The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has refuted a claim that it had agreed with Ryanair that the airline could limit the number of disabled passengers to four per flight.
“The Commission has not been involved in any shape or form with providing guidance to Ryanair on limits to the numbers of disabled passengers able to board flights,” said a DRC spokesman.
“Air travel is exempt from the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act but the DRC has long argued for the same legal protection for disabled people whatever mode of transport they use.
“In any event, Ryanair’s limit of only four disabled passengers is out of step with the practices of many major airlines companies that we have come across.
“In the light of this, and other recent airline episodes involving disabled travellers, the DRC will be writing to the government to propose that the present voluntary arrangements (about airlines’ treatment of disabled passengers on board aircraft) are not working and this should be put right on a statutory basis.”