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The briefing
on assisting passengers with disabilities
The briefing on connected aviation
The news, views and numbers you need to know this month
In March, travel commerce platform Travelport launched a global campaign to improve awareness and use of the DPNA Special Service Request code, which can be used by travel agents, among others, to alert airlines when a passenger has intellectual or developmental disability and needs assistance. The campaign was initiated after Travelport found evidence of exceptionally low use of the code on bookings made through its global distribution system, used by travel agents, travel management companies and large corporations, to search and book airline seats.
percentages
24%
A poll of 136 travel agents, conducted by Travelport, revealed just 24% know the code exists
2.6%
An estimated 200 million people worldwide have an intellectual disability, representing 2.6% of the global population
0.0015%
Despite this, the code was used just 4,309 times, approximat ely 0.0015% of total flight bookings
3%
Aviation efficiency gains are not enough to keep emissions growth under 3%. Passenger growth exceeds forecasts
In quotes
Gordon Wilson, president and chief executive officer of Travelport:
We hope this campaign will not only make a difference in the travel industry, but act as a catalyst for other organizations to investigate how their industry, or the industry they serve, can better support people with intellectual disabilities and make improvements where needed.
Numbers
100,000
Travelport’s six-month long campaign will reach more than 100,000 travel agents
30
Electronic direct mails as well as ‘sign on alerts’ and graphical ‘prompts’ will be activated when a consultant books a flight to over 30 of the most popular destinations in the world
$100,000
The company has allocated over $100,000 worth of slots for the DPNA SSR code awareness campaign, which will run until 31 August 2019
3.5 million
Content from the campaign will be displayed to travel agents more than 3.5 million times, making it one of the biggest digital media campaigns the company has ever executed
