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Heathrow Airport to Undergo Dramatic Changes

One of the largest international airports in the world, Heathrow Airport serves over 70 million passengers annually

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Heathrow Airport to Undergo Dramatic Changes

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  1. Olympic Arrivals Test Heathrow’s Limits

  2. Quite a while before the July 27th opening of the Olympic Games, London Heathrow Airport celebrated the vital role it would play in the success of this year’s Games by hanging an enormous set of Olympic rings in its busy Terminal 5. Shortly thereafter, passengers and Olympic officials resumed questioning whether the airport was up to the task of handling Olympic traffic. Critics had plenty of reasons to be sceptical in the weeks leading up to the Games.

  3. Earlier this year, Heathrow suffered staff shortages severe enough to cause immigration wait times in excess of triple BAA’s target period. Travellers with British or E.U. passports should not wait more than 25 minutes to clear customs and all other passport holders should be processed within 45 minutes, according to BAA’s own standards. Once in late April, many customers were still waiting to enter the country after public transportation had shut down for the night. Heathrow and the airlines had to hire Heathrow airport taxis to take the delayed travellers home.

  4. At the end of June, travellers arriving at Heathrow endured similar, though less severe customs frustrations. Annoyed customers reported empty stations and queue times of up to two and one half hours and lines up to half a mile. With such airport traffic jams occurring under fairly normal conditions, many wondered if Heathrow could handle the strain of processing hundreds of thousands of Olympic athletes, officials and spectators.

  5. To allay concerns over the airport’s readiness, BAA related that Border Force stations would be covered during the highest Olympic arrival times by Home Office personnel. The main influx of Olympic participants began on July 15th, though athletes had been filtering in for weeks. Heathrow also recruited 1,000 volunteers to lighten the workload, half of whom were called in on Monday, July 16th. Pink accreditation desks were also scattered throughout Heathrow, though they did not take the place of regular immigration procedures.

  6. Despite the misgivings of passengers and other airport critics, Heathrow has handled the flow of Olympic passengers smoothly and efficiently. VIP buses were lined up waiting to take arriving teams to the Olympic Village, and London prepared for heightened congestion by designating Olympic-only traffic lanes. Though these lanes have done much to expedite Olympians’ arrival at the Olympic Park, they are not helping regular traffic.

  7. Travellers arriving at or departing Heathrow during the Games would do well to hire Heathrow taxis. As has been previously demonstrated, immigration lines can make relying on public transportation risky. Traveling via Heathrow Airport taxi is usually quicker and more convenient anyway, especially since Heathrow taxis are allowed in bus lanes, unlike other car traffic.

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