Second draft of new rules removes responsibility from operators to ensure passenger mobility services are in place
Airlines look set to be handed a partial victory in the early stages of European plans to harmonise disabled access rights to air transport.
In February, the European Commission proposed strengthening the rights of passengers with reduced mobility (PRMs) when travelling by air. Airlines had reacted negatively against the initial draft of the bill, which obliged airports to provide wheelchair, Braille and other assistance as major airlines already had infrastructure in place. The draft rules would impose a monopoly provider at airports regardless of size.
Flight International has learned the contents of a second draft, due to be debated simultaneously by the European Parliament and European transport ministers later this month.
In a key concession, the wording has been changed to making airport operators “responsible” for ensuring services are in place, even if these services are then sub-contracted to airlines.
“We need a seamless service and we can’t have different levels of service, but it makes sense in a terminal like [London] Heathrow Terminal 4, where British Airways operates the majority of the flights for BAA to contract BA to provide disabled access,” says a source within bill draftsman Robert Evans’s office.
The European Disability Forum, which has drawn up a lot of the regulation, has lobbied against formal airline opt-outs.
“If airlines are allowed to pull out of the central service this will threaten the financial viability of the centralised system,” the forum says. The new draft is seen as a compromise and is expected to pass unchallenged into law.
Source: Flight International
