Stansted Airport Chamber of Commerce

Stansted Rolls Out New Reduced Mobility Services - Ahead of EU Legislation

Stansted Airport has rolled out new facilities for passengers with reduced mobility as part of its drive to improve passenger facilities ahead of new EU legislation (effective 26 July) that gives airport operators full responsibility for providing all services to reduced mobility passengers on the ground at airports.

"Following the EU’s announcement in July 2006 we’ve worked in close partnership with the Airline Operators Committee (AOC) to not only develop services that met their operational needs, but that improved facilities for the passenger," said Jeremy Harrison, Customer Insight Manager at Stansted Airport.

"After a ten month tender process we awarded MITIE the contract to manage services at Stansted and they successfully took over at the beginning of May, three months ahead of the EU legislation deadline.

"Passengers needing assistance will in future enjoy improved facilities such as re-furbished and more comfortable waiting areas, brand new wheelchairs and equipment for manoeuvring passengers on and off aircraft and refurbished help points for passengers to call for assistance.

"We’re also introducing a customer feedback questionnaire to help us monitor service levels and we’re looking forward to working closely with MITIE and our airline partners to ensure passengers with reduced mobility receive the best levels of service when travelling through our airport."

Johan Venter of MITIE’s transport team who runs the new contract commented:

"We have a team of specially trained and experienced people to deal with passengers who require this service. We are backing up our service with a short but succinct survey form for each passenger – the results from these surveys will help us to improve the service delivery even more".

Passengers with reduced mobility will continue to request assistance through their airline or travel agent (recommended at time of booking). Those details will then be passed through to MITIE to facilitate on the day of travel through Stansted Airport.