Cypriot airports: Services to ensure access for all passengers with visible or invisible disabilities or reduced mobility

Cypriot airports have a special service dedicated to ensuring that all passengers with visible or invisible disabilities or reduced mobility receive the necessary support, directly aiming for everyone to enjoy a comfortable and positive travel experience.

The airports’ operator, Hermes Airports, has urged passengers who require assistance under this particular service to pre-book it during their ticket-booking services. The service offers security screening assistance and priority screening procedures.

The airline, in cooperation with both the airport and the service serving people in need of assistance, will register all the necessary information such as the day and time of the flight and the type of assistance.

But even if it is a last-minute booking, when a passenger needs help, arriving at the airport, they can ask for it from the desk of the service that serves people with disabilities or reduced mobility.

For persons with disabilities and people with reduced mobility, the airports of Cyprus have, among other things, special access points in all areas of Larnaca and Paphos airports and appropriate parking spaces in close proximity to the entrances of the buildings.

For the first time in Cyprus, there are specialised changing rooms specially configured for people with obvious disabilities with the "Changing Place" sign. There are assistance points outside both airports where people with disabilities or reduced mobility can call the disability service to be met by a trained operator and help them enter the airport.

In addition, people with disabilities or reduced mobility who are also holders of the "Parking Blue Card" can park up to two hours free of charge in the airport car parks, in the appropriate places near the airport buildings, or take advantage of 45% discount on the total parking cost.

At the same time, the Hermes Airports website is designed according to the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standard. Its purpose is to be accessible to people who face vision and hearing problems.

'Sunflower Lanyard' and 'I Can Fly'

Hermes Airports has also jointed the international initiative Sunflower Lanyard, which is designed for people with invisible disabilities.

The staff of all airport companies have been trained by the academy created by Hermes Airports to approach and provide care and service to people with invisible disabilities who wish to move independently, during their journey from airports. Thus, passengers with non-visible disabilities can discreetly ask staff for help.

It should be noted that the Sunflower lanyard does not guarantee the provision of fast track service or the ability to skip queues. However, the people at the airports will do their best to help passengers wearing the lanyard, which they can obtain from the disabled and reduced mobility service desks at the entrances of the two airports.

I Can Fly is an innovative program created by Hermes Airports and implemented in our airports since 2018, specifically to serve people on the autism spectrum and their families. As part of this, priority is given to all airport areas and procedures, offering the specially designed blue hat with the 'I Can Fly' logo to passengers who request it.

This article first appeared in Flight Mode magazine. Click here to view it.