A Frontier Airlines plane appears at Cancun International Airport. Cancun International Airport in Cancun, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Wednesday, December 8, 2021.
Artur Vidak | Noor Photos | Getty Images
The Air Carrier Accessibility Act of 1986 requires airlines to provide wheelchairs at airports for passengers with disabilities. The problem is: many travelers are pretending, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said.
“The abuse of special services is rampant,” Biff told a Wings Club lunch in New York on Thursday. “There are people who use wheelchairs who don’t really need them.”
He said he had seen 20 wheelchair passengers on board a border flight, but only three wheelchairs were being used on arrival.
“We’re healing a lot of people,” he joked.
Biffle wasn’t talking about a traveler’s personal wheelchair, but the service airlines provide when travelers arrive at the airport.
Biffle said it costs airlines $30 to $35 each time a passenger requests a wheelchair, and that misuse of the service can lead to delays for travelers who truly need assistance.
“Everyone who needs it should be entitled to it, but you park in a handicapped spot and they’re going to tow your car away and fine you,” he told CNBC. “Abuse of these services should be subject to the same penalties.”
Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation proposed stricter rule It aims to prevent airport ground staff from damaging wheelchairs and ensure that disabled passengers receive “timely assistance” when boarding and disembarking from the aircraft.
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