Air4All and Delta Flight Products join forces to…. Turn WheelchAIRtravel into a reality

THOSE of you the read this column regularly know that I am one third of the Air4All consortium, we are dedicated to making accessibility in air travel inside the cabin more dignified and safer. We have now joined forces with the US based Delta Flight Products; thus, we have a US and UK collaboration, exactly the amalgamation needed to bring this to inception. Added to this we have partnered with Sunrise Medical, one of the biggest manufacturers of a broad spectrum of wheelchairs.

The prototype was unveiled a few weeks ago at Hamburg Aircraft Interiors Show on the 6th June. As the show opened, I had my bar very low, I simply had never done anything like this before. For three solid days we were inundated with Airlines and the associated supply chain, all in awe of what we have created.

Also queuing up were (literally) the worlds media eager for a demonstration and interviews, it was described as ‘The Star of the Show’ by aviation journalist Seth Miller.

So, what does this mean to those like my two children who use PWC’s. I can say that this will not happen tomorrow, we now take the prototype towards certification which can take anything from 18 months to two years, there is a lot that can happen in between so watch this space.

Social media platforms all lit up with the news that travelling by air in a PWC took a step closer to reality. As to be expected there were numerous questions in those posts, one that needs answering was the price of a ticket. This is very much still on the table, however I would suggest that it would be no more than the price of a standard economy seat –but I am pushing for something better. But the post below gives an indication from the community what this means.

“The airline that does this gets all my money and loyalty

There where hundreds of questions around the type of wheelchair that will be allowed on the aircraft. Once again everything is on the table, we are however using a WC19 compliant PWC for all the testing as this has many attributes needed to fly inside a pressurised cabin.

This has not been designed for one airline, it has been designed for EVERY airline, more importantly the team will be looking at different cabin layouts and classes. This is the start of that true “door to door” journey, something the community has yearned for. It also brings airlines a step closer to being inclusive.