The Concept of Airports for All: Equality in Air Travel
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article aims to present the concept of airports for all. An airport for all is a place that provides services, safety, and convenience for all groups of airport customers, including persons with disabilities, the pregnant,
the elderly, children, families with small children, and persons requiring special assistance in other aspects.
The airport consists of 2 areas, namely the airside and the landside. There are two groups of airport services: the non-commercial services that customers do not have to pay for and the commercial services that the customers have to pay for services. The principles of universal design with seven rules are: (1) Equitable Use, (2) Flexible Use, (3) Simple and Intuitive Use, (4) Perceptible Information, (5) Safety (Tolerance for Error), (6) Low Physical Effort, and (7) Size and Space for Approach Use. Problems and obstacles in the development of airports for all are airport size, lack of budget, insufficient equipment: old, damaged, and lack of maintenance, the management team's commitment and continuity of development, and customers' attitudes toward disabilities or customers requiring special assistance. Recommendations for improving the airport for all are as follows: allocate a budget for continuous development, publicize information and news to all groups of customers thoroughly including the preparation of travel manuals, maintenance of various equipment and tools to be available and sufficient for use, training airport staff' skills, knowledge, and attitudes in facilitating all groups of customers, and survey the needs and satisfaction of all groups of customers to get more details about customers' needs and guidelines for the development of airports for all.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright
Connexion: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences has an exclusive right to publish the accepted articles in any form. However, the author retains the following rights:
1. The right to the ownership of the article;
2. The right to use all or part of the article in his/her other works;
3. The right to re-produce the article for personal use or for use in the author’s organisation, in which case the author must obtain permission from Connexion: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences;
4. The right to make copies of all or part of the work for educational use or for the author’s use in classroom teaching; and
5. The right to include the work (both the preprinted and printed versions) in an institutional repository.
References
Air Asia. (2020) Measures for those who require special care and need to travel, Available: https://newsroom.airasia.com/stories/th-accessibility-inclusivity-in-essential-travel [1 April 2020]
Airport of Thailand (AOT). (2020) Airport facilities for the disabled and the elderly (สิ่งอำนวยความสะดวกภายในท่าอากาศยานสำหรับผู้พิการและผู้สูงอายุ), Available: https://bit.ly/3QVMjR1 [1 April 2020] (in Thai)
Airport of Thailand (AOT). (2021) AOT: Progress on the development of Suvarnabhumi Airport to become an aviation hub in the region (AOT เดินหน้าพัฒนาท่าอากาศยานสุวรรณภูมิสู่การเป็นศูนย์กลางการบินในภูมิภาค), Available: https://bit.ly/3QVMjR1 [1 April 2020] (in Thai)
Bezerra, G. C. L., & Gomes, C. F. (2015) The effects of service quality dimensions and passenger characteristics on passenger’s overall satisfaction with an airport, Journal of Air Transport Management, vol. 44-45, pp. 77-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2015.03.001
Chowsungnearn, P., Temkaew, W., & Namsang, A. (2017) The facilitation models development for disabled persons at Don Mueang Airport, Technical Education Journal King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 206-212.
Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT). (2018) Civil aviation facility standards equipment arrangement Airport facilities for people with disabilities to access and use (มาตรฐานการอำนวยความสะดวกการบินพลเรือน การจัดให้มีอุปกรณ์ สิ่งอำนวยความสะดวกท่าอากาศยาน เพื่อให้คนพิการสามารถเข้าถึงและใช้ประโยชน์), Available: https://www.caat.or.th/th/archives/20893 [1 April 2020] (in Thai)
Gibbons, S., & Wu, W. (2020) Airports, access and local economic performance: Evidence from China, Journal of Economic Geography, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 903-937. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbz021
Government Gazette. (2016) Requirements of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand No. 7 on facilities and services for passengers and crew members in public serviced airports (ข้อกําหนดของสํานักงานการบินพลเรือนแห่งประเทศไทย ฉบับที่ 7 ว่าด้วยสิ่งอํานวยความสะดวกและบริการสําหรับคนโดยสารและสมาชิกลูกเรือในสนามบินที่ให้บริการสาธารณะ), Available: https://bit.ly/3wB4bZg [1 April 2020] (in Thai)
Hong, S. J., Choi, D., & Chae, J. (2020) Exploring different airport users’ service quality satisfaction between service providers and air travelers, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 52, 101917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.101917
Hongsakul, B. (2022) Airport management (การจัดการท่าอากาศยาน), Pathum Thani: Rangsit University Printing. (in Thai)
Incheon Airport. (2019) Transit tour, Available: https://www.airport.kr/ap_cnt/en/trn/tour/trtour/trtour.do [1 April 2020]
International Airport Review. (2020) Aena adapts airport operations as a result of Spain’s COVID-19 crisis, Available: https://www.internationalairportreview.com/news/114098/aena-adapts-airport-operations-covid-19/ [1 April 2020]
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). (2022) Annex 14 – Aerodormes - Volume 1 – Aerodromes design and operations, 9th edition, Montreal: ICAO.
John F. Kennedy International Airport. (2022) Passengers with special needs, Available: https://jfkfly.com/passengers-with-special-needs [1 April 2020]
Liu, Y. E., Harrington, C., Melgen, S., & Sanford, J. (2016, July) ‘GatePal–universal design for airport navigation to allow departing travelers to stay informed’, in M. Antona, & C. Stephanidis (eds.), Universal access in human-computer interaction. Users and context diversity, pp. 586-594, Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40238-3_56
MTD Training. (2012) Management training & leadership courses, Available: https://www.mtdtraining.com/management-development-programme [1 April 2020]
Prentice, C., & Kadan, M. (2019) The role of airport service quality in airport and destination choice, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 47, pp. 40-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.10.006
Rady, A., & Wahab, H. A. (2022) Assessing air services and facilities provided to passengers with disabilities at EgyptAir, International Journal of Heritage, Tourism and Hospitality, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 115-127. https://doi.org/10.21608/ijhth.2022.254071
Serrano, F., & Kazda, A. (2020) The future of airports post COVID-19, Journal of Air Transport Management, vol. 89, 101900. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101900
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. (2022) Disability transportation, Available: https://www.taoyuan-airport.com/disability_transportation?lang=en [1 April 2020]
Thai Encyclopedia for Youth by His Majesty the King. (1997) Thai Encyclopedia for Youth by His Majesty the King Vol. 22 (สารานุกรมไทยสำหรับเยาวชนโดยพระราชประสงค์ในพระบาทสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัว เล่ม 22), Bangkok: Rungsilp Printing. (in Thai)
The International Air Transport Association (IATA). (2013) Introduction to the airline industry, Montreal: The International Air Transport Association.
United Nations. (2022) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Available: https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html [1 April 2020]
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). (2016) Manual on accessible tourism for all: Principies, tools and best practices- module I: accessible tourism – definition and context, Madrid: UNWTO, Available: https://webunwto.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-04/moduleieng13022017.pdf [1 April 2020]