A wheelchair user forced to climb off a Ryanair flight has said his experience was "downright degrading".
Last weekend, Adrian, a wheelchair user from Wicklow, had to crawl down the metal steps of a Ryanair plane when there was no ramp to help him disembark.
Speaking to Lunchtime Live, Adrian said when he landed at Landvetter Airport, the stewardess informed him it would take at least an hour minimum for him to be lifted off the plane.
Adrian then decided to crawl off the plane, as sitting for an hour would have been painful.
“It was so stressful and sore, and as I’m a full-time wheelchair user, I'm conscious of my skin,” he said.
“In this day and age, communications between the two parties was shocking and downright degrading for anybody to have to do what I had to do.”
‘Travelling with disabilities’
Adrian said wheelchair users hope for travel to go as smoothly as possible, but this is rarely the case.
“You wanted to be equal to everybody else,” he said.
“I travelled with seven other family members. I just wanted to be like them – all equal.
“When you book any flight with Ryanair, a travel assistant is free, but I decided to book priority, just to be safe.
“I travelled with British Airways another time … I flew to Heathrow Airport.
“Me and my mom were sitting there, last off on the place which is normal … they brought my own wheelchair to the top of the plane.
“The stewardess asked me to make my way to the wheelchair myself. I said, ‘If I could do that, I wouldn’t need a wheelchair' … [it took] 20 minutes to find an aisle chair to get me on my own wheelchair.”
‘Travel anxiety’
Bernard from Access for All said Adrian’s story “unfortunately, is really common.”
“It's something that feeds into the anxiety around travelling if you have a disability, especially if you're a wheelchair user,” he said.
“We go to great lengths to protect our chairs when they're being handled.
“We have times when we see chairs come back that are damaged and broken and effectively there are unusable.”
Bernard said that wheelchair users often feel they are a burden on flight staff.
“While you're on the plane, waiting for this assistance, the staff are busy getting the plane ready for the turnaround flight.
“Not only am I holding up the staff from doing their job, but the plane is going to be delayed. There's a little bit of anxiety around that.”
‘Ryanair statement’
In response to Adrian’s story, Ryanair issued a statement:
“Special assistance at Landvetter Airport is managed by a third-party provider - not Ryanair.
“We regret that Landvetter Airport failed to provide Special Assistance to this passenger upon arrival at Landvetter on 29 Apr and we are working with Landvetter Airport to ensure this does not recur.
“There is no additional charge for Special Assistance.”
