Welcome The Up Front Update — we’ve been on the road this week, so it’s quite the bumper weekend edition of our weekly newsletter!
The big thing to note this week
It’s a disappointing week for aviation accessibility and travellers who need it as the UK’s Department for Transport’s Aviation Accessibility Task and Finish Group (AATFG), established in November 2024, issues its report.
This report centres around 19 unambitious, milquetoast recommendations that do little to move any needle, ranging from “Mandate baseline disability and accessibility awareness training” to “Ensure appropriate equipment is used”. A big problem is the lack of prioritisation: a report with 19 priorities is a report with 0 priorities.
At best, this is a codified — yet utterly damning — statement of the problems that aviation has created for disabled travellers. At worst, it’s a shield that the industry and its government regulator will brandish to kick accessibility into the long grass of “too hard”, “too costly”, and “well we had a working group on it”.
None of the recommendations is new. And nothing sums up the situation up better than the easy read version [PDF]: “There are no new laws or extra money to make changes. But we hope that airports and airlines will want to make changes.”
Disabled passengers, people with reduced mobility, and those needing assistance deserve better than just hope.
This week on The Up Front:
We’ve been on the road this week, quite literally, as we explore the passenger experience of the Channel Tunnel auto-train car shuttle option between France and the UK. It’s now known as Le Shuttle, rebranded from Eurotunnel le shuttle just over a year ago, and it’s peak summer holiday season.
We’ll have a full review of the experience in both directions soon, but for a family, or anyone needing to bring luggage with them, it’s a surprisingly cost-effective — and speedy — option.
In the UK or otherwise have access to the 5Select channel? Catch John bringing an informed perspective about air safety on the dramatically named yet surprisingly non-sensationalist Terror at 30,000 Feet, which will be broadcast on 27 July, 2 August and 3 August.
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