The 1986 Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to provide a wheelchair to passengers with disabilities at the airport. The problem: Many travelers are faking it, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is massive, rampant abuse of special services. There are people using wheelchair assistance who don\u2019t need it at all,\u201d Biffle said at a Wings Club luncheon on Thursday in New York.<\/p>\n
He said he had seen Frontier flights where 20 people were brought to the plane with wheelchairs, but only three wheelchairs were used upon arrival.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are healing so many people,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
Biffle wasn\u2019t talking about travelers\u2019 personal wheelchairs but rather the service airlines provide when travelers arrive at the airport.<\/p>\n
It costs the airline between $30 and $35 each time a customer requests a wheelchair, Biffle said, and abuse of the service leads to delays for travelers with genuine need for assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone should be entitled to it who needs it, but you park in a handicapped space they will tow your car and fine you,\u201d he told CNBC. \u201cThere should be the same penalty for abusing these services.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Transportation Department proposed stricter rules aimed at preventing wheelchair damage by airport ground handlers and ensuring \u201cprompt assistance\u201d to travelers with disabilities when getting on and off the plane.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 1986 Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to provide a wheelchair to passengers with disabilities at the airport. The problem: Many travelers are faking it, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle says. \u201cThere is massive, rampant abuse of special services. There are people using wheelchair assistance who don\u2019t need it at all,\u201d Biffle said at a Wings <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}