Independent Living blog post, 2 Aug 2016: Airport experiences of disabled passengers

Study headed by Kay Allen, OBE recommends more collaboration between airlines, airports and service providers

A new report based on the experiences of 543 passengers has recommended more collaboration between airlines, airports and service providers to improve the accessibility of UK airports. The report was commissioned to support the fact-finding phase of a long-term improvement programme led by facilities management company OCS Group, in order to gain a better understanding of disabled passengers’ needs and how to address them.

Many disabled passengers don’t know about booking assistance in advance

The report found that lack of knowledge among disabled passengers about the advance booking process led to uncertainty, lack of confidence in service provision and customer dissatisfaction. The main passenger uncertainty was confusion over the roles and respective responsibilities of the airline, airport, baggage handler and customer service provider. By contrast, frequent flyers who knew how to book and specify the assistance they need reported a higher level of satisfaction with the Passenger Assistance Service.

Lord Blunkett, chair of the easyJet Special Assistance Advisory Group (ESAAG), contributed to the report. In his submission, he acknowledged that air travel is complex but called for a travel experience for disabled people that is efficient, seamless and respectful:

“Confusion about individual-specific travel needs can become misinterpreted. I have, for example, as a blind person, experienced being offered a wheelchair at the airport. Dignity and access that many simply take for granted can be denied to disabled people”.

Amongst the recommendations of the report, better use of technology

The report puts forward 16 recommendations for industry consideration, including improved use of technology for service co-ordination and to record the nature of individual disabilities to help deliver the support required, as indicated by these respondents:

“The airline knows I am a vegetarian on my membership form but they don’t know I have a limb difference, which means I need help with my bags. I can’t record this anywhere. So often when I turn up at the airport there is a wheelchair waiting for me. I don’t need a chair, my legs work just fine.”

“I want to feel peace of mind. For it to reliable and consistent. Currently, it causes much anxiety as you never know whether the assistance you have requested/booked will actually happen. Also, what happens seems to differ every time–even with the same airline.”

Confidence in support for disabled passengers very low

• 17% of disabled passengers confident that the airport would handle their access requirements well
• 83% worried about the service to various degrees
• 32% reporting “a lot of fear”
• 27% worrying “a great deal” about how they will manage at the airport

Quality of service in practice actually better than people fear

Yet when judging quality, only 14% felt it was poor, with 11% rating it as poor and 3% extremely poor.

One proposal is development of an App to support a consistent and global booking process across all airlines and service providers. The report suggests this innovation could help to resolve the recurring problem of inconsistency of service between different locations and between different parties in the service delivery chain, in order to prevent the types of inconsistencies reported in the study.

“The three-part set-up means they are all happy to pass the buck to someone else. More consistency and responsibility would help.”

“It can be very good, although this is rare, and it can be appalling. The inconsistency causes huge amounts of worry.”

“I never get the same service twice – it all just seems such a mystery – why can’t it be consistent? This would remove the fear I have.”

A third of disabled passengers don’t pre-book airport assistance

The study revealed that 30 percent of disabled passengers are still not booking their airport assistance in advance, and this can result in a huge strain on resources at the airport, with associated implications on cost and also on the quality of service delivered to those who have pre-booked.

Some respondents thought it would be a good idea to provide an enhanced service for pre-booked assistance, and also that airlines showed make it clearer that disabled passengers need to notify the airport in advance of their assistance needs when they book:

“If you book your car in for a service you don’t expect to be bumped down the queue just because someone else arrived without a booking. Now you have pointed it out it does make sense to have a scheme that gives better service to pre-booked appointments. This would also educate customers for future trips.”

“I did not know I could book in advance and approached passenger assistance on the day of travel.”

“I didn’t know how to book assistance in advance, I just assumed it was made available on demand.”

Download the full report, Challenging for Change: Airport Experiences: How disabled people feel about the service they receive as a PDF