Air Canada is launching a new special livery just in time for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The new livery is plastered on one of the airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The aircraft is set to enter general circulation with Air Canada before being placed on the airline's Tokyo Narita route during the Olympic Games.

Once every four years, or occasionally five years when there's a pandemic, the Olympic Games are hosted. Typically this means a mammoth logistical challenge, getting teams, fans, and even flames worldwide. Air is usually the most practical option, with airlines willing to lend a hand.

Air Canada's Olympic livery

Many airlines get involved in the festivities with special aircraft liveries. There are a few special liveries to share, but first, we'll take a look at why we're here. Air Canada has applied an Olympic-themed livery to C-FVLQ, a three-and-a-half-year-old Boeing 787-9.

The livery is relatively simple but gets the job done. On the aircraft's port side, "Fly The Flag" is written in big black and gold lettering. Meanwhile, on the other side of the aircraft, the same lettering reads "Haut Le Drapeau", the French expression with the same meaning. On both sides, it also says "Go Canada Go!" in all gold lettering.

According to the fleet number listed on the side of the aircraft, the livery has been applied to C-FVLQ. This is a 3.54-year-old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, according to ch-aviation.com. It completed its first flight on December 18th, 2017, before being delivered to Air Canada on January 12th.

As of February 28th, the aircraft had completed 14,884 flight hours across 1,812 flight cycles. It arrived in Toronto to get its paint job on Sunday before operating its first flight in the new livery to Vancouver today.

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Other Olympic Liveries

The Olympic livery from Air Canada is by no means the only one that has ever been launched. There are typically two reasons that airlines may choose to apply an Olympic livery, and both can be explained using British Airways. When London was the host city of the 2012 games, the airline decked out an Airbus A319, G-EUPC in a special livery to carry the Olympic Flame to the UK. Japan Airlines did something similar for this year's games.

As was seen with Air Canada's livery, airlines also create special liveries to carry their teams to and from the games. For example, after the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, British Airways put a gold nose on the Boeing 747 bringing the team home, representing the 27 gold medals won by the team, putting it in second place overall behind the United States with 46 golds.

What do you think of Air Canada getting into the Olympic spirit? Let us known what you believe and why in the comments below!