MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brize Norton: check in four hours before departure

Royal Air Force Brize Norton will temporarily close its runway from mid-September 2005 through to January 2006 for maintenance and capability expansion work which means Falkland Islands passengers will have to check in at least four hours before departure.

Aircrafts normally operating from Brize Norton will be deployed to RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, some 10 miles west of Brize Norton, which inevitably will demand more time and patience from passengers.

RAF Fairford is predominantly a bomber station and as such has no passenger facilities consequently RAF Brize Norton facilities will continue to be used, with passengers enduring a longer drive out to the aircraft - approximately 45 minutes!

More time will be spent in a coach, and hopefully less time in the final departure lounge. However, to enable security processing, baggage transportation and the timely loading of aircraft, the latest check-in time at RAF Brize Norton will be increased by 2 hours for the duration of the runway closure.

This means that ALL passengers must report to an RAF Brize Norton check-in desk at least FOUR hours before departure.

All passengers on arrival back in the UK will disperse from RAF Brize Norton for customs, security and practical reasons.

The official RAF release code names the runaway closure period as Operation BOLTHOLE and states that every effort has been made during the planning stages to identify new, innovative ways of working to enable more concurrent activity, reducing waiting time for passengers.

Many people will be working longer hours behind the scenes and doing more than one ?day' job in attempt to reduce passenger ?pain'. All we can offer is our commitment to get this unavoidable and hugely important task completed as quickly, safely and with the least impact possible on all our customers. Indeed, hopefully this will only affect the majority of passengers once or twice at most; we would therefore urge all passengers to report on or before time and please, be patient!

In the first instance, please confirm with your Unit Travel Staffs your flight and reporting details during the Bolthole period. However, if you have any queries that still need to be resolved or you encounter difficulties during your travelling time, please contact the RAF Brize Norton Passenger Information Desk.