VIPs get Olympic lane at Heathrow airport - but everyone else faces delays

[richard]

Olympic VIPs are to be given dedicated passport lanes at Heathrow airport this summer.

The scheme to fast-track 25,000 athletes, coaches and officials will mean delays for other fliers, according to the UK Border Agency.

Queues at Terminal 4 for non-EU arrivals already reach two hours at peak times.

Thousands of immigration staff will be transferred from their normal duties to deal with London 2012 arrivals.

A spokesman for the airport, which is an official Olympics sponsor, insisted it would cope with the massive influx.

But Heathrow bosses admitted that after the fiasco of the Terminal 5 opening – in which the baggage system collapsed – this would be their ‘greatest challenge’.

Officials and athletes who have not registered in advance will have to have their fingerprints and photographs taken by border staff when they enter the country.

The information will be checked against immigration and security watch-lists of potential terrorists and criminals and stored on a database.

The process will cost more than £2million including the charge for training 2,000 Border Agency staff to collect the data.

Border Agency policy documents seen by the Mail warn the process could cause huge delays.

Under a section marked ‘key risks’ the documents state: ‘The collection of biometrics may result in (passengers being) unduly delayed passing through border control.

‘Dedicated lanes and the time taken to collect the biometrics of GFM (Games Family Members) may result in delays to non-Olympic passenger journeys.’

However, as revealed by the Mail yesterday, 80,000 Olympic officials and VIPs will be spared road traffic as they are chauffeured in luxury BMWs along 250 miles of reserved lanes to venues from hotels and airports.

Heathrow handles 186,000 passengers a day with 400 Border Agency officials on duty to deal with them.

An agency spokesman said: ‘We have plans in place to make Games Family Members’ arrivals at Heathrow as quick and simple as possible.

‘We expect most visa nationals will already have provided their biometric information prior to Games time and there will be dedicated Olympic lanes at Heathrow to speed up the process where we need to collect the biometric information of those who haven’t.

‘We are working closely with our partners, including BAA, to help deliver a safe and secure London 2012 Games.’

Up to 80 per cent of foreign Olympics visitors will go through the airport – including athletes, kit, officials, sponsors, media and spectators.

The day after the closing ceremony – August 13 – is expected to be Heathrow’s busiest ever day.

About 218,000 bags should leave the airport, compared with a previous record of 160,000.

A Heathrow spokesman said: ‘Around 15 per cent of the bags will be outsize sporting equipment such as canoes, vaulting poles or bikes, which cannot be processed through normal baggage systems.

‘Options being considered to manage the extra demand include baggage drop facilities at the Olympic village, shipping some baggage as freight, and construction of a temporary “Olympic terminal” which would be taken down after the Games.’

Heathrow is recruiting 1,000 local volunteers to greet the athletes, VIPs and spectators.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said: ‘Heathrow will be the first and last impression of the London 2012 Games for thousands of people.

'London 2012 will be Heathrow’s greatest challenge.

‘Every part of the airport is working together so we can give the world’s greatest athletes the world’s greatest welcome.’

Commuters are being urged to walk to work or work from home during the Games in a bid to stop the capital’s transport system grinding to a halt.

Transport minister Norman Baker urged workers to ‘think differently about how you travel’ to counter an expected 25 per cent rise in the number of trips being made on August 3 – the first day of track and field athletics.

The Government aims to cut non-Olympic travelling by nearly a third.

Mr Baker said it would be ‘a once-in-a-generation test for our transport system and our adaptability’.

Up to 800,000 spectators and 55,000 athletes, officials, organisers and members of the media will be on the move every day.


Source
By Jack Doyle & Ray Massey
Home | Mail Online