Snaking queues, cancelled flights and lost suitcases have been the story of air travel this year, but passengers with disabilities say they are falling through the cracks of the current wave of chaos at Australian airports, with some saying they feel humiliated as they’re forced to stand or sit on the floor waiting for wheelchairs.
Simon, who has severe spinal cord damage and nerve pain, had been travelling with his Australian wife Maisie and daughter Lucy for more than 24 hours when they arrived at Sydney airport in early June.
Simon, who lives with his family in Paris, was rendered 80% disabled after being shot during a terrorist attack in Paris in 2015. He needs a wheelchair for long distances and had given advance notice to his airline, Thai Airways, that he required wheelchairs at airports, transiting smoothly through Bangkok airport on the earlier legs of the trip.
However when his flight landed at Sydney airport shortly after 8pm, Simon says he and other passengers with reduced mobility waiting for assistance in the air bridge were told there were no wheelchairs immediately available. Instead, they were told those who were able to should walk through to the terminal where a buggy would transport them to customs.
Given the severity of his disability, Simon was unable to walk to the buggy, so he and one other traveller were left to wait inside the airbridge.
“Once we left the plane door, we were just stuck there, there wasn’t even a chair to sit on, so we had to sit on the floor while Simon stood,” Maisie said.
There were no workers available to provide any information, and the family became worried when they saw the cabin crew leave the plane and walk past them through the airbridge.
“Initially the worker who told us there were no wheelchairs said they’d come back. But we were left completely alone, I couldn’t find anyone at all. I was walking up and down the arrival gates, I couldn’t find a single person,” Maisie said.
After 9pm, as the airport began shutting down for the night, the family was worried about straying too far from the airbridge where they had been told to wait. Three-year-old Lucy was desperate to use a bathroom, “but we were stuck, we had to wait there,” Maisie said.
Meanwhile, Simon began to ache.
“He was in terrible pain, and when you’re exhausted, nerve pain goes through the roof,” Maisie said.
At this point, the family spotted a wheelchair nearby, but when they went to take it for Simon, an airport worker told them he could not use it because it was not owned by the company that Thai Airways contracted to assist passengers requiring wheelchairs. He sat in it anyway.
“This was indignity, that’s what it felt like,” Simon said.
Finally, after more than an hour of waiting, an assistance worker returned to them with a wheelchair. She apologised to the family, told them she was the only worker rostered on to provide passengers with wheelchairs, and had only just come back after helping another passenger with a wheelchair through customs.
The wheelchair that did arrive was “totally broken” and “shameful”, Simon said.
The worker urged the family to complain about their experience.
“We’ve travelled a lot in the eight years he’s had a disability. Even when you stopover in third world countries they have wheelchairs. And we had flown for 24 hours from Paris, and even there, where the airport workers were on strike, there were no problems for him,” Maisie says.
“In other countries they normally prioritise people with the most severe disabilities.”
Simon wrote to Sydney airport to draw attention to the issue – and only received a response after Guardian Australia contacted the airport. “We pay for our tickets, this is a service that must be offered to the public, we are not a charity,” he said. Simon is now concerned about upcoming flights he has booked through Sydney airport.
Amid the labyrinthine distribution of private contracts and service providers at Sydney airport, neither the airport, airline or ground handling contractor accepted responsibility for Simon’s experience.
A Sydney airport spokesperson stressed that airlines are responsible for their own wheelchairs and the process surrounding allocations for passengers.
However in a response sent to Simon, Sydney airport said “it is regretful that you were not directed by the airline to a seated area whilst you were waiting for the airline to bring you a wheelchair”.
“We have instructed our team to review the area in question to assess why there was no seating option on this occasion,” the airport said.
Thai Airways contracts Menzies Aviation to provide ground services at Sydney airport. Guardian Australia understands that Thai Airways is investigating the incident, but did not receive a response after repeated attempts to contact the airline.
Menzies Aviation declined to respond to questions.
Guardian Australia is aware of several other instances of passengers with mobility issues encountering difficulties when travelling through Australian airports in recent months.
An aviation source told Guardian Australia that while Simon’s experience would alarm any airline or business involved, the shortages of disability support staff in ground handling teams are just one symptom of the chronic structural issues in the aviation industry.
After the aviation sector was decimated by closed borders during Covid and government supports were ended before travel levels returned to pre-pandemic levels, thousands of staff were left without jobs and entered new industries.
While aviation businesses have been on a hiring blitz of late – Sydney airport alone is down 15,000 workers compared with pre-pandemic numbers – many of the fresh workers are new to the industry. According to another industry source, many ground handling and security workers have left their jobs due to stress amid the chaotic scenes in recent travel periods.
“When you’ve got 50 odd airlines all using contractors to provide wheelchairs, and consistent staff shortages across those businesses, well when there’s a busy weekend over at domestic for every airline, there just aren’t enough people across the airport to help everyone who needs it,” the source said.
“At many larger airports overseas, the airport provides a central wheelchair service for all airlines, but in Australia it sits with the individual airline. If someone is given a wheelchair that isn’t owned by the contractor, and there is an accident, they could fear they’d be sued and not insured…”
“But they’ve got to do better than leaving someone with a spinal cord injury to stand while there are wheelchairs vacant.”
Do you know more? Contact elias.visontay@theguardian.com
