Special Assistance Services (PRM)

[tleeds]

Didn’t know if there was already a dedicated thread to this. Feel free to move or delete if not necessary.

The current OCS team are to become LBA employees apparently. The airport are going to take over control of this service just like they did with Security from OmniServe not so long ago.

No drastic changes are going to be made, just a change of branding and employer for the employees for now. It’s expected the current team will just be transferred over.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Having just got our dedicated seating area by gate 6 all signed as OCS and every wheel chair/employee branded OCS, yet another rebranding expense.
The OCS staff are fabulous, all ways remember you and just hope their contracts as good if not better in the future.
As a matter of interest one of the staff telling us in October of the value of fines Ryanair impose if they get SA passengers late (in Ryanairs terms) to the plane. Who will pay this fine now, the airport?

 

[White Heather]

Having just got our dedicated seating area by gate 6 all signed as OCS and every wheel chair/employee branded OCS, yet another rebranding expense.
The OCS staff are fabulous, all ways remember you and just hope their contracts as good if not better in the future.
As a matter of interest one of the staff telling us in October of the value of fines Ryanair impose if they get SA passengers late (in Ryanairs terms) to the plane. Who will pay this fine now, the airport?

They obviously feel that taking over the contract and employing the staff themselves is going to result in a higher level of service than that currently provided and, no doubt, cheaper than having a contractor do it. If the service
levels improve, then fines for late delivery of passengers to any airline should be reduced. They might actually be able to recruit and retain enough staff too.

 

[tleeds]

I would have thought it was OCS paying the fines at the moment, not sure what the costs are though.

I know that Jet2 this Summer had dedicated PSA’s to liaise with OCS and that was their only role for the day. It really did make things better!

 

[Tarn Spotter]

If the service levels improve, then fines for late delivery of passengers to any airline should be reduced.

If the operation of our flight with Ryanair anything to go by, not much that can be improved. For the first time our boarding cards checked in the new SA area, not at the gate, this saved the staff having to take us down to the gate (gate 10 in our case). We could then exit via gate 6 to be taken down to the stand (11), we arrived before the plane.

I know that Jet2 this Summer had dedicated PSA’s to liaise with OCS and that was their only role for the day. It really did make things better!

We did 4 Jet2 flights this summer, flight times from 7am to 9.30am.
Not once was there any OCS staff available, there certainly was no liase with OCS staff we were just told to sit in a wheel chair and wait.
This wait was never less then an hour and more like 90 minutes on average. For our last flight jet2 solution as no OCS staff was for us to try and get the general public to push us down to security, they were not prepared to ask for us.
Just seemed far to many people on Jet2 flights using SA, I counted 12 wheel chair users in the booking hall awaiting transfer to security, some of these peoples flights had been called for boarding.
On our last visit having had issues before, asked if they wanted family members who had got us to the booking hall to take us down to the main OCS desk, told not necessary, then 45 minutes later asking if this option still available, which it was not, no joined up writing.
There was only one desk dealing with SA clients, all he did was say someone would collect us soon, everyone was going back to him as non action taking place and flights were being called.
If this is better, its got a long way to go, to be acceptable, on all four occasions, instead of a nice leisurely trip through the airport, having arrived 3 hours before flight time, were being rushed through security with 45 minutes to go, needing the toilet and no time to buy water or have cup of tea etc.