Bristol Airport criticised for lack of accessibility
A report from the UK Civil Aviation Authority says the airport needs to improve its service
Bristol Airport has been criticised for its lack of accessibility in a report from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The CAA says after a challenging summer for the industry, a number of airports provided "an unacceptable level of service to disabled people" and names Bristol Airport as one of them.
The Interim Airport Accessibility Report assesses 16 of the UK's largest airports and covers a period from April 1 and October 31 of this year.
"Earlier this year, the regulator wrote to airports informing them that the experience passengers received was unacceptable and told those who were underperforming that it expected them to do more to improve the quality of assistance throughout the rest of the summer," a statement from the CAA reads.
"The UK Civil Aviation Authority required several airports to put in place action plans, together with airlines, which saw marked improvements in performance."
London Luton has been labelled the worst performing airport, while only Aberdeen, Belfast International, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London City were rated as ‘very good’ for the whole period under review.
A total of eight airports were ranked as ‘poor’ in early months of the reporting period as, the CAA says, too many disabled passengers and passengers with reduced mobility were waiting for "unacceptably long periods" for help when they arrived.
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.
Bristol, Leeds Bradford and London Heathrow are still deemed as "needing improvement".
Only London Luton airport continues to be ranked as poor.
Paul Smith, Director of Consumers at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, 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.”
In response a spokesperson for Bristol Airport told us they are "disappointed" with the survey results.
"We will continue to work with OCS, the special assistance provider, to provide consistent and high-quality assistance to all customers and put remedial plans in place to address the issues to ensure we continue providing high levels of service and assistance, our customers expect," they say.
“Record numbers of customers with disabilities are travelling through Bristol Airport year on year, and we take it very seriously to provide assistance and help that meets individual customer needs.”
You can read the full CAA report here.