Frontier Airlines plane seen at Cancun International Airport. On Wednesday, December 8, 2021, at the Cancún International Airport, Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Artur Widak | Nurfoto | fake images
The Air Transportation Access Act of 1986 requires airlines to provide a wheelchair to passengers with disabilities at the airport. The problem: many travelers pretend Border Airlines Says CEO Barry Biffle.
“There is massive, rampant abuse of special services. There are people who use wheelchair assistance and don't need it at all,” Biffle said at a Wings Club luncheon Thursday in New York.
He said he had seen Frontier flights where 20 people boarded the plane in wheelchairs, but only three wheelchairs were used upon arrival.
“We're healing a lot of people,” he joked.
Biffle was not referring to travelers' personal wheelchairs, but to the service airlines offer when travelers arrive at the airport.
It costs the airline between $30 and $35 each time a customer requests a wheelchair, Biffle said, and abuse of the service causes delays for travelers with a genuine need for assistance.
“Everyone who needs it should have the right to it, but if you park in a handicapped space, they will tow your car and give you a ticket,” he told CNBC. “There should be the same penalty for abusing these services.”
Biffle isn't the only executive to complain about travelers falsely claiming they need a wheelchair at the airport.
In July 2022, John Holland-Kaye, then chief executive of London Heathrow Airport, told LBC Radio, amid staff shortages, that some travelers were “using wheelchair support to try to get through quickly.” the airport”.
“If you go on TikTok, that's one of the travel hacks that people recommend,” he said. “Please don't do that. We need to protect the service for the people who need it most.”
John Morris, a triple amputee who founded WheelchairTravel.org, said there are reasons why some travelers may need wheelchairs on the outbound leg, but not upon arrival. For example, they might need help getting through a large airport like Atlanta or New York, but not smaller ones.
“Disability affects people in many different ways,” he said.
“I think there are good reasons to argue that abusers should face some consequences, but I'm not sure how we do that in a society where our disabilities are not [always] visible,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation proposed stricter rules aimed at preventing damage to wheelchairs by airport ground handling services and ensuring “prompt assistance” to travelers with disabilities when boarding and alighting. of the airplane.
