Airports criticised for “unacceptable level of service to disabled people”

Heathrow, Luton, Bristol and Leeds Bradford Airports have been criticised for their 'unacceptable level of service to disabled people and passengers with reduced mobility' in a new report.

Many disabled and less mobile passengers missed summer flights at Heathrow due to the airport’s poor accessibility performance, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has found.

The CAA did not specify how many passengers missed flights at Heathrow but described the total as “unacceptable”.

Its report highlighted the “particularly poor performance” at Terminal 5, where “many passengers” did not make connecting departures.

Some disabled and less mobile passengers at the west London airport’s Terminal 3 were also forced to wait for more than an hour to be transferred from one piece of equipment to another.

That contravened CAA guidance.

READ MORE: Double amputee child left stranded at Gatwick Airport

Some airports improved

Aberdeen, Belfast International, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London City Airports were rated as “very good” for their accessibility performance during the whole period analysed, which was between the start of April and the end of October.

Liverpool and Newcastle were rated as a mixture of “good” and “very good” across the period.

A total of eight airports were ranked as ‘poor’ in the early months of the study as too many disabled passengers and passengers with reduced mobility were waiting for unacceptably long periods for assistance on arrival.

However, following significant progress, Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Stansted and Manchester were rated as either ‘good’ or ‘very good’ by the end of the reporting period.

"Everyone should have access to air travel"

Paul Smith, director of consumers at the CAA, said: “The aviation industry has faced unprecedented challenges, but too many passengers at UK airports have been waiting for unacceptable amounts of time for assistance on arriving flights on too many occasions.

“We strongly believe that everyone should have access to air travel, and we welcome the substantial improvements that airports have made for disabled and less mobile passengers.

“We will continue to consider whether we need to take further action where airports are not delivering an acceptable level of performance, and not showing sufficient and sustained improvements.

“We want to see immediate further improvements, as well as airports being well prepared to provide a high-quality service during next year.”

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