Luis Rodrigues, CEO of TAP Air
Portugal, has noticed an increase in the number of travelers requiring
assistance, particularly older adults, as he walks through airports at home and
further afield.
Speaking at the World Aviation
Festival in Lisbon earlier this month, he said that the older generation are valued
customers but expressed concern about the impact on the industry and how it
takes care of more vulnerable travelers. Rodrigues flagged the “slight
disruption to the process of boarding the plane” as an example.
“I don’t think our airports are
well equipped to do that overall, and I don’t think we have enough people and
enough systems to do that properly. There’s no magic answer to that other than
being constantly watchful of what’s going on and who is traveling with you.”
He is right to be concerned.
Figures from the World Health Organization reveal that by 2030, one in six
people will be aged 60 or over. By this time the share of the population aged
60 will have increased to 1.4 billion, up from 1 billion in 2020. And, by 2050, the population of those aged 60 and over will double to 2.1 billion.
The industry also needs to be
mindful of neurodiversity, with heightened awareness and improved diagnosis
practices bringing these travelers’ needs into the spotlight.
As customer accessibility
manager at Virgin Atlantic, John Fishwick is responsible for the process and
procedure around how the airline’s disabled customers are handled from
“advertising the flight all the way through the customer journey of the airport
and right until after care.”
Fishwick brings more than 20 years of operational experience in customer facing roles and has worked through many disruptions. Additionally, he brings lived experience as someone managing his own complex health issues.
Speaking
at airline disruption technology Plan3’s recent Grounded event, he said, “We all know travel is great. When
it goes to plan, it’s the best thing in the world. When it goes a little bit awry,
it's difficult for most customers, but for those with additional requirements,
it really can cause a problem. As airlines, we want to see how we can
prepare those customers and help them in that instance.”
Flight disruption
When things do go wrong,
Fishwick said that communication is vital, having not been informed of changes
and disruption in the past.
“First and foremost, it is
important that people understand and are told what is happening. Customer
communication is key, but then we need to look at the very diverse ways this
can affect any customer who has access requirements. So, when we look at our
neurodiverse customers, people perhaps with autism, and they are expecting their
flight to leave at midday, a change in half an hour or three-quarters of an
hour is something that can really cause a problem.
"As airlines, we need
to understand what might happen with that. We need to talk to the customer or
talk to the people traveling with the customer and help them to understand what
is happening, and wherever possible, give clear information about when the flight
is going to go.”
Fishwick also said that there is “no hard and fast rule” when it comes to customers needing assistance
but stressed the importance of disability awareness training.
First and foremost, it is important that people understand and are told what is happening. Customer communication is key, but then we need to look at the very diverse ways this can affect any customer who has access requirements.
John Fishwick, Virgin Atlantic
“It’s important that our
colleagues understand that there will be customers standing in front of you who
are going to need extra help. And when that customer identifies themselves or
when you do the work to identify those customers, it is then about how do you
deal with them in the most efficient manner.”
In the event of a disruption Virgin
Atlantic, and other airlines will run a report to highlight the customers with a
special service request code (SSR), especially the code that applies to medical
needs, Fishwick said. It can then prioritize their needs.
“I would suggest that these are
the customers that you really need to be thinking about getting out even on the
earliest flight, or if that is impossible, getting those customers into suitable
hotel accommodation, making sure they are comfortable and [that they] understand
how they're going to move forward.”
Fishwick feels that while SSR
codes serve as a good communication method when customers are being passed on,
the downside is that the codes, such as the one saying “wheelchair user,” are out
in the public domain.
“That should never be the way it
is. Those are the internal codes that we use to communicate as airlines,” he
said.
He added that there is a push
from the disabled community to provide more information about their needs, which
Fishwick feels there is a place for, but it needs to be carefully monitored to
ensure it is used appropriately.
“I’m partway sold than that. Some aspects, particularly when we're dealing with neurodiverse customers and they're absolutely for a customer to be able to say, ‘Please don't speak to my companion because that is very triggering for them,’” Fishwick said.
He described a scenario of a customer being offloaded from a flight with her son because the cabin crew spoke to him.
“That’s one of the things we ask crew to do, go and be welcoming, but it was one of the worst things we could have done. It disrupted the aircraft, disrupted everybody else on board and meant the customer could not travel, which is never what we want to do. So, I think from a nuanced side, there is a place for us to take rich text, but I think we also need to put a lot of guardrails around it.”
Room for improvement
In addition to codes and the potential
for more information about passengers, Fishwick said that the experience could
be improved just by developing the process in “simple ways.”
“We have a very simple thing at
Virgin that I'm sure that other airlines use as well, where our colleagues just
ask the customer. If you're not sure what assistance a customer needs, then ask them. Your
flight is delayed or it's now not going to go to tomorrow, how can I help you? Customers
will come out with some quite pertinent information such as ‘I'm diabetic I
need to eat something.’ Or ‘I need to be at a certain place at a certain time
[for treatment].’ Other customers who are in a wheelchair may need to be
horizontal, may need to lie down. So, by asking the customer will tell you what
they require, then front line colleagues should be empowered to deliver that.”
Fishwick believes the whole
aviation industry including airlines, airports and ground handlers has a role
to play in ensuring a good experience for all customers. He is optimistic that following
recommendations from all stakeholders made to the U.K.’s Department of
Transport, standards will be created.
“What I'm seeing across the
industry now is that the recommendations are being used as the benchmark, so it
is bringing standards up to the basics. Then, airlines being airlines with all
this competition, some of us are looking to do better than that benchmark. So I
think there are tools out there or leavers that are starting to be pulled to
take the industry on this journey.”
Reporter's attendance at the Grounded event was supported by Plan3.