Accessibility in air transport: challenges and opportunities

On May 28th, in the framework of the Iberia-UPM Chair, we participated in an (un)likely dialogue in which we reflected on how to improve the accessibility of air transport. The meeting, which took place in the recently opened Iberia Space, was attended by a wide range of participants representing the entire aviation value chain: users (with different types of disabilities), aircraft manufacturers, airlines and airports, and even representatives from the hotel sector.

This was the dialogue

Moderated by Ainhoa Serrano, manager of Social Impact at Iberia, and Xavier Mascarell, manager of Customer Accessibility Strategy at British Airways, the dialogue was opened by Manuel Vinagre, director of External Services at AENA; Gabriel Barroso, industrial technical engineer at Airbus; and Santiago Ruiz, technician at the Universal Accessibility Department of Fundación ONCE.

Manuel Vinagre began by highlighting a relevant fact: 16% of the world’s population has some kind of disability, and with the general increase in life expectancy, the figure is expected to rise in the future. He explained that AENA has a barrier-free service that passengers with disabilities may require, and pointed out that in the first quarter of this year alone, the number of passengers increased by 11% with respect to the previous year, while the number of requests for barrier-free service increased by 18%, highlighting the importance of advancing in the accessibility of air transport.

If managing the volume of requests is one of the challenges, designing services for the maximum possible autonomy of passengers, to the extent that each one wishes, is one of the greatest opportunities. To this end, he said, “collaboration with airlines to improve the process of booking barrier-free services is essential”.

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Alliances and collaboration: two key words

In his speech, Gabriel Barroso, Airbus engineer, stated: “We are all talking about the same thing: alliances and collaboration”.

After pointing out that there is a global trend to involve all players in the aeronautical sector, Gabriel recalled that in this sector there are technical and regulatory issues that mean that progress is not as fast as in land or naval transport, so a new leap towards inclusion must be made in a harmonized way throughout the value chain.

In companies such as Airbus, he explained, solutions such as accessible toilets, airportainers or accessible cabins are being designed, and part of the challenge is to ensure safety (a priority value in the sector) while pursuing the sustainability of the solution and technical feasibility.

Finally, Santiago Ruiz, from Fundación ONCE, giving the point of view of passengers with disabilities, stressed that “we need a joint effort from all stakeholders involved: Government, manufacturers and suppliers, passengers, people with disabilities, travel agencies, airlines, airports, PRM service, ground staff and air traffic control”.

Along the same lines, one of the guests, Reva Portillo (from Ilunion Hoteles) remarked that “the objective should not be accessibility but inclusion, which implies collaboration from the design phase itself: if we design services in an inclusive way from the beginning, there will be no need to make adaptations”.

There were many enriching ideas from the other participants in the dialogue. For example, there is already a Dis-friendly seal, created by Envera, which airlines can apply for, and which is quite demanding and rigorous; similarly, conducting audits by people with cognitive disabilities is a great opportunity because it would allow improving every step of the process of buying and making the trip, as suggested by the Spanish Center for Cognitive Accessibility; Finally, it was also proposed to standardize the process of collecting data from passengers with disabilities to avoid having to fill out forms many times for each step of the trip.

Two keys that were undoubtedly shared by all participants to move forward in a harmonized way were: increase collaboration between actors in the aviation value chain; and validate with users, so that nothing that is done for people with disabilities is done without the involvement of people with disabilities.

On May 28th, in the framework of the Iberia-UPM Chair, we participated in an (un)likely dialogue in which we reflected on how to improve the accessibility of air transport. The meeting, which took place in the recently opened Iberia Space, was attended by a wide range of participants representing the entire aviation value chain: users (with different types of disabilities), aircraft manufacturers, airlines and airports, and even representatives from the hotel sector.

Moderated by Ainhoa Serrano, manager of Social Impact at Iberia, and Xavier Mascarell, manager of Customer Accessibility Strategy at British Airways, the dialogue was opened by Manuel Vinagre, director of External Services at AENA; Gabriel Barroso, industrial technical engineer at Airbus; and Santiago Ruiz, technician at the Universal Accessibility Department of Fundación ONCE.

Manuel Vinagre began by highlighting a relevant fact: 16% of the world’s population has some kind of disability, and with the general increase in life expectancy, the figure is expected to rise in the future. He explained that AENA has a barrier-free service that passengers with disabilities may require, and pointed out that in the first quarter of this year alone, the number of passengers increased by 11% with respect to the previous year, while the number of requests for barrier-free service increased by 18%, highlighting the importance of advancing in the accessibility of air transport.

If managing the volume of requests is one of the challenges, designing services for the maximum possible autonomy of passengers, to the extent that each one wishes, is one of the greatest opportunities. To this end, he said, “collaboration with airlines to improve the process of booking barrier-free services is essential”.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Alliances and collaboration: two key words

In his speech, Gabriel Barroso, Airbus engineer, stated: “We are all talking about the same thing: alliances and collaboration”.

After pointing out that there is a global trend to involve all players in the aeronautical sector, Gabriel recalled that in this sector there are technical and regulatory issues that mean that progress is not as fast as in land or naval transport, so a new leap towards inclusion must be made in a harmonized way throughout the value chain.

In companies such as Airbus, he explained, solutions such as accessible toilets, airportainers or accessible cabins are being designed, and part of the challenge is to ensure safety (a priority value in the sector) while pursuing the sustainability of the solution and technical feasibility.

Finally, Santiago Ruiz, from Fundación ONCE, giving the point of view of passengers with disabilities, stressed that “we need a joint effort from all stakeholders involved: Government, manufacturers and suppliers, passengers, people with disabilities, travel agencies, airlines, airports, PRM service, ground staff and air traffic control”.

Along the same lines, one of the guests, Reva Portillo (from Ilunion Hoteles) remarked that “the objective should not be accessibility but inclusion, which implies collaboration from the design phase itself: if we design services in an inclusive way from the beginning, there will be no need to make adaptations”.

There were many enriching ideas from the other participants in the dialogue. For example, there is already a Dis-friendly seal, created by Envera, which airlines can apply for, and which is quite demanding and rigorous; similarly, conducting audits by people with cognitive disabilities is a great opportunity because it would allow improving every step of the process of buying and making the trip, as suggested by the Spanish Center for Cognitive Accessibility; Finally, it was also proposed to standardize the process of collecting data from passengers with disabilities to avoid having to fill out forms many times for each step of the trip.

Two keys that were undoubtedly shared by all participants to move forward in a harmonized way were: increase collaboration between actors in the aviation value chain; and validate with users, so that nothing that is done for people with disabilities is done without the involvement of people with disabilities.