A woman in a wheelchair was denied service on a Hong Kong Airlines flight to Tianjin on Friday because she was traveling alone, despite her insistence that she did not require the special assistance laid out in the airline’s policies on customers with disabilities.
According to Ming Pao, the woman, identified as 22-year-old Shen Chengqing, had notified the airline in advance that she was in a wheelchair and traveling without assistance, only to be turned away at the gate. When she demanded an explanation, she was provided only with a written reply stating that she had been denied service because she was unable to walk long distances.
Airlines reserve the right to require people with disabilities to travel with a companion on safety grounds. However, Hong Kong Airlines’ own guidelines only “recommend” passengers with disabilities travel with an attendant if they require “any assistance for personal care needs in-flight such as eating/drinking, administration of medications, elimination functions including assistance inside the lavatory.”
Shen, meanwhile, said that she did not require such assistance, and had never run into problems when traveling unaccompanied before, including on her flight into Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department states that airlines are allowed to require passengers to travel with an attendant if they are, among other things, unable to reach an emergency exit on their own.
However, the guidelines also state that in the event an airline refuses service to a person with mobility issues, the “operator and its agent should make reasonable efforts to propose an acceptable alternative to the person in question.”
Shen maintained that the airline did not help her make alternative arrangements, and said she ultimately took a high-speed train to Shenzen, where she then took a flight to Tianjin.
The incident prompted a Civic Party lawmaker, Jeremy Tam Man-ho, to call the airline’s policy unclear.
“People might not know what you mean, using words like ‘recommend,’” Tam told the South China Morning Post.
Multiple attempts to reach Hong Kong Airlines today were unsuccessful.
