Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport has opened a lounge designed for passengers with disabilities.
The lounge, known as "Orbit", has been designed to accommodate 15 guests at any time. Features include: an individual service room with medical couch; a specially equipped bathroom; a comfortable recreation area with a large plasma TV screen; a children's area; a "sound panel" for passengers with impaired hearing; a portable reader with free Wi-Fi access; and a library with a wide range of books, including a number in Braille.
The Orbit Lounge, which is available to domestic travellers with a disabled person’s license, is located in Terminal B (3rd floor), in the boarding waiting area (after pre-flight inspection). The Mercure lounge for disabled passengers is in the public area of the terminal (1st floor).
Sheremetyevo International Airport also offers passengers with disabilities personal assistance when moving through terminals, including undertaking pre- and post-flight formalities on a priority basis, and while boarding and disembarking from the aircraft. Amenities include ambulifts, tactile paths and tactile-sound mimic boards, and hearing induction loops.
More than 84,000 passengers with disabilities used Sheremetyevo International Airport in 2022, and this year, the airport expects to host 150,000 disabled travellers.
Image: Sheremetyevo International Airport
