safety for all of our passengers our No.1 priority!
RYANAIR POSITION ON DISABLED PASSENGER LIMIT
Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline today rejected as inaccurate and unfounded criticism from disability groups in the UK and Ireland about its safety limit of four disabled/mobility impaired passengers per flight.
Speaking on the subject today, Peter Sherrard, Ryanair’s Head of Communications said:
“We sincerely regret the incident that took place in Stansted some weeks ago where a group of 12 passengers (6 blind, 3 visually impaired and 3 fully sighted) were asked to leave an aircraft for their own safety, because they had not, as they are required to, informed Ryanair at the time of booking, and because there were already 3 disabled passengers, who had informed Ryanair, travelling on board that aircraft.
“We are also deeply concerned that a sensible limit which has been put in place for safety reasons is now being misused to make Ryanair the subject of groundless accusations of discrimination, when this is patently not the case.
“Our limit of four disabled/mobility impaired passengers was agreed and put in place in 1995 after discussions with the Irish Wheelchair Association here in Ireland and the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR) in the UK. This agreement was in fact concluded by Mr Kell Ryan, Ryanair’s then Director of Ground Handling and Mr Bert Massie, the then Director of RADAR. Mr Massie is now the Chairman of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) which took over many of the responsibilities of RADAR when it came into existence in 2000.
“There are good safety reasons for limiting the number of disabled/mobility impaired passengers that can be carried on any aircraft. This is not discriminatory. It simply requires disabled/mobility impaired passengers to contact us at the time of booking so that we can ensure that they are facilitated on those flights on which they wish to travel and in those rare circumstances where there are more than four wishing to travel on one flight, so that we can offer them alternate flights or dates as the case may be..
The safety issue is as follows;
Each airline must undertake that it can conduct an emergency evacuation of an aircraft within 90 seconds. In Ryanair we ensure that the four disabled/mobility impaired passengers are seated in rows 2 or 3, so that our cabin crew know where they are and can attend to them immediately in the case of an emergency evacuation. If there were a greater (or unlimited) number of mobility impaired, disabled or blind passengers on board an aircraft, then they may not be able to successfully evacuate an aircraft within 90 seconds, or alternatively they may impede able bodied or sighted passengers from safely evacuating the aircraft within 90 seconds.
“These rules have been in operation in the interests of the safety of disabled passengers as well as able bodied passengers for over 10 years since they were first agreed with RADAR. We have yet to receive any complaint, from any disabled or mobility impaired passenger or organisation about these limits because they have been working effectively for 10 years.
“This mistake would not have happened had those passengers contacted Ryanair as they were required to do, at the time of booking, and the group would have been split across different flights in order to facilitate their desire to travel to Venice Treviso at the lowest fares, whilst still prioritising their safety.
“Ryanair does not and has never discriminated against disabled passengers. We have made air travel in Europe affordable, and have opened up new travel opportunities for the disabled, the mobility impaired and the blind members of our society. We will continue to do this and will continue to campaign for free of charge access to airport buildings for wheelchair passengers which was what the Ross case was about, however we will not compromise safety at any time and if this means we are the subject of ill informed or inaccurate media coverage, then so be it.
“Ryanair’s per flight limit on wheelchair passengers introduced were years ago for safety reasons, they were agreed with the appropriate disabled organisations at the time and they have operated successfully for ten years. As always we will continue to keep these policies under review and will continue to make passenger safety for all of our passengers our No.1 priority.”
Source: Ryanair
