Olympics and airports

Mustn’t forget the classic quote from Jacques Rogge who, at the time of the Commonwealth Games – incidentally, has anyone seen ANY thanks for success of them being the launch pad for the Olympic Games bid? – said that Manchester needed an international airport if it wanted to have a worthwhile bid!

Flanders

I wonder if any other airports will benefit aside from the London ones. Probably not 🙁

What will the Calais and Lille airports be doing? They are pretty close to Stratford (less than a hour, I think…)

I wonder if any other airports will benefit aside from the London ones. Probably not 🙁

Southend might benefit. Its the right side of London for the Olympic Park, and if/when the new airport railway station opens it will be served by the same service as Stratford

How long does it take to build a frikkin runway? 😮 Not seven years, that’s for sure!

The actual building does not take that long, indeed. But getting planning permission is. And once the permission is there you still have to relocate 100s of families to make room for the runway.

You can bet I will be there a few days, and not for the sports! (sorry)

I do wonder if the combined London airports will be able to handle the additional/upgraded flights. At most airports capacity is already getting close. T5 at LHR will help a bit, but perhaps one or two additional runways might be needed as well. LHR would be great but impossible in the timeframe available. STN would be my bet if any runways where to be build.

Of course the airports will be able to handle it, lets face it, many cities that have had the Olympics in recent years have had significantly less air transport capacity available. Furthermore I expect demand for air sevices generally will change over that period as I expect there will be very little leisure traffic into London that is not associated with the Olympics (for a start there wouldn’t be enough hotel beds in London if that were not the case), so that can all be taken away from the typical weekly demand. It is also likely that business travel patterns will alter slightly to reflect the circumstances for a couple of weeks.

I think it is one of the IOC’s requirements that candidate cities must be able to handle 1 million+ air passengers in one day because of surges at the start and finish.

LHR would be great but impossible in the timeframe available.

How long does it take to build a frikkin runway? 😮 Not seven years, that’s for sure! And now, His Tonyness will be able to override the objections and justify it on the basis of the Olympics – flatten a few houses, a little more noise, mere trivialities in comparison to the benefits the games will bring to some area of the southeast none of the rest of the country wants to go to or will be able to get to! :diablo:

Andy

You can bet I will be there a few days, and not for the sports! (sorry)

I do wonder if the combined London airports will be able to handle the additional/upgraded flights. At most airports capacity is already getting close. T5 at LHR will help a bit, but perhaps one or two additional runways might be needed as well. LHR would be great but impossible in the timeframe available. STN would be my bet if any runways where to be build.

Spotter’s delight – the Olympic flights

Yep,

So all the UK chasers of airborne aluminium tubes will be able to join the rest of us who live and work in the South East, plus all the thousands of overseas competitors and visitors coming here to enjoy the Games, and we can all then spend many happy hours sitting stationary on the London Orbital Car park 😀 .

Of course, Uncle Tony and his mate Ken will have sorted the transport system out by then won’t they? So there’ll be no more traffic jams ever again – :rolleyes:

oink flap, oink flap, oink flap…..oh look there goes a flying pig…..

Paul F
Long term resident of the ever more overcrowded South Eastern corner of this green and pleasant land.

Id say Stanstead will be busy

I’ve just been thinking, that come 2012 it’s going to be spotters delight for us people living around London. I expect there will be a huge influx of flights at all the London airports, and I guess places like Farnborough are gonna be packed with various important visitors from across the World.