MONTREAL 鈥� Air sa国际传媒 has appealed a decision by the country鈥檚 transport regulator that seeks to boost accessibility for travellers living with a disability.
If successful, the move would overturn a requirement to fully accommodate passengers whose wheelchairs are too large to move into airplane cargo holds.
The Canadian Transportation Agency's ruling marks the culmination of a case that has dragged on since 2016, when flier Tim Rose was told his power wheelchair wouldn't fit on the aircraft, preventing him from travelling to Ohio as planned.
After a series of decisions, the regulator ruled in 2023 that Air sa国际传媒 must either find passengers with disabilities a similar flight on a comparable route or swap in a plane that is capable of carrying the mobility device.
Rose called Air sa国际传媒's appeal "sad and unfortunate."
鈥淚t was really disappointing," he said, particularly as the airline touted new measures last year that it said would improve the travel experience for passengers with a disability.
鈥淚 feel like Air sa国际传媒 is talking out of both sides of its mouth right now. The hypocrisy is on the one hand they鈥檙e suggesting that they鈥檙e trying to improve ... on the other hand they鈥檙e continuing to fight my already decided ruling that provides dignity and accessibility to all Canadians who are wheelchair users.鈥�
Air sa国际传媒 says it has accepted most of the ruling's orders to remove barriers, including the obligation to find a plane that takes off within a day of the desired travel date, as long as the customer makes the request three weeks in advance.
"What we are challenging is the obligation to change aircraft planned for a route with short notice, on an ad-hoc basis," said spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick.
In the summer of 2016, Rose was informed he couldn't book a flight from Toronto to Cleveland 鈥� "ironically enough, to give a presentation about disability awareness in big business," he said.
鈥淲hen I told the representative on the Air sa国际传媒 medical desk that this was discriminatory, she said, 'No, your wheelchair鈥檚 just like a piece of luggage. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit.'
"It's my mobility. You would not call someone's legs luggage," said Rose, an accessibility consultant who lives with cerebral palsy. "In this case, they didn't even let my legs on the plane."
In 2022, a transportation agency tribunal found that he and all people who use larger mobility aids face "undue obstacles" to mobility at Air sa国际传媒. The decision came after a drawn-out back-and-forth between the two parties, a 2019 decision establishing that there were hurdles to mobility but not necessarily undue ones, and a COVID-19-induced pause on proceedings.
The subsequent ruling from 2023 noted the airline deploys spare planes "on a daily basis" in response to everything from inclement weather to mechanical issues, and so should occasionally be able to do the same for accessibility.
"Because Air sa国际传媒 regularly substitutes aircraft in the case of irregular operations, it is unlikely that doing so to accommodate a person with a disability would have a significant impact on the rights of other passengers or Air sa国际传媒鈥檚 ability to provide customer service," the Aug. 11 decision states.
In its Dec. 21 notice of appeal, Air sa国际传媒 argues that the requirement to swap in planes with larger cargo doors 鈥� some are just over two-and-a-half feet high, while many power wheelchairs can be collapsed only to a height of three feet 鈥� marks an "undue hardship" for the carrier, putting it at a competitive disadvantage.
The agency failed to consider all factors or apply the proper analysis for what constitutes that difficulty, the filing claims.
First kicked off in September, the appeal process began a couple of months before Air sa国际传媒 CEO Michael Rousseau apologized for the airline's accessibility shortfalls.
In a press release, he said the carrier would speed up a three-year accessibility plan after a number of recent reports of passenger mistreatment, including an incident where a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off of an airplane in Las Vegas due to a lack of assistance.
"Air sa国际传媒 recognizes the challenges customers with disabilities encounter when they fly and accepts its responsibility to provide convenient and consistent service so that flying with us becomes easier. Sometimes we do not meet this commitment, for which we offer a sincere apology," the chief executive said on Nov. 9.
The measures in the airline's plan range from establishing a customer accessibility director to consistently boarding passengers who request lift assistance first. Air sa国际传媒 also aims to implement annual, recurrent training in accessibility 鈥� such as how to use an eagle lift 鈥� for its 10,000 airport employees and include mobility aids in an app that can track baggage.
"It鈥檚 been so difficult to reconcile those remarks with our experience with Air sa国际传媒, because their obligation pursuant to accessibility planning is the very thing that they鈥檙e fighting against in this case," said Ilinca Stefan, a lawyer with the ARCH Disability Law Centre, which represents Rose.
The airline鈥檚 appeal also contests the regulator鈥檚 order that it factor power wheelchair accommodation into its accessibility plan, specifically when it comes to aircraft purchases and selection on sa国际传媒-U.S. routes.
The agency 鈥渄oes not have the jurisdiction or power to impose content鈥� on that plan, Air sa国际传媒 said in a filing last year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2024.
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Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
