UK's airports to be the best in the world for accessibility

Over the past year, UK airports have received four million requests for assistance from passengers with limited mobility. This is almost double the number recorded in 2015, when the country introduced airport accessibility requirements. Over the past five years, 10 million requests have been received. Thus, air travel becomes more convenient for people with disabilities, and passengers more often choose airplanes to travel.

How to turn an airport into a place without barriers - in a new report from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

UK Civil Aviation Authority: “We strongly believe that everyone should have access to air travel, and we welcome the substantial improvements that airports have made for those passengers that are living with a disability or reduced mobility. The industry has worked alongside consumer and disability groups to improve every part of the consumer journey, considering the individual needs of each passenger”

Since 2015, the CAA has been annually evaluating British airports for accessibility and services for passengers with special needs - people with disabilities, people with limited mobility and the elderly, parents with small children. The participants receive ratings “very good”, “good”, “requiring improvements” and “poor”, as well as expert recommendations for further work.

In the UK, according to official data, every fifth has a disability.

And here is the result - for the second year in a row, no UK airport receives a "poor" for accessibility. The fifth report was compiled for the period from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 - before the lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic. The work of 15 airports was noted as "very good", another 13 participants in the rating received "good", and only three air harbors received an assessment from experts as " requiring improvements ". At the same time, the CAA note that this is due to the robustness of how the data was provided during reporting rather than due to direct concerns over assistance services at these airports.

Paul Smith, Director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “We want all passengers to feel confident with the flying experience. As the industry looks to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and consumers plan their travel for 2021, we hope that passengers with reduced mobility and hidden disabilities feel confident about the services they will receive. It is great to see the level of progress made by UK airports over the last five years, but there are still areas that need further improvement as our ambition as a regulator is for the UK's airports to be the best in the world for accessibility."

George Best Belfast City, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Derry City, Newquay Cornwall, Doncaster Sheffield, East Midlands, Exeter, Glasgow and Glasgow Prestwick, Humberside, Newcastle, Norwich and Samboro got "very good" from the CAA. 

Experts rated Southampton, Manchester, Stansted, Luton, Heathrow, Gatwick and London City, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Leeds Bradford, Inverness, Edinburgh, Belfast International and Birmingham as "good". 
 
Those who still have work to do include London Southend, Kirkwall Airport in the Orkney Islands and Aberdeen Airport.