East Midlands Airport opens Changing Places

On Monday 21st November 2011 East Midlands Airport, in conjunction with the Changing Places Consortium, opened the first Changing Places toilet in a UK mainland airport.

The newly installed facility has been designed to meet the needs of passengers who have profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) and other passengers with severe disabilities who need the support of at least one carer, providing them with a safe and easy to use facility when travelling through the airport.

Brad Miller, Managing Director East Midlands Airport said: “As part of our commitment to improving the passenger experience at the airport, we continually look at all of the areas in the terminal and the facilities that we provide to make sure they meet our passenger’s needs.

“When the Changing Places consortium approached us to highlight their campaign and explain the benefits of the facility, we were proud to be able to help. They have been instrumental in the development of the facility, advising us throughout. We really admire and respect the work that the Changing Places campaign does and as an airport that caters for millions of passengers with many different needs, it is essential that we work closely with consortiums, such as Changing Places, to deliver a first class facility in our airport.”

The ceremony was attended by the Clough family who are helping the Consortium by campaigning for Changing Places toilets in airports across the UK. Margaret Clough said “This is fantastic and will make such a difference to travelling for our daughter Julie and the rest of the family.” Julie helped Brad Miller cut the ribbon and gave the facility a big “thumbs up”

Martin Jackaman, Changing Places consortium member, comments: “We are delighted East Midlands Airport has installed a Changing Places toilet, it is fantastic step to making UK airports fully accessible. We hope that many other UK airports will now follow suit and see the importance of having a Changing Places toilet.”