A lengthy review by the aviation regulator has exposed numerous failings by airlines operating in the UK in how they treat their disabled passengers.
The review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) began four years ago, but it was interrupted by the pandemic.
It examined airlines’ websites, observed their operations at UK airports and sent them questionnaires, although many airlines failed to return them.
Some of the issues raised in the review report have been repeatedly highlighted in the media in recent years, including the delays experienced by many disabled passengers at the end of their flights.
The report says the interests of disabled passengers “were not always, in our view, fully considered” when aircraft were being emptied of passengers after landing, with some passengers “encouraged to walk off aircraft rather than wait for assistance”.
It also raises concerns about the provision of assistance to use in-flight toilets, and damage to mobility equipment carried on flights, two other high-profile issues.
The report says the performance of some airlines on how they deal with pre-flight requests for assistance is “sufficiently poor for us to question whether airlines are doing enough to capture assistance requests”.
It also raises concerns about how some airlines are restricting the number of disabled passengers on each flight, and how they require medical clearance before they allow some passengers with health conditions to travel when “there may not always be a valid reason to do so”.
The CAA says in its report: “Our view is that some airlines are not doing enough to ensure that their processes are sufficiently robust to ensure that fair and proportionate decisions are being made on access to air travel for individual passengers with complex needs.”
There are also concerns that some check-in staff are not adequately trained to identify passengers who may require special assistance.
Now, four years after the review began, the CAA has announced plans for a new airlines accessibility framework.
The framework will rank airlines on how they serve their disabled passengers in areas such as website accessibility, how they carry mobility equipment, access to onboard toilets, and how they deal with assistance dogs and pre-flight requests for assistance.
The CAA said it did not plan to assess airlines against the new framework “all at once or necessarily on an annual basis” but aimed to assess the largest 20 airlines by passenger volumes in the first two years.
The regulator – which is responsible for enforcing UK regulations on the rights of disabled air passengers* – has now launched a three-month consultation on its draft plans for the framework.
It says that a similar framework for UK airports, launched nearly 10 years ago, has led to improved assistance for disabled passengers.
Four years ago, CAA was told it was only doing “half the job” by reporting on access at airports but failing to carry out similar investigations into whether airlines were meeting their legal duties to disabled passengers.
Anna Bowles, CAA’s head of consumer, said: “Our proposals to introduce this new framework are about holding airlines to account in meeting their obligations to disabled and less mobile passengers across all aspects of their journey.
“Consumers should have confidence that the standard of support they receive when flying will meet their needs.
“Assessing airlines against a standardised framework will ensure that disabled and less mobile passengers will be better informed when they choose which airline to fly with, and will highlight areas where airlines need to do better.”
*The regulations apply to all flights from the UK and flights to the UK on UK- and EU-registered carriers
Picture: Mike Smith, the equality watchdog’s former disability commissioner and a wheelchair-user, was left waiting on a plane for 45 minutes after its arrival at Gatwick airport last summer
A note from the editor:
Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.
Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.
Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…