The facility is amongst three major airports named as failing to meet expectations, with another major airport ranked 'poor'.

The report highlights that there are now more than 3 million requests for assistance at UK airports annually – a rise of almost 80 per cent since 2010 Satisfaction levels also remain high, with 83 per cent of people requesting assistance stating that they are ‘satisfied’; with 54 per cent of those being ‘very satisfied’.

The report reveals that 16 UK airports have been rated ‘very good’ up from six airports in last year’s review. This includes Edinburgh Airport which two years ago was rated ‘poor’. Good progress has also been made by Heathrow Airport, which has this year been classified as ‘good’ following its ‘poor’ rating last year.

But three airports; Birmingham, Gatwick and Stansted have not met the CAA’s expectations and have been told that they must improve. Manchester Airport has received a ‘poor’ rating for the second year in a row, the only airport to receive this rating this year. Through monitoring of the airport’s performance the CAA identified issues in relation to long waiting times for assistance and issues with the recording and reporting of performance data.

The CAA's framework, the first of its kind in the world, was introduced to ensure there is a consistent and high-quality service for disabled passengers across UK airports. The Authority assesses airports against a number of measures to establish how well they are performing for disabled passengers, including asking those passengers using the assistance service how it performed for them. 

The CAA highlighted that the vast majority of passengers’ journeys go smoothly and disabled passengers should have even more confidence to travel from UK airports.

But it promised to continue to focus on ensuring that standards are maintained and improved and highlighted that where it sees examples of bad practice it will continue to hold airports to account and take enforcement action if necessary.