LOW-FARE TREATMENT
TIGERAIR SNUBS DISABLED PASSENGER
A DISABLED woman had to be carried across the tarmac at Gold Coast Airport by her husband after Tigerair staff refused to get her wheelchair, saying, “We don’t cater for people like you”.
Anna Adele, 54, of Broadbeach Waters, said she was “absolutely humiliated” when her husband was forced to help her hobble across the tarmac as she cried in pain.
“It was the longest walk ever,” she said. “People need to realise that a wheelchair is like someone’s legs when you are disabled.”
Last night Tigerair said it would investigate but because it was a low-cost airline there were limits on the level of support facilities it could provide.
Ms Adele lives with constant pain after undergoing three major operations in the past 10 years – the last in 2013 – for severe back injuries.
Her spine is held together by a series of titanium rods, screws, plates and a fusion and disc replacement which prevent her from using low chairs and she relies on a customised, high-seat wheelchair to minimise her constant pain and help keep her mobile.
She said the latest incident happened at Gold Coast Airport on October 16 when she and her husband arrived home on a flight from Melbourne. Ms Adele usually boards the plane in her customised wheelchair using the aircraft’s lift. Her husband lifts her into her seat and her chair is stored as cargo.
When the plane lands, she and her husband wait for staff to bring her chair to her.
“I’m always the last one off the plane,” she said. “We always warn them when we check in. You have to tell them you need your wheelchair – not the airport’s wheelchair – because you can’t get in and out of theirs.”
Ms Adele followed the routine for her flights to and from Melbourne.
“Everyone got off the plane when we landed about 7.30pm and we were sitting there. The lift came and my husband went to look for my wheelchair and it wasn’t there. The staff said, ‘ We can’t bring your wheelchair’.
“I was told I had to use the airport’s wheelchair which I cannot get into or out of due to the wheelchairs being too low,” she said.
Ms Adele said she had a heated discussion with plane and ground crew staff which led to her being in tears and distressed at the door of the aeroplane while about 100 people waiting to board watched on from the tarmac.
“He helped me out and then we slowly, slowly hobbled through people – I was in tears – with everyone watching.”
When the couple arrived at the terminal, a Tigerair staff member said: “We don’t cater for people like you – you’ll have to fly Virgin or Jetstar.
“I was made to feel even more disabled, then told, ‘Don’t fly with us’,” she said.
Ms Adele said she asked for information on how to make a formal, written complaint. She was told she could only email Tigerair online.
Dogged by an image of being an unreliable, last choice option for travellers, Tigerair has been working to raise its standards.
The company this week unveiled new uniforms for cabin crew, pilots and checkin staff, along with a new booking and check-in system, customer-friendly website and new and improved call centre.