Air France Receives Criticism for their Attitude About Passengers who are Disabled

Emerging Horizons, a magazine, has criticized Air France for not putting enough emphasis on making sure that disabled passengers or passengers with less mobility are getting the chance to enjoy a relatively seamless experience during their travels. In the summer issue of the magazine, they actually gave the name Germ of the Year to Air France in part of some research that the publication studied on the companies in the industry of travel that do what they can to accommodate to disabled people, including the ones that fail to make the cut. The Emerging Horizons‘ editors have had a lot of personal experience in battling the challenges that come with traveling while being disabled, as one of them is a paraplegic.

Air France was particularly pointed out by the editors, because one of their senior captains was unwilling to let a noticeably disabled passenger onto a flight. Michelle Daly, a French government advisor, was boarding a Paris to London flight to be a participant in a conference involving disabilities. However, her plans were soon canceled when the aircraft’s captain casted doubt that she was in fact disabled. Daly explained that she couldn’t walk by herself, and after the captain heard this, he requested that she leave the plane, saying that she posed a risk of health and safety to all of the passengers on the aircraft. Air France stood by their captain’s decision, arguing that for her to fly on the plane in question was not safe, because it wasn’t equipped for handling disabled passengers. It was fortunate for Daly that British Airways was willing to fly her to London later that afternoon.

Find out more about Air France at: www.airfrance.com