East Midlands Airport Assisted Travel service wins national award – as it celebrates its 100,000th customer this year

100K

The award win comes as the service marks the milestone of welcoming 100,000 customers in a year for the first time.

The airport received the award in the best Accessible Travel Initiative - Transport category at the Travel For Every Body Awards inaugural ceremony last week. The awards aim to raise awareness of the work being done to support travellers with visible and non-visible needs and drive further change to make travel and tourism more inclusive.

East Midlands Airport’s Assisted Travel service has grown in popularity, with numbers increasing by around 25% each year, exceeding the growth seen at many other UK airports. For the first time ever, 100,000 customers have used the service this year.

It is one of only a few UK airports operating the service in-house, allowing it to maintain high service standards and make swift, informed improvements. It has embedded addressing accessibility needs in the way the airport operates, rather than being bolted on as an after-thought. Decisions are shaped by input from its Accessibility Advisory Group, a forum made up entirely of disabled airport users.

East Midlands is one of only two airports to have recently gained the highest UK Civil Aviation Authority rating of ‘Very Good’ for accessibility for six years running recently. Over 99% of Assisted Travel customers say their experience is 'good' or 'very good,' recognising not just customer service, but also the quality of the physical environment, communication tools, and staff friendliness.

In its awards submission, the airport outlined a range of improvements to build on the success of the service so far to better address the needs of customers with mobility issues, non-visible disabilities and other extra requirements. These include:

·       Introducing the first UK airport WhatsApp-based live chat system for Assisted Travel customers. This innovative tool enables customers to scan QR codes placed throughout the terminal and car parks to contact the Assisted Travel team directly

·       Investing around £1.5 million in specialist vehicles, mobility aids and terminal accessibility features. This includes new electric ambulifts with improved boarding equipment, which take customers from terminal to aircraft, as well as self-propelled wheelchair options and electric mobility devices available for loan

·       Installing improved signage, refurbishing accessible toilets, providing dedicated Quiet Rooms and developing new Changing Places facilities for departing and arriving customers

·       Extending an enhanced accessibility training programme beyond the Assisted Travel team to include other airport staff such as Customer Service Ambassadors and Security Officers.

Further improvements are planned or underway, including the development with Transreport of a fully integrated digital platform where passengers can request assistance, get flight updates, locate support staff and provide feedback all in one place.

The airport’s approach has been shared with industry partners and regulators, earning it at seat at the DfT Aviation Accessibility Task & Finish Group, where representatives from East Midlands along with sister airports London Stansted and Manchester have been encouraging a higher standard of accessibility across the UK aviation sector.

William Mellor, a member of the Assisted Travel team that joined through the airport’s cadets programme, welcomed news of the award win. He said: “It’s great, it shows the effort we are making is actually having an impact on passengers. Working in Assisted Travel means you get to help passengers and make the journey easy for them.

“For some of them, we are the only reason they can go on holiday. We put a smile on their faces and they are happy and grateful at the end of the day.”

East Midlands Airport’s Director of Customer Service and Planning, Mike Grimes, said: “East Midlands Airport is well known for its friendly, welcoming and effortless travel experience – and that extends to our customers who may need some extra help through the airport.

“We’re incredibly proud of our Assisted Travel service, which has been growing in popularity and which we’ve been continuously improving with input from the disabled members of our Accessibility Advisory Group. This award is a fantastic acknowledgement that we are providing an exceptional level of service, which we know people will travel further to benefit from. It can make the difference between being able to go on holiday or not for some people, so it’s something we take seriously and will continue to develop.”