UK airports are showing progress on the accessibility of their facilities according to the latest annual report from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), but some of the country’s biggest airports have more work to do.
For the first time since 2020, none of the country’s major airports received a “poor” accessibility rating from the CAA, with 11 being rated “very good”, but the regulator said more still needs to be done to improve air travel for passengers with disabilities.
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The CAA revealed the UK had seen an increase of 21% in the number of requests for assistance services at its airport and said while many airports had maintained or improved their level of service, the gap between average consumer satisfaction for passengers with and without disabilities continued to grow.
Anna Bowles, head of consumer policy and enforcement at the CAA, said: “Making aviation accessible to all is an important part of our work to protect the public and enable the aerospace sector.
“Progress is being made, and not rating any airports ‘poor’ this year is welcome, but there’s more work to do, especially by those airports we have rated ‘needs improvement’ in our report.”
Most notable in the CAA’s review is the rating of the country’s three biggest airports, with London Gatwick rated as “needs improvement” and Manchester and London Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, receiving a “good” rating.
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By GlobalDataA deep dive report on Heathrow published by the CAA highlighted that despite the airport improving on its 2023 rating, disability awareness training for its staff remained “insufficient” and designated accessibility points were broken or missing in some key areas.
The regulator also said that the lack of a separate security lane for less mobile passengers and those with disabilities was holding Heathrow back from “fully meeting its obligations” on accessibility, despite the CAA strongly recommending the measure in a 2016 report.
Other airports rated as needing improvement by the CAA included Bristol, Cardiff Wales, Liverpool and Norwich. Birmingham, Belfast International, Edinburgh and London Luton were given a “good” rating in the report.
Karen Dee, the CEO of aviation trade body AirportsUK, defended the country’s airports and said they were working “very hard” to continue heading in the right direction on improving the experience for passengers who require extra assistance.
She said: “More investment is being made in staff, training, technologies and accessible infrastructure, and airports are in continuous discussion with passenger groups to incorporate feedback, meaning we are confident that we will continue to see improvements.”
The equality of air travel has been a significant focus for the CAA since it published its Airport Accessibility Framework in 2014, with the UK government also addressing the issue with legislation to improve training on the handling of wheelchairs by ground staff last year.
