The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published its annual Airport Accessibility Report, revealing 11 airports achieved a ‘very good’ rating while three were rated as ‘needs improvement’.
The report assessed 28 UK airports with more than 150,000 passengers in the calendar year 2024 against a standard accessibility framework.
In total, 11 airports received the ‘very good rating’: Belfast City, East Midlands, Newcastle and Teeside all retained this rating from the previous year; Aberdeen, Belfast International, Bournemouth, Exeter and London Luton all improved on last year’s ‘Good’ rating; and Cardiff and London Gatwick both improved significantly after being ranked as ‘needs improvement’ last year.
Half of all the airports assessed received a ‘good’ rating, while three – London Heathrow, Edinburgh and Glasgow Prestwick – were judged to need improvement.
According to the report, London Heathrow had generally good service levels at Terminals 2, 4 and 5, but failed to assure the regulator that the data it provided on waiting time standards at Terminal 3 was an accurate reflection of the provision of service, meaning it is not clear that waiting time standards were met at Terminal 3.
Edinburgh did not meet the standards for the provision of assistance in a timely manner, primarily due to operational issues caused by a change of contractor for its service provider earlier in the year, which now appears to be resolved.
And Glasgow Prestwick failed to meet the standards to consult with disabled groups and individuals, although it has now committed to putting in place an Access Forum.
Rising demand for accessible services
According to the CAA, 5.5 million passengers requested assistance at UK airports in 2024, approximately 1.9% of total passengers and up from 4.6 million passengers in 2023.
Selina Chadha, group director for consumers and markets at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, commented, “We want disabled passengers and those with limited mobility to be confident when traveling through UK airports. Our mission is to protect people and enable aerospace and we believe that entire industry should be behind the goal of making aviation accessible to all.
“It is welcome that most airports scored positively, but there is clearly more to do from those found to be needing improvement. With demand for these services rising dramatically in recent years, all airports have a huge challenge ahead to ensure they continue to offer the assistance services their passengers deserve.”