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A strong business case will be required for airlines to take better care of disabled passengers onboard, according to a campaigner for people with reduced mobility (PRM).
“I’ve been travelling with a wheelchair for almost 15 years now and I feel my experience today is worse than 15 years ago,” John Morris, founder of wheelchairtravel.org, told the Passenger Experience Conference (PEC) in Hamburg on April 7. The PEC is the traditional curtain-raiser to the Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX).
Morris said that recent years had seen “incredible innovation in aircraft cabins” but that some innovations made it much more difficult for PRM. He cited the herringbone seat configuration adopted in some business class cabins, saying it is “quite dangerous to get into if you’re unable to walk,” while the burgeoning trend towards walls around business class seats is also hugely restricting for the disabled.
Additionally, the shrinking size of aircraft lavatories is an increasing challenge, as is the safe transport of wheelchairs.
“There have been seven or eight times when I’ve failed to be reconnected with my wheelchair on arrival and six of those times have been here in Hamburg,” Morris said.
While the airline industry, along with organizations such as Air4All, which aims to harmonize accessibility across the sector, has come up with many innovative solutions to aid PRM, PriestmanGoode associate director, strategy and customer experience, Jo Rowan told a panel, “We need to work out how we get [those solutions] on every aircraft.”
Rowan further pointed to a potential “massive ripple effect” that could be realized the moment just a single airline made a significant financial investment in making cabins more accessible—potentially making that airline the carrier of choice for PRM passengers.
Accessing that potential stream of untapped revenue is the way forward in persuading airlines to become more PRM-friendly, Morris said. “I don’t think the moral obligation is going to win out; it hasn’t in the past. It’s the business case that’s going to drive this forward.”
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