RIGHT OF PASSAGE
MAKING AIR TRAVEL MORE ACCESSIBLE
→ into the aircraft door area to allow enough room for a PRM and a carer, increasing the space by about 40 per cent. Access is through the corner, providing more wheelchair room, and the door fully closes behind two people. It has numerous grab rails, bright lighting, and taps are reachable from the toilet. Feedback from a group of PRMs is being used to fine-tune the prototype.
There is a sense that change is in the air. Lundy says five or six years ago she would never have had schedule clashes when giving talks on access, yet recently she has found herself speaking at three events in a day. In November last year, IATA (the International Air Transport Association) held a symposium on the issue in Dubai. Used to seeing the same 30 or so people at events, Lundy says it was “amazing” to see more than 150 attendees.
It came after IATA passed a resolution committing members to providing “safe, reliable and dignified travel” for those with disabilities. It also asked the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation to “help harmonise national legislation and regulations which otherwise could create a patchwork of confusing or even contradictory requirements for passengers and airlines”. In short: to produce a clear rulebook on the standards and services airports and airlines should provide, wherever a passenger is travelling.
Heathrow’s Sara Marchant believes the outlook is positive. “We’re on the crest of a wave, there’s such momentum behind it,” she says. “People’s expectations have changed, and they expect things to be done in a way that suits them best.”
Christopher Wood is more cautious. “There were a lot of soundbites [at the IATA meeting] but we will see what happens,” he says. “This is a trade association with 290 airlines. If they turned around and said, ‘We are going to make our aircraft accessible,’ something would immediately get done. I was at the symposium, and I had lots of conversations. But I’m getting tired of conversations. We need to stop talking and start creating.”