Three UK Airports Lag Behind in Serving Disabled Travellers

Three UK airports – London Heathrow, Edinburgh and Glasgow Prestwick – have been rated in the “needs improvement” category by the UK Civil Aviation Authority with regard to their performance on the assistance services they provide to disabled and less mobile passengers.

In its annual Airport Accessibility Report released on Wednesday, the UK Civil Aviation Authority said that the majority of airports rated positively, except for the three above mentioned airports which need improvement.

The report assessed 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.

According to the report, London Heathrow had generally good service levels at Terminals, 2,4 and 5, but it 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 too 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.

Even 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.

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

Making Aviation Accessible to All

Selina Chadha, Group Director for Consumers and Markets at the UK Civil Aviation Authority said that they wanted disabled passengers and those with limited mobility to be confident when travelling through the UK airports. Their mission was to protect people and enable aerospace and they 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,” Selina said.

Of the 28 airports, Belfast City, East Midlands, Newcastle and Teeside retained their ‘very good’ rating while 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.

Three airports – Bristol, Liverpool and Norwich – showed major improvement after being rated as ‘needs improvement’ last year, and 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, the report showed.