I recently wrote about Jetstar continually failing passengers with disabilities. They’ve done it again. Close Up, a NZ current affair show, reports the story of two wheelchair users held back from flying because they didn’t have “carers”.
Dan Buckhingam and Tanya Black, presenters of the disability television show Attitude TV, were flying to Wellington to discuss a new government programme aimed at inclusion of people with disabilities. They missed their first meeting and were late to the second meeting because Jetstar wouldn’t let them fly because they didn’t have carers. This is not a new problem. My previous blog post reports a 2005 story where the same thing happened.
When I initially blogged about the ongoing issues, the person who manages the JetstarNews Twitter account asked me for my email address so they could respond to the post. They never did respond.
Apparently the CEO of Jetstar, David Hall apologised, saying Jetstar got it wrong "in this case". Mr Hall’s apology sounds pretty empty considering this has happened before, many times.
What is it going to take for Jetstar to clean up their act?
Amazing! And somehow they manage to screw with young and independent people. Guess all the old ladies have a carer?
I understand the concern that if there was an emergency, many wheelchair users probably wouldn’t make it out of the plane either in time or not at all. But frankly, would a carer be of any help in such situation anyway? Perhaps Jetstar could ask PWDs without carers to sign a waiver?
Dignity and respect going down the drain again.