Britain's busiest airport has been hit with a damning assessment from the UK's top aviation regulator regarding its treatment of passengers requiring disability assistance.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has determined that Heathrow "needs improvement" in supporting travellers with disabilities or reduced mobility.
The London hub was one of three UK airports to receive the unfavourable rating, alongside Edinburgh and Glasgow Prestwick. The CAA stated these airports have "clearly more to do" in their provision of additional support services.
The assessment forms part of a wider review of UK airports, with fourteen facilities rated as "good" and eleven achieving "very good" status. No airports received the lowest "poor" rating.
Heathrow has been told it needs to to better over its treatment of disabled passengers
GettyThe regulator identified significant issues at Heathrow's Terminal 3, where "discrepancies" were discovered between the airport's reported waiting times for assistance and actual observations.
The CAA's report, covering the year to March, found that these concerns meant the regulator "cannot be assured that the waiting time standards were met at Terminal 3".
The authority concluded that Heathrow failed to meet requirements for maintaining "robust processes in place for overseeing how it measures its performance". These findings emerged from audits conducted in late 2024.
The problems come amid increased scrutiny of airport accessibility services, with a recent incident seeing BBC journalist Frank Gardner forced to wait 95 minutes for assistance at Terminal 5.
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Terminal 3 was highlighted in the CAA's report
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Heathrow's chief operating officer, Javier Echave, defended the airport's performance, insisting it had made "significant strides in enhancing our assistance service" since the previous year.
He sought to reassure passengers that "Heathrow has a strong plan in place".
Echave explained the airport was "investing in new equipment, introducing designated security lanes, and expanding support to help passengers with assistance needs travel more independently".
He emphasised that the CAA's rating "focuses on the administration of data recording in Terminal 3" rather than actual service delivery.
The executive maintained that aside from "this specific matter", Heathrow had "delivered demonstrable progress across all key service metrics". He added that the data issues identified by the CAA had been "addressed by the end of the reporting period".
Heathrow's chief operating officer Javier Echave defended the airport's performance
PA
The demand for airport assistance services has surged dramatically, with 5.5 million passengers requesting support last year compared to 4.6 million in 2023.
This represents 1.9 per cent of all UK passengers, according to the CAA.
CAA group director Selina Chadha emphasised that disabled passengers "should be able to be confident when travelling through UK airports".
She added: "With demand for these services rising dramatically in recent years, all airports have a huge challenge ahead to ensure they continue to offer the assistance services their passengers deserve."
Christopher Snelling from industry body AirportsUK acknowledged that "airports are continuing to have to adjust to these new higher levels of demand".
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