Olympic athletes and VIPs to get passport fast lane at Heathrow
03.01.12
Plans to fast-track Olympic athletes, coaches and officials through Heathrow for the Olympics could mean extra delays for other fliers, the Daily Mail reports. Immigration staff will be transferred from their normal duties, and UK Border Agency (UKBA) policy documents warn the process could cause huge delays, it adds.
Up to 80 percent of foreign Olympics visitors will go through Heathrow - including athletes, kit, officials, sponsors, media and spectators. The scheme to fast-track 25,000 athletes, coaches and officials will mean delays for other fliers, according to the UKBA.
A spokesman for the airport, which is an official Olympics sponsor, insisted it would cope with the massive passenger influx. However, it has little control over queues at Border control, as the desks are manned by UKBA staff. And Heathrow bosses admitted that after the fiasco of the Terminal 5 opening – in which the baggage system collapsed – this would be their ‘greatest challenge’, the newspaper reports.
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