First consult your doctor to ensure that you are fit for air travel from a medical standpoint. When making your travel arrangements, please inform your airline on the amount of assistance you will need and to what degree you are limited in moving around. You should also state if you do not own your own wheelchair or cannot walk longer stretches. You will then be brought to the aircraft in a rented wheelchair or by an electric cart.
To help the airline prepare to assist you, it is advisable to provide information on the degree of your mobility restrictions in advance (when you book your flight). Your airline will have all the information they need and their staff will be waiting for you at the airport, to give you all their support.
IMPORTANT
You should notify the airline that you are using a wheelchair and provide wheelchair information (height, width and weight). If your wheelchair is operated with batteries, please inform the airline of the battery type when booking your flight. Gel and dry batteries can stay on the wheelchair and do not require any special attention for transportation. However, before checking in, the batteries must be secured, disconnected and the poles covered. Wheelchairs operated with acid batteries are subject to specific transportation rules and equirements. Your airline will provide specific information.
Please contact your airline on the day before departure to ensure that any requests you made when booking will actually be carried out. If necessary you can ask for confirmation of the time you should be at the airport and which terminal your flight will leave from.
If necessary, you can arrange with your airline to have wheelchair service ready for you. This service escorts you from the departure area to the aircraft, from the aircraft to the arrival area or, if you are changing planes, from aircraft to aircraft.
In some cases it may be necessary to be moved from your own wheelchair (or the airport wheelchair) when boarding or disembarking from the aircraft. In this case you will be placed in a special transport wheelchair that fits through the narrow aisles in the aircraft cabin. Your own wheelchair will be turned over to the service staff and transported free of charge in the aircraft's cargo hold.
The airlines make every effort to permit disabled passengers to board first and disembark last. They set aside special seats for passengers with mobility restrictions if these passengers inform them of their restrictions when booking.
When you arrive at the airport, please go to your airline's check-in desk. At the check-in desk, the airline personnel will welcome you and provide you with any assistance you need until you have boarded the aircraft.
Not every disability is obvious. We therefore request that you inform the staff at the check-in desk of your restrictions. This will insure that your personal needs are taken into account during the trip.
INTERESTING LINKS
Global Access News
Blue Badge Network
Weatheronline
Disabled Living
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