Article written by Gunta Anca, President of the European Disability Forum
For many people, a journey begins when they arrive at the airport. For me, travelling often begins several days—or even weeks—before the flight.
Before I leave home, I may need to provide the airline with detailed information about my wheelchair: its weight, dimensions, battery type and technical specifications. Different airlines have different forms, different questions and sometimes different interpretations of the same safety requirements.
Even after receiving confirmation that my wheelchair has been accepted, I can never be completely sure that everything will go smoothly. At check-in or at the boarding gate, new questions may appear. Staff may not have access to the information I have already provided. I may once again have to explain how my wheelchair works and why its battery is safe.
I am an experienced traveller. I travel frequently for my work in disability rights. Yet before every journey, I still feel uncertainty. Will the assistance arrive on time? Will I be able to board safely? Will the staff know how to handle my wheelchair? And, perhaps most importantly, will my wheelchair arrive at the destination in working condition?
These are not questions most passengers have to ask themselves.
Handing over my independence
My wheelchair is not simply a piece of equipment. It is not something that can be separated from my daily life. It gives me mobility and physical support. It allows me to work, participate in meetings, travel, meet people and live independently. Without it, my world becomes significantly smaller. However, when I travel by air, I must hand over this independence to people I do not know.
My wheelchair disappears behind the airport doors. From that moment, I cannot see how it is being lifted, moved, secured or stored. I do not know whether the staff handling it have received appropriate training or understand which parts are fragile. I have to trust the system completely.
At the same time, I may be transferred into an airport wheelchair that does not provide the support my body needs. It may be uncomfortable or unsuitable for sitting for a long time. I am no longer able to move independently and must rely on assistance staff for every part of the journey through the airport.
Good assistance can make this experience respectful and safe. Poor assistance can make a passenger feel vulnerable, invisible and powerless.
A damaged wheelchair is not a damaged suitcase
When luggage is damaged, it is frustrating. But in most cases, a suitcase can be replaced relatively quickly. A personalised wheelchair is different. It may have been individually adjusted to support the person’s body, posture and health needs. Repairing or replacing it can take weeks or even months.
During that time, the person may be unable to go to work, leave home, travel or carry out ordinary daily activities. An unsuitable temporary wheelchair may cause pain, pressure injuries, breathing problems or serious discomfort. The damage is therefore not limited to the financial value of the chair. When a wheelchair is damaged, a person’s independence is damaged with it.
This is why I find it deeply problematic when mobility aids are treated mainly as baggage. They may be transported in the baggage compartment, but they are not ordinary luggage.
The passenger experiences one journey
Air travel involves many different organisations. The airline accepts the booking. The airport provides assistance. A ground-handling company may load the wheelchair. Another company may be responsible for unloading it. Regulators and national authorities oversee different parts of the process. I understand that the system is complex. But I do not experience my journey as a collection of separate contracts and responsibilities. I experience one journey.
When something goes wrong, passengers are often passed from one organisation to another. The airline may say that the airport was responsible. The airport may refer the passenger to the ground-handling company. The ground handler may send the complaint back to the airline. While the organisations discuss who was responsible, the passenger remains without a functioning wheelchair.
Responsibility becomes fragmented, but the consequences are carried by one person.
Arriving is not enough
There is also a significant difference between how the system measures success and how passengers experience it. From an operational perspective, a journey may be considered successful because the passenger boarded the aircraft and arrived at the destination. But was it really successful if the passenger waited for a long time without information or if the boarding process was physically painful or frightening?
Was it successful if the person spent the whole flight worrying about whether their wheelchair would arrive undamaged or if the wheelchair was delivered late, forcing the passenger to remain in an unsuitable airport chair?
For me, accessibility is not only about reaching a destination. It is also about how I am treated during the journey.
Dignity, safety, communication and predictability must be part of how we assess the quality of air travel.
Rights must work in practice
European legislation recognises the rights of passengers with disabilities and passengers with reduced mobility. These rights are important, and they have improved travel opportunities for many people. But a right on paper is not enough. A right is meaningful only when a person can exercise it confidently, safely and without constantly having to prove that they are entitled to travel.
At present, passengers with mobility aids are still expected to adapt to the system. We must understand complicated battery rules, complete different forms for different airlines and explain our equipment repeatedly. Sometimes we are expected to provide information that should already be available or prove that we can travel safely.
The question should not be whether people with disabilities can fit into the existing system. The question should be how the system must change so that everyone can use it.
Safety is, of course, essential. But safety and accessibility should never be presented as competing objectives. A safe system that excludes passengers is not truly safe or effective.
One European process would make a real difference
One practical change could significantly improve the situation: a harmonised European process for providing information about mobility aids and approving them for air transport. Passengers should not have to complete different forms and answer different questions for every airline and every journey.
The information requested should be clear, accessible and limited to what is genuinely necessary for safe transport and handling. Once a wheelchair or another mobility aid has been assessed and accepted, the information should be reusable for future journeys, unless the equipment changes. This would not only help passengers. It would also help airline and airport staff by giving them clear, reliable and standardised information.
The European Commission should lead this work together with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, airlines, airports, ground handlers, national authorities and mobility-aid manufacturers. Organisations of persons with disabilities must be equal partners throughout the process. We know where the system fails because we experience those failures directly.
We should not need extraordinary luck
I do not expect every journey to be perfect. Air transport is complex, and unexpected situations can happen.
But passengers with disabilities should not have to be exceptionally well prepared, exceptionally patient and exceptionally lucky simply to complete an ordinary journey.
I want to be able to board a plane without wondering whether I will be independent when I arrive. I want to know that the people handling my wheelchair understand its importance. I want clear rules, clear responsibility and a process that does not change every time I travel.
Above all, I want my wheelchair to be recognised for what it truly is.
It is not luggage. It is my mobility, my independence and my freedom to participate in society.