DRC agreed quotas on Ryanair flights not true

14 October 2005

In response to the claim that the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) agreed with Ryanair to limit the number of disabled passengers to four per flight, the DRC said today:

“The Disability Rights Commission has not been involved in any shape or form with providing guidance to Ryanair on limits to the numbers of disabled passengers able to board flights.

“Air travel is exempt from the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act and the DRC has long argued for the same legal protection for disabled people whatever mode of transport they use.

“In any event, Ryanair’s limit of only 4 disabled passengers is out if step with the practices of many major airlines companies that we have come across.

“In the light of this, and other recent airline episodes involving disabled travellers, the DRC will be writing to the government to propose that the present voluntary arrangements (about airlines’ treatment of disabled passengers onboard planes) are not working and this should be put right on a statutory basis.”