Civil Aviation Authority urges Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd not to rest on laurels at Inverness Airport site after disabled access rating slips back from highest level
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DISABLED access ratings at Inverness Airport have been downgraded by the Civil Aviation Authority, who claim it is resting on its laurels.
The organisation said it was “disappointing” that Highlands and Islands Airports (Hial) had failed to build upon previous successes in the area.
But despite slipping from its previous “very good” rating – the highest level available – the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) still awarded it a “good”.
It said the slip was due to a lack in consultation with the local disabled community.
Inverness was among a group of airports which the CAA said provided “a good service with short waiting times for passengers and high quality service from staff, but they lacked the range and regularity of their consultation groups to get a very good rating.
“These airports had previously engaged well with their local disability community and it was disappointing this good work was not build on during the 2018/19 reporting year. It is not acceptable to rely on previous activity – airports should maintain regular contact with the network of disability groups they have established.”
Inverness was one of four airports, along with London Luton, London Southend and Cardiff, which the CAA said it expected more from next year in this respect.
However, there was better news for two other airports in the Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (Hial) group. Kirkwall and Sumburgh both received a very good rating .
For the first year since reporting began, no UK airports were rated poor.
CCA consumers and markets director Paul Smith said: “These results show significant improvements to the experience many disabled passengers faced before our reporting began.
“While it is good to see the general improvements, airports will need to continue to work hard to improve, so that they are able to meet the more demanding performance standards that we have now introduced.”
