2012-09-10 — /travelprnews.com/ — London September 10 2012: Heathrow today waved goodbye to 5,000 departing Paralympic athletes and officials following the largest ever Paralympic Games.
It has been a fantastic summer of sport for Great Britain and, as the Host Airport for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Heathrow has been the first – and last – port of call for 80 per cent of Olympic and Paralympic Games family and visitors to the UK.
Since the start of Heathrow’s Games period over 75,000 journeys have been made by Paralympians, Olympians and team officials and over 2,800 wheelchairs have been processed. The airport also welcomed:
· 5,000 oversized bags including canoes, javelins, bikes, pole vault poles
· 1,300 firearms plus ammunition
· 20,000 members of the media
As the UK’s only hub airport, Heathrow is used to welcoming visitors that require additional assistance and while the Olympics presented Heathrow with a challenge of volume, the Paralympic challenge has been one of complexity.
Heathrow has spent the last seven years preparing for the challenges of the Olympic and Paralympic Games: consulting previous host airports, experts Whizz-Kidz and Open Doors, and the Paralympic athletes themselves. In addition to reviewing processes and procedures, Heathrow recruited and trained staff and 1,000 volunteers, installed new ramps and lifts and sourced a specialist technician for onsite wheelchair repairs.
BAA Chief Executive, Colin Matthews, said:
“This has been a fantastic Games for London and at Heathrow, we are proud to have played our part as the host airport. I’d like to thank all our staff and the volunteers that have been working with us during this period.
“The focus is now on London 2012 legacy and many of the improvements at Heathrow will continue to benefit all our passengers for years to come.”
Heathrow is now looking forward to passing the baton to the next host airports, Rio de Janeiro and Sochi and sharing our experiences of the London 2012 Games.
In order to meet the challenge posed by the Paralympic Games, Heathrow partnered with mobility charity Whizz-Kidz. They offered first-hand, expert guidance on how to further improve the airport’s accessibility. The charity audited Heathrow’s terminal facilities and suggested a number of improvements, including:
The new facilities and additional staff training, which are part of BAA’s £20million investment in the London 2012 Games, will continue to benefit all passengers with reduced mobility long after the last Paralympic departure.
As Official Host Airport for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Heathrow will facilitate the journeys of around 80 per cent of the several hundred thousand spectators expected to attend the Games as well as more than 10,000 athletes.
It will be business as usual for 19 million passengers expected to use the airport to travel for business, fly home or on holiday between July and September. The airport has therefore put a number of initiatives in place to bring the excitement and visual spectacle of the Olympics directly to them.
A full schedule of all planned events can be found by visiting:
http://www.heathrowairport.com/about-us/host-airport-of-the-2012-games/special-events-at-the-airport
Media with London 2012 accreditation during the Games period will be entitled to free Heathrow Express travel – just show your pass on board the train.
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