Birmingham Airport Accessibility Forum meeting minutes

Attendees

Apologies

Welcome and introductions

Andy welcomed attendees to the meeting, which was hosted at Diamond House at the airport. Introductions were made and new attendees were introduced, with apologies for those unable to attend shared with the group.

Andy then provided an overview of the Accessibility Forum, its aims, and ambitions, for the benefit of the new attendees. Before running through the main action points from the previous meeting and sharing the format and agenda for the forthcoming meeting.

Before handing over to Arron to continue with a summary presentation of the airport’s recent actions and updates since the forum members had last met. Andy asked about the parking situation especially in Car Park 1, being conscious that the airport was not yet at capacity being only April. Yet Car Park 1 had been exceptionally busy, which had caused delays for some forum members attending the meeting.

Arron responded saying that whilst he appreciated Car Park 1 was exceptionally busy at this time, due to a number of refurbishments that were taking place. There was still considerable space at other short-term and long-term car parks across the perimeter. But he would definitely review the situation with the car parks team to ensure that sufficient spaces would be available for the inevitable summer rush.

At the same time, Brendan asked whether NCP had a policy to ensure sufficient blue badge spacing is provided within all the car parks at the airport and ensure they are not abused, and blue badges are checked regularly to prevent misuse.

Arron confirmed that NCP do have sufficient spaces and adopt this policy but would again review when next meeting with them.

Airport performance overview

Arron then continued by sharing various graphs highlighting the continued growth in passenger so far this year, especially those requiring the services of the Assisted Travel team. Explaining how some months had seen an increase of as much as 46%, which had naturally affected the penetration rate (being the term used to describe the volume of Assisted Travel passengers as a percentage of all passengers). To over 3% compared to what was only 1% a couple of years ago.

Meaning that the airport was now anticipating annual passenger growth to soon be exceeding 14 million passengers a year. This had resulted in a new approach being adopted by the airport to a number of the existing processes, to try and improve the Arriving passenger process. In order to save time and increase efficiency.

One such measure had been to move the Domestic Arrivals to the North Terminal temporarily, whilst a new domestic route was being planned for development in the South Terminal, which was scheduled to be opening soon.

Arron moved on to discuss the assistance time metrics which are measured by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for Birmingham Airport’s Assisted Travel team and are currently set to 97%. Meaning that at least 97% of assisted passengers must be met upon arrival within 20 minutes, if they have pre-notified their need for assistance in advance. During the period the airport had achieved 97.7% which had been a good start to the year but of course must be continued throughout the summer.

Arron continued by sharing the airport’s recent CSAT results (Customer Satisfaction Score), which is an internationally accredited measuring system used by airports to measure customer satisfaction levels. Of over 15,000 passengers who were approached, 3,968 had responded positively rating the airport with an overall ‘good’ score.

Louise questioned why the target for ‘good’ was set quite low, being just 60%. As she felt that it was not high enough to reflect a true measurement of good levels of satisfaction.

Finally, Arron concluded that following a comprehensive retender investigation, in which 5 major leading Assisted Travel providers had submitted presentation documents and been interviewed. Wilson James had been successful in winning the contract, which had commenced on the 1^st of April 2025. At which point he introduced Nicola Tibbles, Regional Director for Wilson James, to explain more about her organisation and future plans for Birmingham Airport.

Assisted Travel update

Nicola then introduced herself and Bally, the airport’s Station Manager for Wilson James, highlighting a number of positive changes that were planned for the airport in the weeks ahead. Starting with a clear ambition to develop and deliver the market leading Assisted Travel service in partnership with all stakeholders. In order to provide the care and confidence for all passengers to enjoy safe and independent travel. She went on to talk about the size of the Wilson James organisation, which included over 6,500 staff in over 320 locations. Including how Wilson James already supported over 66% of UK passengers who require assistance when travelling, being over 3 million in the UK. With other Assisted Travel contracts already operating at Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports, as well as now Birmingham.

Nicola then shared structure charts for the Wilson James Senior Management team and the Assistance team at Birmingham airport. As well as highlighting some of the key focus areas Wilson James were concentrating on in preparation for summer 2025. These included providing improved passenger experience through faster response times and better communication. As well as an improved reward and recognition scheme for staff, improving uniform standards, and asset tracking for airport assistance devices, such as wheelchairs and aisle chairs.

Bally continued by explaining how all the previous Mitie staff members had moved across to Wilson James, and WJ had now started a recruitment process for new employees to increase the permanent headcount for this year.

Finally, he explained how a re-evaluation of current staff training was being undertaken. Which will then be followed by a full revamp of the existing staff training programme (further details to be shared under the staff training heading).

