Top Canada Court favours right to two seats for disabled passengers at no extra cost!

Dear Friends
I am thrilled to see such turnaround happening around the Globe. Though it is applicable to the domestic flights only, it is a remarkable ruling from the top court of the country.

Here are the news for your information:

regards,
Subhash Chandra Vashishth

Disabled Passengers have the right to two seats: Canadian court decision November 20, 2008

Canada's largest airline is trying to figure out which obese and disabled passengers will be eligible for additional seats at no charge after the country's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the airlines. The Canadian Transportation Agency issued an order last January requiring Air Canada and other domestic airlines to make additional seats free to disabled or obese passengers who need extra room. The airlines' appeal was rejected twice, first by the Federal Court of Appeal in May, and then by the country's highest court on Thursday. Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said Monday they are developing detailed eligibility rules for free seats. The ruling Thursday applies only to domestic flights and will be implemented January 9, 2009. "It's been basically left to the airlines to determine how they are going to comply," Fitzpatrick said. "We're working on it now." Under the ruling, airlines cannot charge extra for an obese person who needs an additional seat or a disabled person who needs space for a wheelchair or stretcher or who must be accompanied by an attendant. David Baker, the Toronto lawyer who fought the case on behalf of disabled passengers, said the ruling will allow more disabled people to travel. Joanne Neubauer of Victoria, one of two people whose complaints sparked the case, said the news made her feel like "an equal citizen in this country." Neubauer who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and uses a motorized wheelchair.

Air Canada and WestJet, Canada's second largest carrier, said they will comply with the transportation agency's order. WestJet spokesman Richard Bartem said his company may consider extending the policy to international flights. Bus, train and ferry companies have long made arrangements for free extra seats, but the airline industry had argued it would lose too much money by doing the same. The transportation agency rejected claims that providing extra seats would impose an "undue hardship" on airlines, saying they can afford the financial burden. The agency estimated the cost to Air Canada at about $7 million Canadian (A$8.7 million) a year and to WestJet at about $1.5 million Canadian (A$1.9 million) a year. The agency said that amounts to about 77 cents Canadian a ticket for Air Canada and 44 cents Canadian for WestJet. To put it another way, the agency said the cost would be 0.09 per cent of Air Canada's annual passenger revenue and 0.16 per cent of WestJet's revenue.

Top court backs free seat ruling for some disabled, obese travellers

Last Updated: Thursday, November 20, 2008 4:08 PM ETCBC News

The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a regulatory ruling requiring airlines to offer a free extra seat to certain disabled and obese people. In a decision released without comment Thursday, Canada's top court rejected an application by Air Canada and WestJet for permission to appeal a Canadian Transportation Agency ruling issued earlier this year. The court's decision means airlines must offer a "one person, one fare" policy to disabled people who require room for an attendant during the flight or require extra room for a wheelchair, or for people who are clinically obese and take up more than one seat. Bus, train and ferry companies have long agreed to such arrangements, but the airline industry has argued it would lose too much money by doing the same. The case has wound its way through various agencies and courts for years. It was originally brought forward in 2002 by three parties: * Victoria resident Joanne Neubauer, who has rheumatoid arthritis and requires a personal attendant, wheelchair and crutches.* Eric Norman, a man from Gander, N.L., who had a rare disease that impaired his motor skills. He has since died.* The Council of Canadians with Disabilities. Calgary law Prof. Linda McKay-Panos, who was later granted intervener status, has been arguing for the rights of obese travellers since she was charged for 1½ seats on a 1997 Air Canada flight. McKay-Panos argued anyone who is clinically obese has a disability and should not have to pay for more than one seat. She has polycystic ovary syndrome, an incurable condition that can lead to obesity. McKay-Panos said Thursday she was happy with the decision, but her main concern is how the airlines will implement the new regulations. "I think whatever they do, it has to be done with dignity and not in public and [not be] humiliating or anything like that, and not in front of people on the airplane," she said. Spokespeople for WestJet and Air Canada said they will comply with the decision. Questions surrounding decision But WestJet spokesman Richard Bartrem said there are still many unanswered questions. "Will we be putting criteria in place to determine whether somebody travels with an attendant out of necessity or out of desire?" he said. "What is morbidly obese? How are we going to be able to make that determination and implement that respectfully, and consistently and fairly?" In 2006, the agency held public hearings on air travel costs for people with disabilities. This past January, the CTA ruled airlines must offer a single fare to people with disabilities who require an attendant during the flight and clinically obese passengers. It gave the airlines one year to implement the policy. WestJet and Air Canada turned to the Supreme Court after the Federal Court of Appeal rejected their bid to appeal the ruling.

