London 2012: Airports prepare for Olympic Games exodus

London airports are prepared for the departure of about 200,000 people a day this week as visitors leave the UK after the Olympic Games.

Heathrow is expecting 116,000 passengers to leave daily from Monday, with Gatwick expecting 70,000.

Heathrow has set up a special Games terminal to process the departures of around 8,000 athletes.

The temporary terminal is part of Heathrow's £20m investment in handling London 2012 passengers.

The terminal has 31 check-in desks and seven security lanes to help deal with the high number of departures.

Monday is expected to be Heathrow's busiest day with about 5,000 athletes leaving.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow airport operator BAA, said: "We hope that Olympic athletes, spectators and officials enjoyed a great welcome to London.

"Olympic departures present a fresh challenge with new facilities like the Games terminal being used for the first time.

"We have been preparing for seven years to deliver a farewell of which the whole country can be proud."

Heathrow has introduced a check-in and bag-drop at the Olympic Village and volunteers will form a guard of honour to cheer athletes off at the airport.

A spokeswoman for Gatwick said extra staff would be on duty.

She added: "There are some particular challenges, such as the large number and size of the athletes' bags.

"But we are used to dealing with a similar number of passengers during the busy summer period.

"We believe our work with Locog and the Department for Transport over the last two years will mean we're well prepared."

The athletes will be transferred airside from the temporary terminal at Heathrow by coach to a regular departure point.

The terminal will be decommissioned after three days and returned to its normal use as a staff car park.

A spokesman for Heathrow said regular passengers should check-in as normal three hours before long-haul flights and two hours before European flights.

"They can expect a normal journey and should not have to wait any longer than usual, but they might be lucky enough to spot some of the heroes of the 2012 Games in their departure lounge," he said.