Frontier Airways CEO stated passengers abuse airport wheelchair service

The 1986 Air Service Entry Act requires airways to supply a wheelchair for passengers with disabilities on the airport. The issue, although, is that many vacationers are faking it, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle stated.

“There may be large, rampant abuse of particular companies. There are folks utilizing wheelchair help who do not want it in any respect,” Biffle stated at a Wings Membership luncheon on Thursday in New York.

He stated he has seen some Frontier flights the place 20 folks had been introduced in wheelchairs at departure, with solely three utilizing them upon arrival.

“We’re therapeutic so many individuals,” he joked.

Biffle wasn’t speaking about vacationers’ private wheelchairs, however relatively the service airways present when vacationers arrive on the airport.

It prices the airline between $30 and $35 every time a buyer requests a wheelchair, Biffle stated, and abuse of the service results in delays for vacationers with a real want for help.

“Everybody ought to be entitled to it who wants it, however you park in a handicapped area they may tow your automobile and positive you,” he instructed CNBC. “There ought to be the identical penalty for abusing these companies.”

Biffle is not the one government to complain about vacationers falsely claiming they want entry to a wheelchair on the airport.

In July 2022, John Holland-Kaye, the then-CEO of London’s Heathrow Airport, instructed LBC Radio amid staffing shortages that some vacationers had been “utilizing wheelchair assist to attempt to get fast-tracked by the airport.”

“If you happen to go on TikTok, that is likely one of the journey hacks persons are recommending,” he stated. “Please do not do this. We have to shield the service for individuals who want it most.”

John Morris, a triple amputee and founding father of WheelchairTravel.org, famous there are explanation why some vacationers may want wheelchairs on their outbound leg however not upon arrival. For instance, they may want the assistance to get by a big airport like in Atlanta or New York Metropolis, however not so at smaller amenities.

“Incapacity impacts folks in loads of other ways,” he stated.

“I feel there is a good case to be made that abusers ought to face some consequence however I am unsure how we do this in a society when our disabilities aren’t [always] seen,” Morris stated.

Earlier this yr, the Division of Transportation proposed stricter rules aimed toward stopping wheelchair injury by airport floor handlers and guaranteeing “immediate help” to vacationers with disabilities when getting on and off the aircraft.