Frontier Airlines plane seen at Cancun International Airport. On Wednesday, December 08, 2021, in Cancun International Airport, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images
The 1986 Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to supply a wheelchair for passengers with disabilities on the airport. The issue, though, is that many travelers are faking it, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said.
“There is very large, rampant abuse of special services. There are people using wheelchair assistance who don’t need it in any respect,” Biffle said at a Wings Club luncheon on Thursday in Latest York.
He said he has seen some Frontier flights where 20 people were brought in wheelchairs at departure, with only three using them upon arrival.
“We’re healing so many individuals,” he joked.
Biffle wasn’t talking about travelers’ personal wheelchairs, but relatively the service airlines provide when travelers arrive on the airport.
It costs the airline between $30 and $35 every time a customer requests a wheelchair, Biffle said, and abuse of the service results in delays for travelers with a real need for assistance.
“Everyone needs to be entitled to it who needs it, but you park in a handicapped space they are going to tow your automotive and advantageous you,” he told CNBC. “There needs to be the identical penalty for abusing these services.”
Biffle is not the only executive to complain about travelers falsely claiming they need access to a wheelchair on the airport.
In July 2022, John Holland-Kaye, the then-CEO of London’s Heathrow Airport, told LBC Radio amid staffing shortages that some travelers were “using wheelchair support to attempt to get fast-tracked through the airport.”
“If you happen to go on TikTok, that’s certainly one of the travel hacks individuals are recommending,” he said. “Please don’t try this. We’d like to guard the service for individuals who need it most.”
John Morris, a triple amputee and founding father of WheelchairTravel.org, noted there are explanation why some travelers might need wheelchairs on their outbound leg but not upon arrival. For instance, they may need the assistance to get through a big airport like in Atlanta or Latest York City, but not so at smaller facilities.
“Disability impacts people in a variety of alternative ways,” he said.
“I believe there’s a very good case to be made that abusers should face some consequence but I’m undecided how we try this in a society when our disabilities aren’t [always] visible,” Morris said.
Earlier this 12 months, the Department of Transportation proposed stricter rules aimed toward stopping wheelchair damage by airport ground handlers and ensuring “prompt assistance” to travelers with disabilities when getting on and off the plane.
