tragedy of AF447?
Reversal of brand association for AF's flights to/from Rio?
Any thoughts?
25 YYZAMS: Yes, that is why I said it was "kinda eerie" in the opening question. Great minds!
26 jfk777: SAD the Olympic flag could not fly nonstop from LHR to Rio. AF not only scored " we flew the flag to RIO" but how lacking BA's flights to Brazil are
27 Bill142: Should have just over nighted it on UPS.
28 LipeGIG: I think this is kind of situation in which also the size of the business/first cabin make the difference. The end of the Olympics is for sure a busy m
29 jumpjets: BA reputedly paid £40m for Olympic sponsorship; covered the costs of flying the Olympic flame from Greece and its journeys to non-mainland UK; were
30 jfk777: Why would it be "last minute" for the Rio delegation to get seats ? Ever since the 2016 Olympics were given to Rio it should have been known to The B
31 Kaiarahi: Not true. Section 23.1 of the Olympic Charter sets only French and English as official languages. Why last minute? They've had 3 years to book the fl
32 n729pa: TAM really missed a trick there didn't they, Varig wouldn't have made that mistake I don't think. That's what I was thinking, given the amount of Olym
33 VV701: I suspect that this is correct. However if the Brazilian delegation did not book their flight 3 years or perhaps even 3 months ago would we expect ei
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