Ambulift Fleet update

Arron then continued with an update on the current stock of Assisted Travel support equipment, including Aviramps, Ambulifts, and Aisle chairs which were all currently being reviewed. As he was aware that vehicle reliability and availability had caused numerous issues for the Assisted Travel team last year. As many were now approaching the end of their natural life and needed upgrading or replacement.

So, the airport had now committed to spending over £4 million to invest in new Ambulifts, the first of which should arrive at the airport in early May. These models will be the latest version which incorporates the driver’s position within the main body of the Ambulift, enabling a better driver/passenger experience.

There were now also plans to increase the number of Aviramp’s at the airport, despite pushback from some the ground handlers initially, which had since been resolved successfully.

Finally, there were now 18 Aisle chairs on site, which will be located at the principal gates and within the ambulifts themselves. But there were also plans to now increase these numbers further.

Andy asked whether there was a policy for procuring one particular brand or type of Aisle chair at the airport.

Arron said there was not a preference but most devices currently in use were from the company Staxi.

Brendan suggested that a mixture of chairs might be preferable given the varying requirements, size, and ability of differing wheelchair users. Thereby providing a range of chair types to accommodate different passengers. He added, he was more than happy, with support from colleagues, to give advice on different preferences, styles and heights.

Staff training & Security update

Arron then provided an update to the Forum members regarding staff training, following the appointment of Wilson James and the subsequent review of training that had taken place over the winter months.

This included how training is currently delivered, be it face-to-face, or e-learning, or both, nature of the content and how it had been created. Also, was there input from persons with lived experience for example, and what were the qualifications of the persons delivering the training. Recognising that this was now a particular area of focus especially for the Civil Aviation Authority, who would be in the months ahead independently validating each airport’s staff training modules, especially Disability Awareness (DA) training.

Arron had now fully reviewed the Disability Awareness and Equality training which had been delivered to the Assisted Travel team by Wilson James’s predecessor, deeming it to be insufficient and inferior to the current training modules offered by Wilson James.

In addition, Arron had identified that the current training platform utilised by both the Birmingham airport employees as well as a number of the third-party stakeholders at the airport was not entirely sufficient for purpose. Resulting in a new system being identified which was soon to be installed. Once operational, this would give full access to all persons employed by or working for Birmingham airport. To ensure that the same quality and standard would be offered and delivered to all staff working for the airport. This would be prioritised to those working directly for and interacting with those passengers who require assistance when they travelled. Right through to administrative staff and back-office workers who would receive a level of DA training, but not as extensive.

Arron confirmed that all the duty managers have now received a ‘train the trainer’ accreditation, which was hoped to be rolled out further in the months ahead. Following which, it was intended that for all new employees of Birmingham airport, they must receive and pass an online DA course before they are issued with an Airside security pass to be able to work at the airport in future.

Arron then explained how he had already received a proposal from Resources for Autism for initial staff awareness training which was soon to be finalised and implemented. Which would then hopefully be followed by the Thomas Pocklington trust, as well as other forum charities and disability organisations. In addition, Richard Luke had already connected Arron with the Business Disability Forum who Scope work closely with in order to support their DA training initiatives.

All the Forum members supported these proposals and collectively added their full support with necessary guidance to any future training material and course styling, as and when required.

Arron concluded with an update on Security which he admitted had not done as well as expected last year. Not helped by being one of the first UK airports to introduce the next generation security machines at the same time as witnessing colossal growth in passenger numbers. Nevertheless, Birmingham airport was still expected to have a 20-minute target for passengers to get through airport Security, which undoubtedly, they were not able to achieve at all times throughout the summer.

That said, another 2 lanes have now been opened, despite expectations that the airport should only need 8 operational lanes but now have a total of 9. And is now operating with a full head count. So expectations are that Birmingham airport will be entering into summer 25 in a better position than last year.

Chris then wanted to make Arron and fellow members aware of his various experiences at Birmingham airport during the last few months. Having been asked by airport Security on one occasion to show his insulin pump in public, rather than being offered a private search room. Resulting in him being required to lower his trousers in order for the Security officer to inspect his insulin pump personally. Whereas on another occasion he was simply swabbed discreetly through his trousers by another Security officer, ensuring that his whole airport experience was far less stressful and more dignified. Thus, proving inconsistencies and varying levels of service were still being experienced at the same airport. Thereby requiring clearer and more consistent policies for all staff and above all else, greater levels of DA training for the entire Security team, he felt were still required.

AOB

There were no further questions from Forum members, so the meeting was concluded, with Andy and Arron thanking everybody for their attendance and support.

Actions

• Update on future Customer Experience, Wayfinding, Sensory/Sunflower room projects

• Plan ‘Walk around’ visit and inspection for forum members

• Chris to share diabetes video with BHX. As well as other disability organisation videos should they be available

Next forum - Tuesday 11^th November 2025