That was the call from Angus Drummond, chief executive of accessible holidays specialist operator Limitless Travel, speaking at TTG’s Fairer Travel Week Diversity Forum.
Drummond, who last month expressed his anger over the death of a disabled passenger at Gatwick, told delegates that although it was “completely understandable” for post-Covid staff shortages, he believed that even before the pandemic, assistance for disabled passengers “was not given the right level of attention it deserves”.
“Whenever there are shortages, often disabled people are the ones who suffer first and suffer the most. Even before Covid, this was an area that was understaffed and underfunded,” said Drummond.
“As things stand, airports don’t have to do anything in particular, they just have to get people onto the aircraft and there’s no set way of doing that. In reality, perhaps airports don’t even really want disabled people there as that adds on extra time.”
Drummond voiced his frustration at the lack of accountability over the treatment of disabled passengers when things went wrong and suggested “the only real solution for change” was if the government brought in new laws to safeguard travellers.
“But that’s not at the top of [the government’s] agenda,” he said, adding how he believed the Civil Aviation Authority had not done enough to tackle the issue.
“They like to talk about it when it’s needed but soon people forget about it and move to the next issue. Disabled people don’t have a voice and are often marginalised.
“Not having these policies in place is not going to stop non-disabled people flying. Until people boycott airports or airlines because of a lack of services, or pressure is put on to government to bring about change, then I don’t think anything will happen.”
Drummond called on travel sector businesses to start providing “more specialist services” to disabled clients and to begin holding airports and airlines to account for poor service.
He suggested a cross-industry campaign to highlight the problem and push for change.
“I think as an industry, if there was an active campaign and companies came together to make themselves and their services more accessible that would bring about change. I feel that type of pressure does need to be put on.
Drummond described airlines and airports as “one of the final frontiers for disability access” for travellers and questioned why – similarly to advancements to make buses and taxis wheelchair-accessible – aircraft could not also be modified.
