Olympics 2012 could cause Heathrow baggage problems

Most athletes typically travel with five bags each compared with an average of 1.5 bags for normal passengers

This means that airports will need to be prepared to cope with this extra baggage and most of the athletes are expecting to be using Heathrow airport. With so many arriving in the airport next summer, Heathrow are putting plans in to place to cope with it all. They are considering a selection of options at the moment.

They have admitted that it is likely that they will have to pay the price of transporting the extra baggage and have said that they may have to use courier jets to transport it. This could cost them millions of pounds and they are talking to private freight companies to try to come up with some arrangements. They are thinking of using companies such as UPS to help them out. They need to be able to move luggage from the Olympic village to the destination point.

They have also considered setting up a temporary terminal to help with all of the extra traffic coming in to the airport. Heathrow is expecting to see 600,000 more people arriving including 50,000 athletes, sponsors and officials. They have predicted that the day of the closing ceremony will be their busiest and they expect most athletes to travel home that day and they expect to have 218,000 bags to handle on that day. They have already found 1,000 volunteers to assist the athletes through immigration and baggage collection when they arrive at the airport.

       Selman TENGÜZ

   Wednesday, May 18, 2011

       Talip BÖLÜKBAŞI

   Thursday, May 19, 2011