Disabled passengers ‘abandoned’ on plane for 90 minutes at Manchester airport

Exclusive: from touchdown to passport control took two hours

The group were waiting for special assistance for 90 minutes (Emma Giddings)

A group of disabled passengers were left on board a plane at Manchester airport for 90 minutes waiting for help.

Jet2 flight 766 from Madeira landed shortly after 4pm on Monday 3 June. Six passengers had booked special assistance, which is provided at Manchester by OmniServ.

Emma Giddings was travelling with her partner and disabled daughter. In addition, she says, there were five elderly people who had also requested special assistance.

The help should have been provided promptly by OmniServ, which looks after “passengers of reduced mobility” at Manchester airport.

But due to a mix-up help did not arrive until around 5.30pm.

During the delay, the cabin crew had to stay with them on board the aircraft. Passengers waiting for the subsequent flight were delayed because they were not able to board.

Once OmniServ staff arrived, Ms Giddings said they initially took just two of six passengers who needed help.

“We were left standing on the tarmac with no transport,” she said.

”The communication between the driver of the vehicle and the OmniServ staff helping us was terrible.”

Eventually a vehicle arrived, and the remaining passengers were picked up – only to be “abandoned in some kind of area with a lift”.

A staff member then found them and they were escorted to passport control – two hours after their flight had landed.

As a consequence of the delay, some of the passengers had to pay much more for taxis, and one woman’s taxi left without her.

A spokesperson for the handling company said: “OmniServ endeavours to work closely with the airport, airlines and other service providers to ensure a seamless service to all passengers.

“We apologised to the customer and are actively reviewing the situation to improve our processes and service.”

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: “We never like to hear our passengers have had a bad experience and always urge them to feedback any concerns to us directly.

“We are currently investigating exactly what happened in this situation as a matter of urgency, with both the airline and our new special assistance provider, OmniServ.

“Manchester Airport is committed to providing excellent service to all customers, including those who require special assistance and have invested heavily in this area in the last 12 months.

“This includes setting up a dedicated airport Disability Engagement Forum, which has played an important role in developing our plan to improve performance.

“Nevertheless, we never want passengers to have a bad airport experience and are sorry to hear the standards we expect of our partners were not met on this occasion. We have raised this directly with OmniServ and await the outcome of their investigation.”

Ms Giddings said: “I am truly disgusted with the delay and how we were treated.”