Image courtesy CAA

With more people travelling through our airports, and more of these people requesting assistance services than ever before, the latest report from the regulator shows that the majority of airports rated positively but three airports need improvement.

In 2024, 5.5 million passengers requested assistance at UK airports, approximately 1.9% of total passengers. This has increased from 0.94% in 2010, 1.35% in 2019 and 1.69% in 2023 when 4.6 million passengers requested assistance.

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Selina Chadha, Group Director for Consumers and Markets at the UK Civil Aviation Authority said: “We want disabled passengers and those with limited mobility to be confident when travelling 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.”

This report assesses the 28 UK airports with more than 150,000 passengers in the calendar year 2024 against a standard framework and covers performance over the year April 2024 to March 2025.

This year’s ratings show that 11 airports achieved a ‘very good’ rating:

• Belfast City, East Midlands, Newcastle and Teeside: retained their ‘very good’ rating.
• Aberdeen, Belfast International, Bournemouth, Exeter, and London Luton: all improved on last year’s ‘Good’ rating.
• Cardiff and London Gatwick both improved significantly after being ranked as ‘needs improvement’ last year.

The majority of airports, 14 in total, received a ‘good’ ranking:

• Bristol, Liverpool and Norwich showed major improvement after being rated as ‘needs improvement’ last year.
• Birmingham, Inverness, London City and Manchester all retained a ‘good’ rating this year.
• City of Derry, Cornwall Newquay, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, London Stansted, London Southend and Southampton were also rated as ‘good’ in this year’s assessment.

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Three airports were rated in the ‘needs improvement’ category:

• London Heathrow – had generally good service levels at Terminals, 2,4 and 5, but Heathrow 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.
• 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.

All of the airports rated as ‘needs improvement’ last year are all now rated Good (Bristol, Liverpool and Norwich) or Very Good (Cardiff and London Gatwick.)

The UK Civil Aviation Authority launched the Airport Accessibility Framework in 2014, clearly setting out a key set of standards for airports. This initiative has facilitated significant improvement in airport accessibility, including millions of pounds of investment in improved service and facilities in airports across the UK.

The standardised Framework details how the regulator expects all passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility to be treated and commits to posting accessibility results annually in order to hold the aviation industry to account.

Using the Framework, airports are assessed in three areas: Performance against waiting time targets for arriving and departing passengers including accuracy and robustness of data collection, a Satisfaction Survey of users of the assistance service and consultation with disabled individuals and organisations, through Access Forums.

AirportsUK Policy Director Christopher Snelling said: “We welcome this report as a way of helping focus and drive performance from our sector on this important issue. We are pleased to note that 25 of the 28 UK airports assessed were good or very good and that 82% of disabled passengers reported being satisfied with their most recent flight, roughly similar to that of passengers as a whole and a notable improvement on the year before. Where it identifies issues, this will help those airports address concerns.

“The report also shows that use of accessibility services has grown again, up from 4.6 to 5.5 million users in just one year, now representing almost 2% of travellers. Airports are continuing to have to adjust to these new higher levels of demand, so the generally good performance at this time is all the more pleasing. However, services can always be better and airports will continue working with CAA and accessibility groups over the next year and beyond to improve services even further.”