A post by Paul Woods – Managing Director
Last Friday I was invited into Manchester Airport by Ed Kibblewhite the Terminals Manager at Manchester Airport to discuss two subjects:
Firstly, some poor service my family and i received recently and secondly to talk through some of the things the airport are working on to make things better for disabled travellers.
This invitation followed on from a post I placed on linked in a few weeks back, regarding a recent travel experience.
To Ed’s credit he reached out to me on here, he acknowledged that the service I received was not ideal and invited me to the airport to meet him and talk it through.
He also said I would be meeting two employees from ABM Aviation who are the company tasked with looking after disabled passengers in the airport.
I was made to feel very welcome by Ed Kibblewhite Anwar Hussain and Jon, they took the time to listen to my frustrations, they acknowledged the service I received was not the standard that they aspired to.
They talked me through some of the challenges they face when dealing with such a volume of travellers and talked about some of the things they are looking to implement to improve.
I talked about the emotional anguish you face as an airport traveller with a wheelchair, saying that pre wheelchair I got on a flight looking forward to my holiday, now as a wheelchair user I worried as to whether I would receive “my legs” (wheelchair) at the other end.
We talked a great deal about recruitment and training, but most importantly empathy, after all the old saying is “People forget what happened but they don’t forget how they were made to feel”
Ed, Anwar and Jon thanked me for my lived experience and being so honest and vulnerable with them.
As a result, they have asked me to get involved in some team training, not sure of how this looks yet, it could be a five min video, it could be me going to speak to ABM staff from time to time.
My thoughts around this whole episode are:
Yes, the service I received originally was not good enough
Ed faced the issue head on by reaching out to me and inviting me in too discuss.
Ed, Anwar and Jon took the time to listen to my observations.
They shared their plans with me around improvements.
Most importantly these gents do a tough job, but they also people who genuinely appear to care about the work they do.
I hope as a result of conversations like this and other, learnings are implemented and disabled passengers going through an airport start to enjoy their holidays again.
Thanks Ed, Anwar and Jon for inviting me in, making me feel welcome and showing me you care.