Posted by laura on Jul 17, 2012 in Manchester Airport Olympics 2012
With thousands of athletes starting to arrive in the UK for the Olympics, yesterday Heathrow airport experienced its busiest day in history. Not only was there chaos at Heathrow airport, but it spread across the roads of London.
Yesterday athletes were been transferred from Heathrow to the Olympic Village (just 25 miles) by coach and it has been reported at least one coach got lost, spending about 4 hours on the road! On this coach was Two-time world 400 metres hurdles champion Kerron Clement who tweeted "Um, so we've been lost on the road for 4hrs. Not a good first impression London."
With so much pressure on Heathrow and London's rail and road networks, there is only really one question, why on earth didn't they send athletes to numerous UK airports and spread the load?
Manchester Airport is the largest outside the London region with over double the passengers of its nearest non-London rival, and is the only British airport other than London Heathrow to have two runways over 3,000m in length. Manchester Airport also benefits from been located close to major rail links and the M56 motorway, both of which offer quick and easy access to London and the rest of the UK.
This is just the first wave of arrivals for the Olympics, as spectators begin to descend on the UK, let's just hope that some of them chose to fly into Manchester Airport and take a little of the load off Heathrow!