Air laws welcome despite flaws

New air travel laws should improve access for passengers, says Sunil Peck

Disability rights campaigners are hailing new European Union legislation as a significant step towards equality for disabled air passengers.

The legislation comes into force on 26 July and covers assisted travel, compensation for damaged mobility equipment and disability equality training for airport and airline staff.

The legislation gives disabled people the right to expect assistance from arrival at an airport to an aircraft, and then from the aircraft to departure from the airport, including both getting on and getting off the plane.

The new laws apply to disabled passengers who use commercial flights which arrive or depart from European Union countries.

Although passengers will be entitled to compensation if a wheelchair or piece of specialist equipment is damaged during a flight or by airport ground staff, the Equality and Human Rights Commission urges people to insure equipment because compensation for any damage will be low.

Maria Nyman, policy officer at the European Disability Forum, welcomes the requirement for all staff who work with the public to undergo disability equality training because most of the complaints the EDF receives stem from negative attitudes towards disabled people.

The Civil Aviation Authority will enforce the legislation in the UK.

Jimi Adeleye, secretary of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, says that having one body in charge will give passengers more chance of redress if they are discriminated against because it will be harder for airlines and airport authorities to dodge their responsibilities by blaming each other.

The first stage of the legislation came into effect in July 2007 and made it unlawful for airlines to refuse bookings from disabled passengers or to bar them from boarding an aircraft. But it also introduced a grey area by giving a captain the right to prevent disabled passengers boarding on safety grounds.

Mr Adeleye says there have been few cases reported officially since the new laws came into force 12 months ago, although this could indicate that people do not know how to file a formal complaint.

Only last month, wheelchair-user Greg Cronin, from Wakefield, who does not communicate verbally but has flown unaccompanied with Ryanair several times, was prevented from boarding a Ryanair flight by the captain, who decided it was unsafe for him to fly as he was unaccompanied and would be unable to communicate with the crew in an emergency.

Maria Nyman would like to see a clearer definition of the safety grounds governing a captain's right to bar disabled passengers.

Nevertheless, she views the EU legislation as good news for disabled air passengers.

“This is still very good legislation,” she says. “It could be the starting point for the end of discrimination against disabled air passengers. Disability groups have a very clear role to play to make sure that this regulation will make a change. We have a very powerful tool.”