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Has the new DGCA's CAR changed any thing for Disabled People in India?

Dear Friends,

I wonder whether the new Civil Aviation Requirements that were enforced few months ago has helped people with disability in India. On the contrary, I see that the CAR seems to have been misinterpreted - thanks to the provision of "Charges for human assistance" - though in this particular case, it was not human assistance but lift for boarding the aircraft that has been charged for! And that too by an airlines that has been preferred so far by people with disabilities as better than private players like JET.

I suppose there has not been proper orientation and dissemination by the DGCA about the impact of the new CAR currently in force, on the Responsibilities of Airlines & Aerodrome operators. So much so that an airlines under the Govt. of India is not aware of the CAR! This indicates that how much training and sensitization is needed for the ground staff who deal directly with the customers - which even CAR necessitates.

This is absolutely against all norms and rules of equality. No country in the world charge for ambu-lift. This is even against the Hon'ble Supreme Court order as a result of which the airlines and aerodrome operators were asked to provide for ambu-lift at any cost.

The airlines must immediately return the amount and apologise for the treatment that was meted out to the user.

If they don't, I am sure besides getting a bad name, they would have to pay up through their noses - for we have a forward looking judiciary to set the things right!


Here is the incident:

SHIVANI GUPTA WAS CHARGED FOR USE OF SPECIAL LIFT MEANT FOR BOARDING AIRCRAFT We had to hire an ambulift from the airport authority. Since they charged us for it, we had to recover the cost from the passenger JITENDRA BHARGAVA, Air India's director (communications)...............Neha Bhayana Mumbai

WHEN SHIVANI Gupta (38), a wheelchair-bound Delhi resident, took an Indian flight to Mumbai on June 16, she was not prepared for what lay ahead.Not only was she physically carried to her flight seat in Delhi, because there was no narrow wheelchair for the aircraft's aisle, she was also charged Rs 1,685 for an ambulift, (a van with a special lift for the disabled) to board the return flight from Mumbai. Gupta, an activist for the rights of the physically challenged, filed a complaint against Indian, the Mumbai International Airport Limited and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, vested with powers of a civil court to hear complaints regarding the rights of the physically challenged, issued a show-cause notice to the authorities concerned."I felt humiliated and helpless when I was carried by the staff. They were not trained to handle people with disabilities and I sustained bruises on my shoulders. I could not use the toilet because there was no aisle chair," said Gupta.

An Indian spokesperson said: "We provided a free ambulift at Delhi airport because we have our own service there. But in Mumbai, we had to hire an ambulift from the airport authority. Since they charged us for it, we had to recover the cost from the passenger," said Jitendra Bhargava, Air India's director (communications).

According to a May 1 directive from DGCA, charges may be levied for human assistance but the use of aids and appliances to access the aircraft are to be provided free to physically challenged passengers. The fact that Indian charged Gupta Rs 1,685 for the ambulift was in direct breach of this directive.Gupta had pointed out the directive to the airline staff. "But the staff told me that they had not received any written information about the new law," she said.

Spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport Limited Manish Kalghatgi said: "Facilitation of passage to the aircraft is the responsibility of the airline, not us. "When Bhargava was asked why a narrow wheelchair was not available for the aircraft's aisle, he said: "When passengers can't go up to their seats, they are escorted. Since the passenger has made a complaint, we will argue the case when the hearing takes place."

URL:http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=25_07_2008_003_013&typ=0&pub=264

Regards
SC Vashishth

Physically challenged activist sues airline - Reports Hindustan Times

Neha Bhayana, Hindustan Times

Mumbai, July 25, 2008

When Shivani Gupta (38), a wheelchair-bound Delhi resident, took an Indian flight to Mumbai on June 16, she was not prepared for what lay ahead. Not only was she physically carried to her flight seat in Delhi, because there was no narrow wheelchair for the aircraft’s aisle, she was also charged Rs 1,685 for an ambulift, (a van with a special lift for the disabled) to board the return flight from Mumbai.

Gupta, an activist for the rights of the physically challenged, filed a complaint against Indian, the Mumbai International Airport Limited and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, vested with powers of a civil court to hear complaints regarding the rights of the physically challenged, issued a show-cause notice to the authorities concerned.

