When we are preparing to travel by plane, we are all concerned with some questions regarding baggage, tickets, boarding and other details of its flight. However, there are some people for whom traveling is much more complex. These are the so-called special passengers (with reduced mobility), to whom airlines including Tunisair Express offer different treatment, depending on their personal and physical situation. We refer to people with reduced mobility, minors, pregnant women and the sick or people in temporary difficulty.
Regulations governing this type of passenger
Community regulations on the rights of people with disabilities or reduced mobility in air transport, attempt to alleviate the difficulties encountered by people with reduced mobility and recognize a series of rights such as full coverage at airports and prohibition to refuse a reservation or boarding for reasons of disability. The Regulation applies to persons with reduced mobility that use flights departing from a Community airport, passing through a Community airport or coming from a non-Community airport bound for the Community. It is also applicable in Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.
The directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data must be strictly applied, in order to ensure that the privacy of people with disabilities or with reduced mobility is respected, that the information requested is limited to compliance with the assistance obligations established in the regulation and that it is not used against passengers requesting the service.
Types of special passengers on flights
– Passengers with reduced mobility (PRM)
In general, PRMs are passengers who require the assistance of another person to carry out an emergency evacuation.
It is the responsibility of companies, airports and agents of services related to both, to meet the needs of PRMs, who are all those passengers whose mobility is limited, due to any physical, sensory, locomotion, mental handicap, or because of your age or state of health. But they can also require that these people travel accompanied by another, capable of providing the necessary assistance.
– Types of passengers with reduced mobility
Passengers with reduced mobility can be divided into two categories:
- Ambulatory patients
People, who are deaf, blind or have an intellectual disability, able to move inside the aircraft without assistance or with occasional assistance.
- Non-ambulatory
People not trained to move around the aircraft without assistance.
Companies allow PRMs to stay in their wheelchairs until they reach the aircraft door, as long as the chair is manual and access to the stairs is not required, otherwise the company will provide a chair for the transfer, delivering the wheelchair on arrival at the destination.
Folding chairs can be stowed in the aircraft cabin and battery operated chairs in the cargo hold for safety reasons. The company will provide the necessary wheelchair for use on board the aircraft. Passengers who require wheelchair service should inform the company when booking, specifying the type of chair you need based on your needs, in order to have the assistance each passenger requires. . It is important that you always inform yourself of your real limits when booking, at least 48 hours before flight departure, through the booking channels available at your travel agency or airline and at Spanish airports, it is also possible to do so through the channels that Aena makes available to passengers.
Tunisair Express uses internationally recognized codes to identify the level of assistance they must provide to the PRM:
WCHR: passengers requiring assistance for the transfer from the aircraft to the terminal, autonomous to board and move inside the aircraft.
WCHS: passengers who need assistance between the plane and the terminal, and to board (climb the stairs). They can move around inside the plane.
WCHC: passengers without mobility and not autonomous. They require full assistance up to and inside the aircraft seat. In trips of more than three hours, they must be accompanied by a companion.
DEAF: deaf passengers.
BLND: visually impaired passengers.
DEAF / BLND: deafblind passengers must be accompanied.
STCR: passenger on stretcher
MAAS: passenger who needs assistance.
WCHP: passenger who needs assistance to get to his seat and who needs a wheelchair to get around inside the plane.
Types of sick and temporary incapacity
Some common cases are detailed below, although this is not an exhaustive list:
– Passengers with sensory impairments:
Airline staff will provide necessary assistance during the flight, explaining emergency procedures and helping to remove crutches or canes before takeoff, they will also help passengers to eat and get around.
– Passengers with respiratory failure:
If oxygen is needed during the flight, the airline will provide it, as it is not allowed to carry your own oxygen in cylinders; In some cases, the company may charge for this service. There are also approved oxygen generators that can be licensed by airlines.
– Passengers traveling with a guide dog:
The dog can travel on the plane at no additional cost. It must be properly equipped with a muzzle, collar and leash. If you are traveling in the cabin, you will go with the passenger to the place designated by the crew. If you are traveling from a country other than Tunisia, you should take into account the national regulations on assistance dogs, as according to these regulations you may have to travel in the hold of the aircraft:
- Recently operated passengers
- Passengers traveling with their legs in a cast
- Passengers who have had a heart attack, angina pectoris or circulatory disorders
- Passengers with lung disease
- Passengers with chronic sinusitis, otitis media or otitis media
- Passengers with nasal congestion due to respiratory infections or allergies.
In all these cases, passengers must follow the recommendations of their specialists for their adaptation to the flight and the precautions to be taken during it. The company will take care of providing all the necessary assistance, to the extent possible and provided that the passengers have submitted the corresponding request (MEDIF document) and have received the flight authorization from the medical services of the airline.
The airline must inform all passengers of the safety rules during the flight and adapt the format of these rules to the situation of special passengers, in terms of language and physical support, so that everyone can know its content without any difficulty.
Likewise, it must be taken into account that Tunisair Express and the other airlines have a medical service which will assess whether or not certain sick passengers can make the flight and under what conditions. If your transfer must be made on a stretcher, it must be accompanied by another person and the company must be consulted on the additional cost of said service.