A disabled woman who is “paralysed from the neck down and could not use her arms or legs”, arrived at the Gatwick Airport (London’s second airport) from a holiday in Malta with British Airways.  She waited for more than 90 minutes for airport assistance to arrive. She needed two people (airport assistants) to lift her from the airplane seat to a narrow wheelchair, which is a specially designed for the plane, to push her along the aisle off the plane and then to her own wheelchair outside.  The British Airways staff were kind enough to help her to get off the plane so that the plane leave quickly.

But actually, it was not British Airways’ job, it was the duty of the Gatwick Airport assistance’s responsibility to look after disabled people on and off planes.  According to the British Airways’ disability and mobility assistance website, it mentioned that “they will liaise with the responsibilities of the airport operator or other service provider” to assist/escort disabled people to and from the aircraft and to transport them to their wheelchairs and mobility aids.

She received an apology from Gatwick Airport via Twitter.  She was not impressed with their services as “she did book the help in advance – she didn’t just turn up – and she again reminded them two weeks before as well”.  She has a plan to submit an official complaint that “the disabled people shouldn’t be stuck on a plane for that long and the UK airports need to get their acts together and plan their staffing appropriately.”

Gatwick Airport spokesman said that it was unacceptable to leave a disabled woman on the plane for so long and has given an apologize to her.  They are also investigating this incident as a matter of urgency.

YES, I have seen that myself.  Most airport assistance do not turn up so I have to go somewhere by myself.  I was told by the airline staff that they did not want to pay for the airport assistance services. For disabled people, it was free of charge, but for the airlines, they had to pay for appropriate staff to provide this kind of services.

The Guardian
BBC news

I went to Sydney travel show and saw many people with different kinds of disabilities ask exhibitors for information about major airlines, tour, cruise, rail specialists, destinations expert, government, travel doctor and foreign currency providers. Exhibitors can usually provide these people with lots of information about their trip plans and what to expect. I enjoyed walking around the exhibitors and wanted to see what information they were providing for their client’s trip expectations. For example, I wanted to travel to Antarctic from Australia not from South America. A lady from the tour company told me that it would take one week to get there by ship. Wow! It took so long to get there by ship. Therefore, the travellers have to fly to South America to get there in order to save long-distance time.

Finally, I was so excited to see Singapore airlines’ seats on display – a new Premium Economy and a fully flat Business class seat. Singapore airlines wanted the public to test out the seats. We had to queue first and then waited for others to move from Premium Economy Class seats to the Business class seat. There were two or three flight attendants who helped the public to find the features such as where the tray is and where the lamp is. I noticed that a blind woman was trying to sit on both new seats. She had no problem with the Premium economy class seat. It is the basic amenities seat design but the business class seat is the advanced amenities seat design. She was totally confused with the business class seat’s multi-features such as storage rooms, a lamp near the headrest, legrest, many buttons, etc. Of course, there is no braille on the seat. When she lied on the fully flat seats, the flight attendant helped and moved her legs to the other side where the legrest room is. It looked like she lied down in an angle direction not in the horizon direction. It was too awkward for her.

See red circle – this is where you put your legs into the storage room. (Photo: Singapore airlines)

After I had tried on both seats, they knew that there was no problem for me as a deaf person. I said, “I have no problem with the seats but wish there is close-captions in all the movies shown on your airlines!”

Then I was surprised to see that a deaf couple brought along a sign language interpreter to one of the exhibitors. I had never thought of that but I didn’t think that it was necessary because it was just short questions and answers. I could just write questions on a piece of paper and show to it to the exhibitors if they could not understand me.

I was so impressed that so many people with disabilities are interested in travelling around the world in the Sydney travel show.