The UK's aviation body has called out airports for not properly catering for disabled people.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has singled out travel hubs for providing "an unacceptable level of service to disabled people and passengers with reduced mobility" between 1 April and 31 October 2022.
London Luton Airport is the worst performing in the country according to the aviation regulator’s Interim Airport Accessibility Report, and the only one to be judged 'poor'.
Bristol, Leeds Bradford and London Heathrow are still judged to need improvement after the CAA wrote to them earlier this year demanding that they improve.
The study comes just weeks after it was revealed that nearly half of disabled people choose to stay home because of negative holiday experiences.
Earlier this week, Pride of Britain winner Tony Hudgell was left stranded for five hours waiting for his wheelchair at Gatwick Airport.
When it did turn up, the chair arrived all "twisted and bent", the family of the double leg amputee said.
A Gatwick Airport spokesperson told The Mirror: "We are aware of this awful situation and apologise for the distress caused to the Hudgell family.
"This is unacceptable and we have picked it up as a matter of urgency with the airline, Jet2, and their ground handler, Menzies. We experienced significant disruption last night and had to close the airport for a two-hour period for safety reasons.”
Despite this incident, Gatwick - along with Aberdeen, Belfast International, East Midlands, Edinburg and London City - was rated as ‘very good’ for the whole period under review.
Liverpool and Newcastle were rated as a mixture of “good” and “very good” across the period.
In the summer the CAA required several airports to put in place action plans to boost the level of service disabled people and those with reduced mobility receive, which led to marked improvements in performance, the body has said.
In May BBC Security correspondent Frank Gardner found himself stuck on an empty jet after it landed back in the UK at Heathrow Airport from Estonia because there were no staff available to take his chair off.
The veteran journalist, who began using a wheelchair in 2004 after being shot six times in Saudi Arabia, said it was the fourth time this has happened to him.
The regulator’s report praised in particular East Midlands and Liverpool airports for introducing schemes which allow for personalisation of the assistance journey – for example requesting assistance only at certain required stages of travel.
Paul Smith, director of consumers at the CAA, said: “The aviation industry has faced unprecedented challenges, but too many passengers at UK airports have been waiting for unacceptable amounts of time for assistance on arriving flights on too many occasions.
“We strongly believe that everyone should have access to air travel, and we welcome the substantial improvements that airports have made for disabled and less mobile passengers.
“We will continue to consider whether we need to take further action where airports are not delivering an acceptable level of performance, and not showing sufficient and sustained improvements.
"We want to see immediate further improvements, as well as airports being well prepared to provide a high-quality service during next year.”
A Luton Airport spokesperson said: “We are committed to providing a simple and friendly experience for all passengers, and we’re sorry that we have fallen short on this occasion.
"Despite all of the post pandemic challenges this year, LLA has consistently been one of the top performing airports in the CAA’s customer satisfaction survey, with our Special Assistance service being rated four out of five by our passengers.
"We have been working with our service provider Wilson James, to improve assistance times for arriving passengers with reduced mobility, the one area in which we missed the CAA target. A number of improvements have already been made and we’re now focused on working with our partners to achieve the highest standards.”
