Norwich Airport has been rated one of the country's top airports for providing assistance to passengers with a disability.

Eastern Daily Press: Norwich Airport has been highly rated for providing assistance to passengers with a disability. Picture: DENISE BRADLEYNorwich Airport has been highly rated for providing assistance to passengers with a disability. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Archant)

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) published a report that assesses the top 30 UK airports on the quality of assistance they provide.

Norwich was one of six airports rated as 'very good'.

The CAA said the number of people with a disability requesting extra help when travelling by air continues to grow significantly and has now reached over three million journeys in 2016 – a rise of over 66pc since 2010.

The report reveals that the majority of UK airports are providing 'very good' or 'good' support.

Eastern Daily Press: Norwich Airport has been highly rated for providing assistance to passengers with a disability. Picture: DENISE BRADLEYNorwich Airport has been highly rated for providing assistance to passengers with a disability. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2017)

But four airports have not met the CAA's expectations and have been told they must improve.

They are East Midlands, Exeter, Heathrow and Manchester airports.

All have now committed to make improvements and the CAA expects work to implement these plans to start immediately.

The CAA's framework, the first of its kind in Europe, was introduced to ensure there is a consistent and high quality service for disabled passengers across UK airports.

Eastern Daily Press: Table of airport performance. Image: UK Civil Aviation AuthorityTable of airport performance. Image: UK Civil Aviation Authority (Image: Archant)

The CAA assesses airports against a number of measures to establish how well they are performing for disabled passengers. Where airports regularly under-perform, the CAA can take enforcement action to ensure services are improved.

Those with 'very good' and 'good' ratings have performed well in areas such as customer satisfaction, waiting times and engagement with disability organisations.

Richard Moriarty, CAA Director of Consumers and Markets, said: 'UK aviation should be proud that it continues to serve a rapid increase in the number of passengers with a disability. Our surveys, along with the airports' own studies, have shown high levels of satisfaction among disabled passengers and we have seen some examples of excellent service where assistance is well organised and delays are minimal.'

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, said: 'It is vital that everyone can access and use transport services, and the CAA is doing excellent work around this. It is encouraging to see the overwhelming majority of UK airports providing a good service for passengers with a disability, but I am determined to push the aviation industry to do more.'