With less than 100 days until the start of the 2012 Summer Olympic games, British Airways (an official partner for the event) has decked out nine of its Airbus A319s in a new golden, dove inspired livery.

British Airways Olympic Dove Livery (Source: flightglobal.com)

The designer Pascal Anson was quoted as saying:

“The Dove signifies a positive message wherever you go in the world. I also hope it makes people stop, think and look twice. It will be very special to see these aircraft in flight, and I hope that passengers, athletes and VIP’s flying in to the London 2012 Games will be very excited to be on this celebratory aircraft.”

British Airways adds that the new design turns the aircraft into a bird of peace, though opinions from the public are mixed. You can view a time lapse of one of the planes being painted below.

Athletes and their families attending the games will also have access to a specially constructed temporary terminal at London’s notoriously busy Heathrow Airport. Olympic and airport officials are determined that athletes leave the country with a positive experience. Heathrow Airport expects the 13th of August to be the busiest day in their history with an extra 40,000 passengers anticipated. Heathrow airport is also recruiting 1000 volunteers to help deal with passenger enquiries. Passengers parking in Terminal 5′s business car park will we able to use Heathrow’s recently unveiled driverless pods whipping them across to the main terminal in quiet comfort at up to 40kms an hour along a 3.9 kilometre track.

Heathrow Pods

To help ease congestion around other parts of the city, final preparations are being made on the newly constructed cable car, Emirates Air Lines, that will cross the Thames. Up to 2500 passengers per hour will be able to cross the river on a one kilometre track between two newly constructed stations. Those with a fear of heights may want to keep away as the cable car soars to over 50 metres above the river.  The western end will be near the O2 Arena with convenient access to the London underground via North Greenwich station. The eastern end will be near the ExCeL Centre (also an Olympics venue) in London’s Docklands with passengers able to access the remainder of the city’s public transport via the Royal Victoria Light Rail Station. The crossing is expected to take around five minutes with cable cars coming in 15 second intervals. Disabled and cyclist access is provided and passengers will be able to use their Oyster card to pay for the journey. View the virtual journey below.