Britain Moves to Protect Wheelchairs on Flights
About 80 wheelchairs a month were damaged on UK flights in 2023. New training, a pre-travel battery form and a support-needs trial aim to cut that before stronger law arrives.
For clients who use a wheelchair, one of the worries about flying is what condition the chair will be in on arrival. The Department for Transport (DfT) says more than 1,000 wheelchairs were damaged in transit in 2023, about 80 a month, or 0.43% of those carried. On Monday 19 October it set out what airlines and airports are doing about it.
What’s changing now
The measures come through the Aviation Accessibility Implementation Group (AAIG), an industry-led group set up by the DfT. Its members include airlines, airports, trade bodies, the Civil Aviation Authority and disability experts. It is acting on recommendations from Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s review of accessible air travel. According to the DfT:
- A standard battery and handling form, introduced in March 2026, lets passengers send their wheelchair’s battery and handling details to the airline before they travel, so ground staff know how to load it.
- New staff training, designed with disabled passengers, is meant to help airline and airport staff recognise different needs without passengers having to explain their disability again and again.
- A digital support platform will be trialled, letting passengers register needs in advance, such as buggy assistance, a separate security lane or a quiet waiting area. The DfT hasn’t given dates or named airports.
- Airlines, airports and mobility-aid makers have formed what the DfT calls a UK-first partnership on carrying and handling wheelchairs safely, especially those with lithium batteries.
- Joined-up information: the group wants airline and airport websites to link to each other’s accessibility information in one click.
What needs the new law
Bigger changes depend on the Civil Aviation Bill, which is still going through Parliament. The DfT says that once the bill becomes law, the regulator could act faster, including with fines, against airlines and airports that don’t support disabled passengers properly. The bill would also remove the compensation cap for lost or damaged wheelchairs on domestic UK flights. A consultation on accessibility reforms would follow within 12 months of royal assent. The same bill carries the ban on charging parents to sit with children under 14, which we covered in our family seating story.
Demand is growing. Airlines UK told the DfT that the number of passengers needing assistance rose nearly 10% year on year. AirportsUK says demand for accessibility services has doubled in ten years.
Sources
- Department for Transport, Stronger safeguards for wheelchair users and better-trained staff to support disabled air passengers, 19 Oct 2026
- Department for Transport, Aviation Accessibility Implementation Group update, 19 Oct 2026
- Department for Transport, Civil Aviation Bill passenger measures, 1 Oct 2026
Andrew Lovesey is Editor-in-Chief of Not An Atlas, and always on the hunt for the next big thing: where to go, where to stay and what's worth the photo. His first trip was to the family cottage in Prince Edward Island, all rolling hills, red sand cliffs and jellyfish drifting in the North Atlantic. He'll sit anywhere but the middle seat (no armrest wars), never flies without the adapter that lets his AirPods play the in-flight movie, and has eaten at a McDonald's in every country he's visited. Iceland gets a pass because it doesn't have one. He once learned to bead earrings from Aleqa Hammond, Greenland's first female premier, on a ship in the Northwest Passage, and will tell anyone who'll listen that Cincinnati is wildly underrated. Friends say charming, driven and loyal. His mum says persuasive. Next stop: Greece.
