The aviation regulator has warned UK airports they will face enforcement action if they keep failing disabled and less mobile passengers.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has demanded airports set out improvements by next week and said it will use enforcement powers, which include court orders, if failures continue. The regulatory threat comes after a series of incidents in which wheelchair users were abandoned on aircraft or offered no help despite having booked assistance.
They included Daryl Tavernor, 33, who has spinal muscular atrophy, and was left on a plane at Manchester airport for more than two hours before phoning the police to help get him through border control. He said the ordeal felt like being held hostage in his own country.
Manchester airport eventually apologised to Tavernor but did not take responsibility for his treatment.
A disabled woman was left stranded on a plane for more than an hour and a half at Gatwick airport last week. Victoria Brignell, from west London, was told she would have to wait on the plane from Malta for 50 minutes, despite her wheelchair arriving “promptly”.
However, Wilson James, a firm contracted to help disabled passengers, did not arrive to assist her. The firm and Gatwick both apologised and said they were investigating the incident.
Last month, the BBC’s security editor, Frank Gardner, expressed his frustration at being left on a plane “again” when Heathrow airport failed to deliver his wheelchair.
The aviation regulator’s letter sent to all UK airports said: “The CAA is very concerned about the increase in reports that we have received of significant service failings.”
The CAA expressed its alarm and disappointment at the “dip in performance at some airports” in assistance for disabled passengers. It said: “Our own reporting framework tells us that many more disabled and less mobile passengers have had to wait longer for assistance than usual.”
The CAA acknowledged that problems were linked to staff shortages at airports, but it warned airports this was no excuse. It said: “Despite the current disruption, these incidents could have been avoided by better management of the assistance service function by airports and their contracted service providers.”
It instructed airports to inform the CAA by 21 June what they have done to “stop the significant service failures happening in the future”. It added: “The provision of service to disabled and less mobile passengers is something that the industry must get right as quickly as possible.”
The CAA said it was committed to getting performance levels back to levels seen before the pandemic, and beyond.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, welcomed the letter. She said: “In recent weeks, disabled people have experienced some truly appalling service failures and been left on planes for hours without any communication.
“We are pleased that the letter recognises that even in normal times assistance services weren’t always of good quality and calls on the industry to improve practice going forward. We hope that the CAA will keep a close watch on the situation and use any powers it has to ensure disabled travellers get the support we need.”
Tavernor called on the CAA to publish airports’ improvement plans for disabled users. He said: “We need to see the tangible evidence of what they propose. It has been an appalling service for years. And it has taken some bad publicity for them to finally react.”
