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.
