New rights; new challenges
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Posted Date: 15/09/2008
Issue: Airside International September 2008
Publication: Airside International
The urgency to equip with PRM equipment at airports has been almost tangible this summer. But some airports have had plans in place for years to ensure they are ready for the day on which provision for PRMs at European airports is no longer desirable but simply imperative.
THS (Scotland) is a service-provider at Glasgow Airport and offers limited mobility assistance on behalf of Glasgow Airport. Custom made chairs to assist passengers with mobility problems have been acquired for accessing the aircraft. This alleviates the necessity of physically climbing stairs and manual handling.
Kevin Muir, Managing Director of THS, comments that he assisted AAT five years ago with the development of the S-Max Amazon lifting chair. “My company needed to find a solution to allow passengers to gain access to aircraft in a safe and dignified manner,” comments Muir. “We had issues with manual lifting and had to resolve the passenger lifting experience. The chair assisted us in reducing the handling risks associated with lifting passengers onto aircraft and helped improve the transfer experience for the passenger.”
He continues: “THS handle a significant number of passengers travelling to hospital in Glasgow and Edinburgh from the Highlands and Islands Airports. The aircraft used on these routes are smaller, which brings its own issues with greatly restricted access and egress. The lifting chair has recently been improved and we have purchased 10 new models.”
He explains how the team at AAT has worked closely with THS staff. “They have listened to advice and comments from passenger feedback which has resulted in an enhanced lifting chair,” remarks Muir.
Dale Rabe’t, Finance Director at THS says: “The number of staff members going sick with back issues has significantly reduced over the years since the introduction of the lifting chairs. The introduction of the new model chairs these should reduce any manual handling issues to a minimum and continue to keep cost down.” THS has been appointed PRM handling agent for Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports on behalf of BAA.
Heading south in the UK and Stansted Airport has announced that it rolled out new facilities for PRMS as part of its drive to improve passenger facilities ahead of the EU legislation. “Following the EU’s announcement in July 2006 we’ve worked in close partnership with the Airline Operators Committee to not only develop services that met their operational needs, but that improved facilities for the passenger,” says Jeremy Harrison, Customer Insight Manager at Stansted Airport.
“After a 10 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,” says Harrison. “Passengers needing assistance will in future enjoy improved facilities such as refurbished 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.”
Johan Venter of MITIE’s transport team who runs the new contract comments: “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.”
New equipment at Stansted Airport for the purposes of assisting PRMs includes: three ambulifts, 80 wheelchairs; six c-max stair climbers and two mini-buses. Some 80,000-100,000 passengers require assistance through Stansted each year and will now be supported with this equipment.
Watching airport performance
The UK’s Department for Transport, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Civil Aviation Authority have been vocal about the coming into force in July of European legislation giving up to 15 million disabled people and those with limited mobility new rights when travelling through European airports.
In the UK, the EHRC has a responsibility for promoting the new regulation to the public and any person who feels that there has been a breach of the law has the right to complain to this body. The EHRC will handle and monitor complaints and offer conciliation where appropriate. It can support people to take civil action and could refer the matter to the Civil Aviation Authority which has the power to prosecute. If guilty, an airport operator, airline, travel agent or tour operator could face an unlimited fine.
The UK’s Transport Minister, Rosie Winterton, commented as the regulation came into force:
“This is a major step in ensuring that disabled people and those with reduced mobility have the same access to the standards and services that everyone expects when they fly. We expect all airlines and airports to maintain these high standards and for strong action to be taken against anyone repeatedly breaking the regulations across Europe.”
Baroness Jane Campbell, Chair of the EHRC Disability Committee, added: “Airports have told us this will be the biggest ever single shake-up in customer service and we believe this new regulation will bring real improvements for disabled people and those with reduced mobility.”
She continued: “It should also be very good for business. Disabled people alone have a spending power of some £80 billion and people who previously daren’t risk flying for fear of problems, can now confidently give it a try. The Commission has considerable powers to ensure that the air travel industry meets its obligations and we shall be monitoring complaints carefully and ensuring these are used to improve services.”
Seeking assistance from IT
The equipment manufacturers may well have been ready with their products, and airports and handling agents may too have grasped their obligations and put in place the appropriate training and processes, but doubt has been cast on whether the flow of information from the airlines to the airports was what it needed to be when the legislation came into effect at the end of July.
The realisation of PRM obligations on airports under the EU Regulation can be assisted through IT systems, according to UFIS Airport Solutions (UFIS-AS). UFIS has implemented a project with Aeroporti di Roma (AdR) to support it in providing services to PRMs. The new application enables handling agents at the airport to plan and dispatch staff for the PRM service using UFIS-AS's Resource Management System.
The Project Manager of the AdR PRM project is Axel Schmalwieser. He says: “There have been some gaps between the airlines and the airports in terms of information flow. And let’s remember there will also be an increase in the requirement for PRM services – Brussels Airport is quoting a 30% increase – and so there will be some confusion.”
