Wheelchair-bound Passenger Handling

[Gove N.T.]

The BBC Security Correspondent - Frank Gardner has rightly criticised the way he and other wheelchair bound passengers are treated. Recently he has raised this issue mentioning both Heathrow and Gatwick for their failure to give any reasonable service leaving them sitting helpless on the aircraft. These 2 airports are not the only culprits. Many major hubs have exactly the same issues.
In days gone by many airlines used to have special assist staff to look after disabled passengers but after a well known airline owner was successfully sued for charging a passenger around £20 for providing this service, this owner set about demanding that the airport owners should provide the service. As a result, the movement of WCHR Pax has been consolidated into airport owner control and service has not met what people would consider appropriate.
I am absolutely sure that Mr Gardner is quite able to look to propel himself, but relies on the carrier’s handlers to produce the WCHR. Why it seems impossible for some carriers to organise for his ( or other wheelchairs ) to be brought to the aircraft door expeditiously is beyond me & him.
What ever happened to SSRs (special service requests) which would highlight what “arrivals” should expect?
Whatever happened to the communication between carrier and handler?
Many will blame the loaders - they’re fair game because they don’t often answer back but I blame what happened back in 2004 and the lack of communication between airline staff and handlers

[tescoapp]

There is an issue if the WCHR comes out the hold with a baggage tag on it.

I won't go into the ins and outs of it but if they hand over the chair at the door there are issues with DOT regulations in UK.

As for SSR's yes they still exist and arrive at the handler who then passes them onto the terminal ops...

Crew then say again to ground handling when they are in bound what specials they have... Which again is passed onto terminal ops. I have even had ramp ops record the call to the terminal ops to prove they passed it on...

Makes zero difference with some airports. And its not just the UK you can wait hours in Hamburg for an ambulift. Raining forget it until the rain stops. Even had one punter with a missing leg and half the other leg gone, get off with his mates swinging between them because "its raining we will be here for hours waiting" he was right as well, we forgot to say anything when he was gone and it turned up 180 mins after arrival just as we were starting engines 30 mins late due to bus stupidity. And the bloke driving it had the cheek to get very upset and file a report to the company about wasting his time even though they had the SSR on departure and we spoke to ground ops 30 mins before arrival which meant it turn up 1:30 hours after scheduled arrival.