“I felt humiliated and helpless when I was carried by the staff. They were not trained to handle people with disabilities and I sustained bruises on my shoulders. I could not use the toilet because there was no aisle chair,” said Gupta.

An Indian spokesperson said: “We provided a free ambulift at Delhi airport because we have our own service there. But in Mumbai, we had to hire an ambulift from the airport authority. Since they charged us for it, we had to recover the cost from the passenger,” said Jitendra Bhargava, Air India’s director (communications).

According to a May 1 directive from DGCA, charges may be levied for human assistance but the use of aids and appliances to access the aircraft are to be provided free to physically challenged passengers. The fact that Indian charged Gupta Rs 1,685 for the ambulift was in direct breach of this directive.

Gupta had pointed out the directive to the airline staff. “But the staff told me that they had not received any written information about the new law,” she said.

Spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport Limited Manish Kalghatgi said: “Facilitation of passage to the aircraft is the responsibility of the airline, not us.”

When Bhargava was asked why a narrow wheelchair was not available for the aircraft’s aisle, he said: “When passengers can’t go up to their seats, they are escorted. Since the passenger has made a complaint, we will argue the case when the hearing takes place.”

I finally wrote on the form, my hands shaking: ‘Main Bimaar Nahin Hoon’ : Salil Chaturvedi

29 June 2008,  Tehalka dot com

Salil Chaturvedi Is 39 years old. He acts in a children’s television serial, writes and designs for civil rights organisations and lives in Delhi

THERE WAS SO much I wanted to say to her but all I could manage was a sorry “So?” I wanted to tell her that I recently acted in a play directed by Feisal Alkazi. I wanted to tell her that sometimes children come up to me and asked, their eyes brimming with excitement, “Are you Jugadoo?” That’s the character I play in Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian adaptation of Sesame Street. I wanted to tell her that she was hurting me and breaking my spirit, but all I could manage was a befuddled stammer and a “S... S ...So?”

It was a clinching argument, as far as she was concerned. “But you are on a wheelchair, aren’t you?” she’d said. Since I was on a wheelchair, I was a sick person and I would have to sign the form that was meant to be signed by “sick” people when they boarded a plane. “But I’m not sick,” I said. “See, I’m travelling independently.” “But what are you sitting on? A wheelchair!” she chided me.

The face of the Brigadier flashed through my mind. “You’re still around,” I thought to myself. After all these years, you’re still around. You’re dressed as a ground staff member of SpiceJet, you’ve changed your gender and you’ve changed your age, but you’re still around. The retired Brigadier had been working at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA). I had made a presentation to Muktesh Pant, who used to be the CEO of Reebok at that time. He had been excited about the tournament and had decided to pay for the airfare and to kit the two-member team. The kit was sent directly to DLTA (although I knew its contents) and when we received it, I found that the jogging shoes were missing. So I asked the Brigadier about them. “But you are on a wheelchair!” he said. “So you won’t need to jog.” It had hurt then, too — for someone to look you straight in the eye and say you were lesser because you were on a wheelchair.

Back to the SpiceJet counter at Delhi airport. Since I insisted on not signing the form, the lady went to her senior, a young man who spoke to me like someone speaks to a child. “You will not board the flight if you don’t sign this form,” he said. Here I was, parked in a corner behind the desk, the other passengers wondering about my stubbornness. I felt everyone was against me. The whole damn system was singling me out. I finally wrote on the form in large letters, my hands shaking uncontrollably: “Main Bimaar Nahin Hoon” (I am not sick) and I refused to sign.

On the way back from Chennai it was nicer, but only for a while. I didn’t have to sign a form and the supervisor, on his own initiative, kept the seat next to me empty so I could put my legs up if I wanted to get more comfortable. Perhaps this flight will be different, I thought. But things changed quickly. I insisted that they board me before other passengers, as was the international norm. But they didn’t and I was carried down the aisle by two untrained porters, who carried me like a sack of potatoes while I tried to keep my trousers from slipping and closed my eyes to save myself from the embarrassment as all passengers turned their heads to look at me.

As the plane started its descent at Delhi I asked the air-hostess to make sure that my personal wheelchair was brought to the aircraft so I could sit on it directly. But the wheelchair was taken to arrivals, instead. It was midnight and I was exhausted, but the body pumped in some adrenalin to wake me up. The flight steward shook his head at my stubbornness. “Why can’t you use the airline chair?” he asked me. “It’s against the rules to give your chair from the hold.” That was a new one. How could I tell this clean-shaven, smart, cheerful young man that a wheelchair is not a wheelchair is not a wheelchair. He wouldn’t understand how I had spent the last two months recovering from a fall at the Bombay airport because I was on an airline wheelchair.

