LATAM Airlines, official airline for the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, will be in charge of transporting athletes, technical officials, and managers of the thirteen countries competing in the most important multi-sport event in the continent, that will be held for the first time in Peru.
The agreement was entered into by the president of Lima 2019, Carlos Neuhaus, the president of Panam Sports, Neven Ilic, and the CEO of LATAM Airlines Peru, Manuel van Oordt.
The ceremony brought together the president of the Peruvian Olympic Committee, Pedro del Rosario and the Lima 2019 Ambassadors, the soccer player Héctor Chumpitaz, the badminton player Pilar Jáuregui, and the karate athlete Alexandra Grande, that performed a demonstration with the Peruvian karate team, attended by Neuhaus, Ilic, Van Oordt, and the Games mascot Milco.
The Agreement
As part of this agreement, LATAM Airlines will transport a total of 4904 people to Lima, who are part of the delegations from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. At the end of the Pan American Games, they will be returned to their respective countries.
The president of Panam Sports, Neven Ilic, who came to Lima especially for this occasion, pointed out that the athletes experience is the main focus of the organization and that the agreement with the airline will help to make it the best possible.
“It is very important to us that, within all the possibilities that a company like LATAM has, it has decided to support Lima 2019. When I think of Lima 2019 as a brand, next to a great company with many years of experience and as successful as LATAM, I have the feeling that things are going well. We are really grateful to all the people that, like us, are in this fight to bring the Olympic and Pan American sport forward.”
In turn, Carlos Neuhaus Tudela, executive director of Lima 2019 thanked LATAM for its trust in this event.
“Trust that we will not disappoint. We have already had meetings not only to address the issue of sponsorship, but to coordinate logistic issues for athletes comfort and, above all, for Para athletes. Construction is not only about making a village of concrete, but about delivering a project like the Pan American Games, where an infinity of details come in.”
Van Oordt said that, for LATAM Airlines, this is an opportunity to be close to the most outstanding Latin American athletes. “Arriba Latinoamérica," (Go, Latin America!) "will be the official slogan of its campaign for the Pan American and Parapan American Games.
“It is an enormous responsibility to be able to bring athletes safely and seamlessly, and we are very grateful to Panam Sports and Lima 2019 for letting us do our bit in this magnificent organization. Lima is our headquarters, our home, our most important hub and therefore, we could not fail to participate in such a significant event for the city”.
LATAM will also be in charge of bringing the Pan American Torch, which route will begin in the ruins of Teotihuacan in Mexico to Machu Picchu, where it will begin its way through the main cities of the country.
Thanks to this agreement, a group of representatives appointed by LATAM will accompany the route of the torch across Peru, until lighting the Lima 2019 Pan American Games flame at the opening ceremony. Furthermore, the airline will also organize a series of contests to invite Peruvians to attend the competitions of the Lima 2019 Games and support athletes.
The Lima 2019 Pan American Games will be held between July 26 and August 11. 6680 athletes from 41 countries will participate from all over the Americas, who will compete in 39 sports and 62 disciplines. There will be 23 qualifying disciplines for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.