London Southend Airport has been highlighted as one of the best airports in the UK for the quality of assistance provided for disabled passengers and those with reduced mobility.
The findings are part of a new report by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which worked with 30 of the busiest airports in the UK during 2015/16, assessing each of them against a number of key measures.
Areas under the spotlight included how long passengers have to wait for assistance (both on departure and arrival) and the levels of passenger satisfaction with the assistance provided (gathered from CAA passenger surveys and airport surveys). How much consultation airports had undertaken with disability organizations was also considered.
All 30 airports were given a performance rating of either ‘very good’, ‘good’, ‘taking steps’ or ‘poor’ – and London Southend is one of a handful of airports in the ‘very good’ category.
Matthew Buffey, head of consumer enforcement, CAA, said “Passengers who are disabled people and those with reduced mobility are very much dependent on airport staff providing the appropriate assistance, so it’s a really important task for airports to get right. Overall we are pleased that performance has generally been good, with some excellent examples of airports supporting their passengers who have mobility needs.”
Glyn Jones, CEO of Stobart Aviation, the operator for London Southend Airport, said, “Providing a consistently high quality assistance service to disabled people and those with reduced mobility is a top priority for us, and forms part of our wider commitment to providing a unique high level of customer service to every single one of our passengers.”
To read more information on the findings from the CAA report click here.