Aeroporti di Roma (AdR) is one of the first airport companies in Europe to introduce IT support for the planning and allocation of resources to provide the necessary services. The application will also provide the functions to gather status information on the services and to provide data for key performance indicator measurement to ensure that the service levels required are met. In addition to the AdR project, UFIS-AS is working with Hanover and Athens airports on the installation of this system.
UFIS interprets the Sita telexes (or the passenger assistance list) to determine which flights need PRM support and how many passengers will require which form of support. Delays and gate information are also reported through the UFIS-AS system. Also, flight and non-flight related requests for PRM support can be sent by check-in staff, or the passengers themselves via the Internet or from kiosks within the airport. Based on the information from the airlines and the passengers, the resource management system will generate a staffing requirement based on the flight schedule, the times for the requested service and staff qualifications required to perform the necessary services.
“This information is filtered out of these telexes through our system to the supervisors so they can assign, using our solution, a specific operator to pick up the PRM,” says Schmalwieser.
Staff in the PRM service department at AdR can enter the status of the tasks using PDA applications provided by the UFIS-AS's local partner Softlab. These applications communicate with the server via IBM's WebSphere MQ.
“We are happy to deliver a functionality which helps the airports to provide the best possible assistance for persons with reduced mobility", says Anders Sagadin, UFIS-AS’s President and Chief Executive Officer. "And we hope that more airports within the European Community which are facing the same challenge, will take advantage of our new solution."
The solution UFIS-AS is supplying is very much airport oriented as it is the airport that has the obligation to ensure that passengers with all levels of mobility experience the same level of dignity in the airport environment. But – as pointed out by Schmalwieser – the system is dependent on accurate information flowing out of the airlines’ systems or being collated at the airport itself.
In the final analysis, the handling of PRMs is a joint effort if it is to be achieved successfully. Equipment manufacturers have been ready for the arrival of the implementation of the regulation for some time but it takes joined up thinking to get the equipment in the right place, at the right time, with the correct teams in place and fit for purpose. Let us hope that information flows succeed and that products like that marketed by UFIS-AS help restore dignity in the airport environment.
Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006: be equipped and be ready
Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006 imposes new legal obligations on airport operators, air carriers, their agents or tour operators. The Regulation was largely progressed under the UK's Presidency of the European Union in 2005 and means that airports will now be responsible for providing assistance to disabled travellers. This will be standard across all European airports.
Passengers needing assistance must not be charged, and airports handling more than 150,000 passengers a year must publish quality standards so that passengers can measure the service they receive against these standards. The Regulation requires all staff providing direct assistance to passengers to be suitably trained, and disability awareness training will need to be provided to all staff.
Airlines themselves must carry passengers medical equipment and up to two pieces of mobility equipment free of charge. They must also carry assistance dogs free of charge (on permitted routes).
For passengers, this will mean continuity of assistance at airports across the EU. Whereas previously standards may have differed, they are now set and passengers are entitled to full assistance regardless of the airport they are travelling from. Where this is not provided, they are able to take their complaints to the Commission.
Case Studies provided by Leonard Cheshire Disability
Headlines in the UK have once more included tales of incompetence when handling PRMs. One passenger at Luton Airport was given a fireman’s lift by her husband to board her onto an aircraft. Many such stories have surfaced over the last few months and a whole batch of them have been compiled by Leonard Cheshire Disability, which provides services in support of disabled people. These services include care homes, supported living and training and assistance for those looking for work. Below are some case studies compiled by them:
Juliette, travelling to Miami
Juliette is 31 and has Ataxia. Despite phoning the airline directly to arrange for assistance, this information had not been passed on to the check-in staff. Assistance was then provided for her from one terminal to another but her wheelchair was then taken away at the departure terminal and she was left for hours without a wheelchair, unable to use the toilet facilities or shops.
Lucy, travelling to Kirkwall, Orkney
Lucy is 56 and Tetraplegic. “The assistance in the airport was satisfactory, but the assistance from the boarding personnel was dreadful. When I was called for pre-boarding the help I needed was not organised. I had to wait about half an hour for two men to arrive with an aisle chair. By this time most of the passengers had boarded and people had to move to allow me space to be lifted into the seat. I was more dragged than lifted.
Harpreet, travelling to Dubai
Harpreet is 46 and has Multiple Sclerosis and requested assistance when he arrived at the check in desk. He was told by the check-in staff, “that since I had walked so far, I could go further without assistance and it was costing the airline to provide the assistance”.
Richard, frequently travels to Spain
Richard is 59 and a tetraplegic. He frequently travels by air to Spain and one issue he has continually encountered is the lack of training given to handling staff and a lack of disability awareness amongst the ground staff. He always requests a full lift for boarding the plane when travelling but still finds that the process is inadequate and the seat allocation inappropriate. “The porter did not carry the case but only pushed my chair, leaving my wife to carry the heavy bags. Handling staff said that they were trained but I later found out that the training consisted of lifting heavy sacks. Once on the plane I was asked to stand or shuffle along the seat.”
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