Former home secretary David Blunkett will chair easyJet’s newly relaunched special assistance advisory group, the Assisted Travel Advisory Board (EATAB).
Initially launched back in 2012, the group aims to make travel accessible for everyone by providing guidance and feedback on the needs of passengers with disabilities.
The board’s new members include Paralympian and entrepreneur Josh Wintersgill and accessibility consultant and broadcaster Emily Yates.
Chair Blunkett, meanwhile, who served as home secretary for three-and-a-half years under Tony Blair, has been a member of the House of Lords since 2015.
"I’m pleased to be working with easyJet and others with personal and professional lived experience to build positive and sustained change from the inside out: operationally, digitally and within the built environment,” said Yates, who has written on the issue of accessibility for several national newspapers, including The Guardian and The Telegraph.
Wintersgill is the creator of the easyTravelseat, a wheelchair transfer that enables special assistance passengers to board aircraft more easily.
The two join accessibility policy expert Roberto Castiglioni and international mobility specialist Ann Frye on the board.
Antonio Shabbir, easyJet customer experience director, said: “It’s our mission to make travel easy and accessible, no matter what our customers’ needs, and so I’m delighted to be relaunching our advisory board, which has played a key role in helping us to drive improvements in accessibility over the years.”
EasyJet said it has carried more than 760,000 special assistance passengers over the past year.