John Holland-Kaye told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I don’t think it’s reasonable that we should take financial responsibility”.

It comes after BBC journalist Frank Gardner criticised the airport when he was left waiting for an hour and 40 minutes because ground staff had misplaced his wheelchair.

He said airports would only listen to disabled passengers if there was a financial penalty.

Gardner, who is the BBC’s security correspondent, has used a wheelchair since he was shot six times by militants while he was reporting in Saudi Arabia in 2004.

In the interview Holland-Kaye said after taking advice from Gardner Heathrow would now be committed to a new target – a standard of 20 minutes - for disabled people to be disembarked from aircraft. He added that this would be “20 minutes after everybody else had got off” the aircraft.

Holland-Kaye compared his job to that of a “mayor of a city” and promised he would fix flaws in Heathrow’s provision for disabled passengers.

He also apologies to any other passengers who had suffered poor experiences and urged those affected to get in touch.

"We want to be seen as the best airport in the world for passenger service,” he added. “We’ve made huge improvements, but clearly we have more to do, and I’m committed to doing that.”