An accessibility audit of passenger journeys at airports

What is shaping aerospace

Aerospace brings together airlines, airports, MRO providers and component suppliers, with safety, reliability and certification at the centre of every decision.

• Passenger experience is a key differentiator for airlines and airports
• MRO and component buying depends on certification and turnaround
• Skilled talent is in short supply

An airport operator, working in Three airports in Australia and New Zealand. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

An airport operator

Sector

Aerospace

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Qualitative research, Offline data collection, Reporting & insights

The operator wanted to improve accessibility for passengers with disabilities and older travellers, but its compliance checklists did not capture the real experience.

• Deliver on the brief: an accessibility audit of passenger journeys at airports.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of accompanied journeys.
• Uncover the motivations and barriers people do not state in a survey.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 7 weeks.

The work focused on 30 accompanied journeys.

• accompanied journeys30

Audiences we typically reach in aerospace

PassengersAirline and airport managersMRO providersComponent suppliersEngineers and technicians

Coverage: Three airports in Australia and New Zealand. Markets: Australia and New Zealand.

• Australia
• New Zealand

A qualitative design, built to uncover motivations, decision processes and the language people actually use.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Accompanied journeys with passengers with disabilities
3. 3Facility audits
4. 4Insight

With participants’ consent, researchers accompanied passengers with mobility, visual and hearing impairments from kerbside to boarding, recording barriers and assistance quality, alongside structured facility audits.

Qualitative researchOffline data collectionReporting & insights

accompanied journeys

30

• Respondents were selected across Three airports in Australia and New Zealand using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person, supervised in the field.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.
• Auditors and mystery shoppers followed a standard checklist, recording evidence at each visit.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Photo or document evidence for audit points
• Second-reviewer checks on scores
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Signage, assistance handovers between teams and long walking distances were the main barriers.

Experiencing the journey with passengers revealed issues a checklist could not.

• Build on the core insight: experiencing the journey with passengers revealed issues a checklist could not.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: signage, assistance handovers between teams and long walking distances were the main barriers.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The operator redesigned signage and assistance handover procedures.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: what attracts and retains aviation talent?