Easyjet accused again on disabled
Budget airline Easyjet has again been accused of discrimination after refusing to allow disabled passengers to fly
TWO paraplegics are taking low-cost airline Easyjet to the Halde anti-discrimination body after being barred from flights in France because they were travelling alone.
One, a 60-year-old woman, was stopped at Paris Orly as she tried to board a flight for Geneva. A nurse travelling on the same flight had offered to help but the airline refused. The other was barred from a Lyon-Bastia flight even although, again, another passenger had volunteered for the role of helper.
It is the latest of a series of cases where Easyjet has refused disabled passengers after taking their reservations online.
The president of Halde, Jeanette Bougrab, has previously said airlines "do not have the right to refuse a passenger because of their disability".
Today a press release on the Halde’s website says the regulations on aircraft security are not well defined and different companies interpret them in different ways. It is ready to rule on previous cases and the European regulations and, once its verdict is announced, will call on the political authorities to act to end the problem.
Easyjet has previously said it was obliged by European regulations to evacuate an aircraft in 90 seconds, so it needed disabled passengers to be accompanied to assure the safety of themselves and other passengers.
