Airports must stop failing disabled passengers, says UK regulator

theguardian.com:

The aviation regulator has warned UK airports they will face enforcement action if they keep failing disabled and less mobile passengers.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has demanded airports set out improvements by next week and said it will use enforcement powers, which include court orders, if failures continue. The regulatory threat comes after a series of incidents in which wheelchair users were abandoned on aircraft or offered no help despite having booked assistance.

They included Daryl Tavernor, 33, who has spinal muscular atrophy, and was left on a plane at Manchester airport for more than two hours before phoning the police to help get him through border control. He said the ordeal felt like being held hostage in his own country.

Manchester airport eventually apologised to Tavernor but did not take responsibility for his treatment.

A disabled woman was left stranded on a plane for more than an hour and a half at Gatwick airport last week. Victoria Brignell, from west London, was told she would have to wait on the plane from Malta for 50 minutes, despite her wheelchair arriving “promptly”.

However, Wilson James, a firm contracted to help disabled passengers, did not arrive to assist her. The firm and Gatwick both apologised and said they were investigating the incident.

Last month, the BBC’s security editor, Frank Gardner, expressed his frustration at being left on a plane “again” when Heathrow airport failed to deliver his wheelchair.

The aviation regulator’s letter sent to all UK airports said: “The CAA is very concerned about the increase in reports that we have received of significant service failings.”

The CAA expressed its alarm and disappointment at the “dip in performance at some airports” in assistance for