Heathrow Airport will begin construction next month of a special terminal only to be used by athletes leaving the Olympic Games this summer.
The Games Terminal, part of the airport’s £20m preparations for the Olympics, will be erected on a staff car park on the south side of the airport. It will be the departure point for 10,100 athletes.
Airport owner BAA has forecast that13 August – the day after the closing ceremony – will be its busiest day ever, with 138,000 passengers, which is 45% more than usual. The airport already operates close to capacity, said Heathrow’s Olympic planning chief Nick Cole, and so the London 2012 Games represented “a unique operational task and a massive challenge for Heathrow”.
The airport also plans to build extra for wheelchair-using competitors at the Paralympics.
