Heathrow airport could be thrown into chaos as it struggles to cope with the mass influx of Olympic visitors. Tourists, many from outside the EU, could be deterred from returning to Britain if they have to wait more than an hour to clear immigration, culture media and sport committee chairman John Whittingdale wrote. ‘The second impact may be that planes cannot unload their passengers into the terminal due to capacity being exceeded’, he cautioned. ‘This would lead to circling in the air, planes being left on runways or planes blocking gates.’ While plans had been made for ‘the Olympic family’, flight schedules had not been changed and there was no contingency for the extra time needed to unload additional baggage, he added. Committee members Therese Coffey and Gerry Sutcliffe had met airport operator BAA but ‘did not leave the briefing confident that Heathrow was ready to cope,’ Mr Whittingdale revealed in the letter to culture secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Just few days ago BAA announced that Heathrow carried over 70 million passengers in a year ending March 2012, reaching the milestone in an otherwise ‘challenging economic environment’. It doesn’t say much about the depth of decline in the quality of service. Heathrow now operates at 99.2 per cent of its maximum capacity, which means that there is no space for even the slightest disruption without causing the scaling knock-on effects - a guarantee for further increase in the number and length of disruptions. Just over two years ago a small amount of snow brought misery to nearly 1m of would-be passengers stranded worldwide (see Beyond Heathrow Disruptions).
Could Heathrow, be saved from being thrown into chaos during the Olympics? Hard to believe, even for hardcore optimists. Good luck!
