Heathrow Airport is considering building a temporary terminal to cope with the additional volumes of passengers and bags during next year’s London Olympics.
Estimates suggest roughly 80% of all Olympics passengers will travel through the airport.
Heathrow Airport’s operator BAA expects August 13, the day after the Olympics closing ceremony, to be its busiest day next year.
On that day, the airport will need to be able to handle some 218,000 bags, 58,000 more than the day before.
Included in the extra bags will be outsized sporting equipment such as canoes, pole vaults or bikes, which will put extra strain on the airport as they can’t be processed through the normal baggage systems.
A new Olympic Terminal is one option for coping with the additional volume of luggage. This would be built specifically for the Olympics, and deconstructed afterwards.
Other options include setting up a bag drop facility at the Olympic village and shipping some baggage as freight.
Colin Matthews, BAA’s CEO, said: “We are tremendously proud to be the host airport of the London 2012 Games. Heathrow will be the first and last impression of the London 2012 Games for thousands of people.
“London 2012 will be Heathrow’s greatest challenge. Every part of the airport is working together so we can give the world’s greatest athletes the world’s greatest welcome.”
Heathrow is also planning to recruit some 1,000 volunteers to help out at the airport over the Olympics.