Since travel restarted post-pandemic, one theme has emerged amid the overall chaos: travellers with disabilities being let down by airports and airlines. From special assistance passengers left on planes for upwards of an hour at the end of a flight to wheelchairs damaged in transit, there’s been headline after headline in the past 18 months.
Now, it seems, things have reached crisis point. After her wheelchair was broken on a British Airways flight in February, TV presenter Sophie Morgan has launched a campaign with Disability Rights UK. Called Rights on Flights, its goal is to improve the airline experience for all passengers with disabilities.“The majority of the time when I fly, something bad happens,” says Morgan. “I’ve normalised the experience of something going wrong.
Morgan is calling for legislation to ensure that future aircraft be fully accessible, with space to keep chairs on board and better designed toilets. Currently, wheelchair users have to ask crew to take them to the toilet in uncomfortable, undersized ‘aisle chairs’ that most planes have on board, then use the toilet with the door open.
Of course, not only travellers with disabilities use special assistance at airports. Anyone who can’t cope with long lines at security, getting up the steps to the plane or walking the long distances at major airports can book it — from elderly to pregnant to injured passengers. With the system under strain, and airlines passing the buck when things go wrong, perhaps change will only come when the CAA gets enforcement powers.
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