As part of Delta's partnership commitment to the Olympic and Paralympic Games through to the 2028 games in Los Angeles, the airline is the official airline sponsor of Team USA with its upcoming participation in the 2022 winter games in Beijing. Delta has chosen to celebrate its role with a special livery, which has been painted on one of its Airbus A330-900s- something the airline hinted at on December 16th.
“Delta is in the business of connecting people, and nothing brings the world together quite like the Olympic and Paralympic Games,†-Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air Lines
Livery leaked before it was teased
On December 16th, Delta Air Lines posted a video to its Twitter account, captioning it, "Something big is coming."  The 11-second video shows close-up shots of an aircraft being painted, with decals being applied. However, the shots are so close in that it's not easy to tell the type of aircraft and what the exact design might be.
The tease video would indicate that the aircraft is a widebody of some sort, and the usage of colors red, white, and blue would indicate something fairly patriotic- especially with quick glimpses of white stars. However, this is as much as Delta has been willing to divulge at the moment.
However, anyone following the Twitter account @BoardingPassRO or traveling to, from, or through Delta's Atlanta hub could have seen Delta's special livery already. The Twitter account posted a photo on December 14th showing the big and bold Team USA livery, with the A330-900 parked at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Sorry Delta! At least this livery leak isn't going to cause stock market turmoil or any massive controversy.
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About the painted jet
As mentioned by @BoardingPassRO, the A330neo being painted is a -900 registered N411DX. According to Planespotters.net, the jet was delivered to Delta in May of 2021. Indeed, the aircraft is actually one of the airline's newest at just over half-a-year old. Interestingly, Planespotters.net data also indicates that this jet has had a special livery applied as of December 2021.
Configured with three classes, the A330-900 has 29 seats in business, 28 in premium economy, and 224 in economy class.
Prior to having its new livery applied, RadarBox.com data indicates that the jet was completing international missions such as Seattle-Tokyo and Seattle-Seoul as well as New York-Tel Aviv and New York-Paris earlier in November. However, throughout much of November, the widebody appeared to be busier operating one particular domestic mission: Seattle-Detriot, making at least nine round-trips between the two US cities.
It looks like the jet had its livery applied in early December, as its last tracked flight took place on November 29th, flying from Detriot to Atlanta. Data from FlightRadar24.com indicates that N411DX is scheduled to reposition from Atlanta to New York tomorrow, and then operate a New York-Amsterdam service later in the day.
With Delta's status as the Official Airline of LA28 and Team USA from January 1st, 2021, the airline will also be sponsoring the national team for other Olympic games. This includes the Beijing 2022, Paris 2024, Milan Cortina 2026 Games. Thus, we can expect to see more special liveries coming from Delta in the years to come!
What do you think of this new livery? Let us know by leaving a comment.