Summary
- WestJet CEO apologizes for failures in accessibility services and expresses commitment to improvement.
- The airline has created a task force to handle accessibility concerns and stop service failures.
- High-profile incidents involving wheelchair-bound passengers prompt motion and a concentrate on enhancing accessibility services.
WestJet Chief Executive Officer Alexis von Hoensbroech issued an apology during a gathering of the Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities (TRAN) on Thursday. Within the two-hour meeting, von Hoensbroech shared his apology and told members that his airline had created a task force to make sure improvements to its accessibility services.
In his statement to the committee, von Hoensbroech praised WestJet staff members for his or her reliability in addressing accessibility concerns, noting that the carrier was in a position to meet the needs of nearly 700 passengers a day who he claimed requested service from the airline on mobility issues.
“No organization operates with zero failures, and there have been a number of very unlucky cases where things went improper,” von Hoensbroech said. “We deeply apologize to the impacted guests, we don’t want anyone of our guests with disabilities to reach at their destination without their mobility device or their device being broken or to experience every other form of service failure.”
WestJet’s incident
The meeting had been called after a number of high-profile incidents involving each Air Canada and WestJet, where wheelchair-bound passengers were forced to board and deplane their respective aircraft without the help of their wheelchairs. In WestJet’s case, paralympian Sarah Morris-Probert was forced to climb up the steps herself before being met by an aisle-chair to take her to her seat.
Photo: WestJet
In that incident, there was no accessible technique to board the aircraft on account of inoperative equipment, and carrying her wheelchair up the steps along with her was deemed unsafe. Sarah Morris-Probert told local media that despite the inaccessibility concerns, she thought, “WestJet crew on each flights were fabulous, as all the time.”
Von Hoensbroech told the transportation committee that the airline was taking motion from lessons learned.
“Every failure is one too many, and each failure can be a possibility for us to learn and improve,” von Hoensbroech said. adding that the airline had created a task force to enhance accessibility services. “Be it to ascertain a firm process that our guests never depart without positive confirmation that their mobility device is onboard the aircraft, be it by improving our handling and protection procedures to stop devices from being damaged, and be it by enhanced clarity on what capabilities we actually can offer on a selected aircraft type or airport.”
Other High-Profile Incidents
Von Hoenbroech’s first proposal to ascertain a firm process that guests never depart their destinations without knowing their mobility device is onboard echoes a high-profile Air Canada incident that had occurred in October 2023. On that flight, Canada’s Chief Accessibility Officer Stephanie Cadieux was stuck in Vancouver without her wheelchair after it was left behind in Montreal.
Photo: Air Canada
Wheelchairs have also been damaged, which was the experience of para-athlete Suvarna Raj. Raj also says she was mistreated and met with indifference by the crew on her IndiGo flight, adding that the experience was similar often when she traveled.
In america, the Department of Transportation (DOT) began an investigation in November 2023 about airline mistreatment of a wheelchair by American Airlines staffers, which appeared in a video on social media.