Air Force One Lands At Heathrow Airport - And Causes Delays

Monday 16th June 2008

Passengers using Heathrow Airport suffered some delays this weekend after a visit by President George W. Bush cut flight rates for some time.

It is believed that that flow rate of aircraft using the airport was reduced as a result of Air Force One arriving which is normally 42 aircraft taking-off or landing every hour at the airport. This had to be cut to approximately 24 an hour as the President arrived. The backlog delayed many passengers as up to 180,000 passengers using Heathrow Airport every day.

The arrival of President Bush means that his Air Force One Boeing 747 was given priority landing clearance as well as another back-up Boeing 747 and a Boeing 757. In addition to this four helicopters will be used to protect the President and a fleet of armoured cars. The armoured cars arrived on Thursday last week which led to delays of up to an hour for many passengers as well.