During the flight I had been re-reading Ben Okri’s Songs of Enchantment and had spent most of my flight mulling over one line that had sprung up from the page. “Love is the real power,” Azaro’s father says to him in the novel. It had held me in trance because of the magical way the line had been set up in the novel. I asked Ben Okri, as I waited in the aircraft, security staff and flight attendants irritated by my insistence, “How does one love all this, Ben?”

I thought about my wife, waiting for me at the arrival for the past two hours. For no reason I suddenly recalled how she stood on top of the bed so I could reach the end of her sari and adjust it for her. And I felt relieved and smiled to myself. Love, indeed, is the real power that guides us through our lives. SpiceJet too needs to learn how to love. So what if I’m in a wheelchair? 

Singapore Airlines Shows the Way to Private Airliners in India

Dear Friends,

So, there has been a lot of resentment within the scheduled and non-scheduled airlines in India represented by FIA (Federation of Indian Airlines) on services to be provided to the Disabled passengers in terms of New DGCA's CAR that got issued recently. The FIA even put their comments on the DGCA's CAR on their website available at link http://www.fiaindia.in/Carriage_ofpersons_reduced_mobility.htm

As discussed and pointed out in previous posts that the airlines in India want to retain the authority to charge for the services they might provide to users with disabilties, that too when requested!

I see a very good example set up by the Singapore Airlines which in fact should be a a good lesson to the Indian lobby of airliners. It is further encouraging to note that the Singapore Airlines would soon be launching 'Solidarity Campaign,' an awareness drive aimed at creating an Inclusive society for the disabled.

I wish the FIA (Federation of Indian Airlines) could take such an initiative so that the frequent complaints, denial of rights and exchange of unpleasant views towards each other gets resolved. People with Disability would love to have such welcoming Airlines in India too!

For now, Kudos to Vidyasagar at Chennai for such an innovative partnerning and hats off to Singapore Airlines for showing the corporate airliners in India a better way of promoting their goodwill!

You can read the full articles at:

http://www.svayam.com/?q=node/695
http://www.svayam.com/?q=node/697


warm regards

Subhash Chandra Vashishth

Another Blatant Disregard to DGCA's CAR and denial of Human Rights - reported by Hindustan Times

Dear Friends, This time it is Spicejet. Denying human rights, mistreating passengers with disabilities and then getting away with a simple apology! That seems to be the new modus operandi of the airliners who continue to flout the DGCA's New Car with impunity! This is just not done!. How long is it to continue! We can't take it any more! 

Read the News here: Paraplegic abandoned in aircraft 

Rahul Singh, Hindustan, New Delhi, May 25, 2008 

 It was a rather turbulent flight for paraplegic tennis player Salil Chaturvedi, who represented India in wheelchair tennis at the Australian Open in Melbourne. On Friday night’s Chennai-to-Delhi SpiceJet flight, he was not provided his wheelchair to disembark from the aircraft and was left cramped in his seat for over an hour. On Thursday, when Chaturvedi flew SpiceJet to Chennai, he was neither offered priority boarding nor an aisle chair to board the plane. His urine bag was also yanked off. 

He told HT, “I was carried along the aisle by untrained porters like a sack of potatoes, while I tried to keep my trousers from slipping and closed my eyes to save myself from the embarrassment, as all passengers turned to look at me.” The Directorate General of Civil Aviation rulebook, effective from May 1, stipulates that a passenger’s wheelchair should be returned to him at the time of disembarking. It is mandatory for every operator to provide ambulifts to enable disabled passengers embark/disembark the aircraft. But despite this, the crew insisted that Chaturvedi use the airline wheelchair. “They wouldn’t understand how I have spent the last two months recovering from an airline wheelchair fall at the Bombay airport,” 

Chaturvedi said. SpiceJet regional manager (north) Rahul Bhatkoti said, “We have apologised to the passenger and will take corrective action. Clearly, the crew lacked awareness.” Chaturvedi, who has acted in a Feisal Alkazi play and the Indian adaptation of Sesame Street, was offered Coke after the trauma ended. “I have stopped drinking Coke. Not wanting to hurt their sensibilities, I took a sip and threw the rest when they weren’t looking,” he said.