Airline companies have for a long time complained of passengers unnecessarily occupying wheelchairs at airports when they don’t need them.
KOLKATA: Better late than never. This must be the resolution for the airline companies before charging passengers for misusing the wheelchair facility meant for the sick and the physically-challenged at airports.
Airline companies have for a long time complained of passengers unnecessarily occupying wheelchairs at airports when they don’t need them. There are reports of passengers faking ill-health to take advantage of the service and the number of such cases is high during any security alert or flight delay.
“Women often pretend that they have undergone abdominal surgeries, and have someone else carry their cabin luggage,” said an official from a domestic carrier. Reasons for availing of the advantage are many. First, wheelchair passengers do not have to stand in long queues for security checks. Second, they don’t have to undertake the long, tedious walk in the lounge area. Third, they are helped on board before other passengers and are spared from carrying their cabin luggage.
Air-India charges Rs 500 per leg of a journey to specifically ward off the misuse of such services. According to a source, a medical certificate is needed but the clause is waived for the old and the infirm. Air Deccan has started charging Rs 200 per leg to curb the practice.
“Initially, the facility was free. But we found passengers making indiscriminate use of it, forcing us to levy Rs 200 per leg,” said an Air Deccan official.
“We have at least three passengers per two flights who fake it. On several occasions, we have had wheelchair passengers walking off the aircraft. We would like to term our carrier, a ‘miracle airline’. We have cured so many people!’ said a SpiceJet official.
At Kolkata, the fakes are more frequently seen at the international terminal. It is mostly the passengers returning from the US or the South-East, who prefer to take the wheelchair, feigning sickness, said an airport official.
Two attendants are deputed per wheelchair passenger, to cover both legs of a journey. “On an average, a carrier is required to depute 14 attendants per day. It’s a waste of money if they have to serve fakes,” he added.
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