BEIJING (Map) - BEIJING, March 18 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Air China, China's only flag-carrying airline, announced on March 13, 2008 that it had won the title of "the overseas charter flight carrier for the torch relay of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games" on March 12, 2008. Air China's luxury passenger plane A330 will not only fly the torch over 20 countries and regions across the big five continents in the Olympic Games journey, measuring a total flight mileage of more than 100,000 km, but it will also realize its ideal of helping to spread the Olympic spirit and promoting the Olympic movement worldwide.

Beijing won the right to stage the 2008 Olympic Games successfully in 2001. As a backbone national company and a representative of China's civil aviation, Air China had forged an inseparable tie with the Olympic Games on the day when it carried China's first Olympic delegation to participate in the Olympic Games it held in Los Angeles in 1984. This long-standing and deep Olympic feeling urged Air China to throw itself actively into the Olympic cause. On August 4, 2004, Air China defeated its rivals and finally qualified to be the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games air passenger transport partner, for its strength and careful preparations, after the BOCOG's evaluation and the approval of the IOC.

Commencing at the Olympic Games held in Berlin in 1936, the Olympic torch relay has experienced nearly 70 years' development and gradually evolved into an indispensable pre-Games Olympic ceremony. Air China's Olympic torch plane will be unveiled in Beijing on March 27, fly to Athens on March 29 to take the Olympic fire and start to pass it around the world on April 1. When the Olympic Games come to China from thousands of miles away, Air China will also have set the record of passing the torch for the longest distance, in the widest territory, and through the largest number of people in history.

Ms. Zhang Lan, Vice President of Air China, said, "We are very honored to win the title of the designated Olympic torch carrier. The torch relay is a significant event before the opening of the Olympic Games. As the carrier of the overseas charter flight for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games torch relay, Air China will spread traditional Chinese culture to the whole world. In addition, the staff of Air China will also aim to develop the Olympic spirit of 'faster, higher and stronger', by improving their products and services constantly, and serving passengers who are always concerned about and trust Air China."

SOURCE Air China