Indian fliers love wheelchairs. Here’s why that’s a problem

109287780Lakhs of fliers place wheelchair assistance requests while booking tickets every year, but it’s an open secret that not every passenger who opts for wheelchair assistance at an airport genuinely needs it. Airlines have condoned this ‘trickery’ so far to attract more bookings, but that could change with the death of an 80-year-old man at Mumbai airport in February.The man and his wife had arrived on a New York-Mumbai Air India flight that had altogether 32 wheelchair assistance requests, but the airline had placed only 15 wheelchairs on the ground. Due to the shortage, only one wheelchair was available for the couple. Instead of waiting for a wheelchair to return, the man walked to the immigration counter beside his wife and suffered a heart attack. medium108826068The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) fined the airline ₹30 lakh for failing to provide timely wheelchair assistance to the man, but the big unanswered question is: how many of the 32 wheelchair requests were genuine? As wheelchair requests at India’s airports multiply, the question cannot be ignored for long.Demand linked to flying boomWheelchair requests will continue increasing because flying is becoming popular, airports and aeroplanes are getting bigger, and the number of elderly fliers is rising. India's largest airline IndiGo alone handled over 13 lakh wheelchair passengers on its flights last yearNow with Indian carriers awaiting 1,620 new planes, the fleet is expected to be 2.5 times bigger by 2034, and domestic air passenger traffic is likely to double to 300mn by 2030, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia recently said.As bigger planes have bigger wingspans, boarding gates have to be further apart to accommodate them. International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards for aerodromes require a gap of at least 72.5m between the noses of wide-body aircraft, such as Boeing 777 or 787, parked side by side. So, at an international airport, the distance from boarding gate 10 to gate 17 is about half a kilometre,” said Robey Lal, an expert in airport planning and design. medium108826059At domestic terminals that have been expanded to handle more flights, the nose-to-nose gap between narrow-body aircraft like Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 is 40.5m, but the large number of boarding gates sends passengers on an airport trek.Also, with airports creating space for more shops and restaurants between the security zone and boarding gates to increase revenue, the distance to the gates gets longer. “The newer the terminal, the less convenient it is to use because all the walks are longer,” former US treasury secretary Larry Summers tweeted after passing through New York’s LaGuardia airport last year.“Back in the 1970s, when we designed Delhi airport, we had planned for an annual passenger handling capacity of 60-65mn. Today, they are expanding to over 100mn passengers per annum with larger aircraft, more passengers per aircraft and improved air traffic control resulting in more flights per hour, so it’s imperative to factor in wheelchair users,” said Lal, who framed India’s first set of guidelines for serving passengers with limited mobility in airport terminal buildings back in the 1990s.Indian airports need more cartsWhile Delhi and Mumbai airports are big, they are nowhere close to the world’s biggest. In 2012, UK-based insurance company Direct Line found the distance from the entrance to the farthest departure gate at Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3 was 3.2km. At Dallas-Fort Worth international airport in Texas, passengers cover 3.4km from the check-in counter to the boarding gate.These mega-airports have trains and other modes of transport to move passengers within and between terminals. But Indian metro airports aren’t big enough for intra-terminal trains, nor are they small enough for short kerb-to-gate walk times. medium108826051“Walking long distances at airports is tough even with aids like travelators. Senior citizens find it difficult to step on and off a travelator with cabin baggage in hand,” said Pravin Gupta (73), retired senior vice-president, Havells India. He has cardiac issues and his wife has knee problems. But when they travel to Kuala Lumpur to visit their son, they face no problems “as the terminal has trains and buses to ferry passengers. Indian airports should at least provide golf carts and buggies for senior citizens and people with mobility issues”, Gupta wrote in a letter to the civil aviation minister last year.Gupta says the assured availability of carts and buggies can bring down wheelchair demand at Indian airports. Lal, who is in his 80s, agrees: “I do not book wheelchair assistance when travelling to smaller airports like Jaipur. But in metro airports it’s difficult to walk. At Delhi airport’s Terminal 3, electric cars are provided for departing passengers in addition to airline-provided wheelchairs. But at Terminal 3 arrivals, the buggies are fewer and far between.”Time for some checksIndia has the world’s biggest expat population, so the number of senior citizens on international flights is going up. Sources said Air India, which has all-Indian cabin crew, gets several dozen wheelchair requests per US-bound flight in the peak travel season.“When NRIs [non-resident Indians] and PIOs [persons of Indian origin] book tickets for their parents’ annual visit, they opt for the free wheelchair facility, even if their parents are fit to walk,” said Captain Manoj Hathi, former director (operations), Air India.Misuse of the wheelchair facility is rampant in India because wheelchair assistants act like guides and also help passengers jump security and immigration queues. Besides, the facility is available without an extra charge or verification. The only condition is that you inform the airline at least 48 hours in advance. medium108826041But in the US, you need to provide documents to validate your request for a wheelchair. The global airline industry segregates wheelchair passengers into categories, based on the degree of assistance needed.There’s the WCHC category for passengers who are completely immobile and must be carried to and from their aircraft seat. Some passengers travel in their own wheelchairs which are carried on board. But most Indian wheelchair users fall under the WCHR category, which stands for ‘wheelchair for the ramp’. They need a wheelchair only to go from the check-in counter to the aircraft door, and vice versa. It’s the most misused category.Trade body International Air Transport Association (IATA) has taken note of this issue. To ensure those who need the service get it, IATA introduced the concept of digital identity that’s based on verifiable credentials to prove a request for wheelchair assistance is legitimate. But the idea hasn’t caught on yet.