ANA, JAL new accessibility guidelines ensure safe journey for all passengers

Travelling amid the pandemic is already tough and scary, but passengers needing special assistance experience twice the anxiety.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL), under the direct supervision of The Nippon Care-Fit Education Institute, today announced a new accessibility guideline for customers requesting special assistance at the airport and during flights and airline employees to ensure a safe and accessible journey when travelling by air during COVID-19 crisis.

The guideline follows the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) “Guidance on Accessible Air Travel in Response to COVID-19”, which lays out the basic principles for airlines to follow on special assistance requests, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan’s guideline on measures of communication-based assistance for customers need special assistance.

Based on the jointly announced new accessibility guidelines, ANA and JAL will act responsibly and respond to the needs of the travelling public, while strengthening efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Both carriers seek to provide a safe, secure and accessible travel experience.

Creating a hygienic environments

Committed in creating hygienic environments at airports, lounges, and inside the aircraft in order to provide greater safety and peace of mind when travelling under conditions of concern for infection with the new coronavirus.  Airlines jointly introduce new measures in providing assistance involving physical contact; strengthen initiatives to ensure hand disinfection and sterilization and approaching diagonally or from the side to prevent direct transmission.

Appropriate measures to prevent infection

Implement appropriate measures to prevent infection of both customers and airline employees in response to customer needs and condition such as disabilities.

Providing appropriate information

Provide customers with updated information on infection prevention measures. New measures strengthen the ability to provide timely information for those with visual and/or hearing impairment. Carriers are committed to improving communication measures, and while masks are essential in protecting one’s health, the carriers will provide visual aids at the airport to overcome the difficulties that masks create for the hearing impaired.