Report by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA Images : X Screenshots
A recent photo has sparked heated discussion on Indian media and social media platforms. The post, captioned "This is a flight to India," shows a large number of passengers queuing near the boarding gate to use the airport's wheelchair service.
The original post has garnered over 19.7 million views, 86,000 likes, over 6,300 shares, and nearly 3,000 comments on X platform. It has also been widely shared on Facebook, Reddit, and other platforms.
Netizens have questioned the practice, pointing out that many of these passengers are not actually disabled. Many shared photos of long queues of Indian passengers in wheelchairs at various airports.
Some netizens commented that this behavior actually harms passengers with disabilities.
If the airport announces that due to the large number of wheelchair passengers, boarding will be delayed, then 80% of people will get up and walk away.
A simple solution: Allow wheelchair users to board last.
The original purpose of airport wheelchair and assistive services is to provide necessary assistance to the elderly, disabled, and passengers with mobility impairments to cope with the challenges of long walks and transfers.
The massive influx of wheelchair requests not only places a heavy burden on airport ground staff and flight attendants but also exposes genuinely needy individuals to resource constraints and service delays.
This phenomenon is particularly prevalent on certain long-haul routes to and from India, sparking widespread debate about whether this accessibility service is being abused for priority boarding or expedited immigration clearance.
An Indian business executive stated that Air India receives over 100,000 wheelchair requests monthly. On its flights to and from the U.S. and UK, approximately 30% of passengers request wheelchair access. One flight from Delhi to Chicago in February received a staggering 99 wheelchair requests.
The executive pointed out that under the U.S. Air Services Act, airlines are prohibited from requiring passengers to provide medical documentation to allow wheelchair use. The same applies to Indian regulations. This service is free. Users enjoy priority boarding, staff assistance throughout the process, and faster processing at immigration. These conveniences attract many able-bodied passengers.
He stated that many elderly passengers on flights between India and the United States travel to the US to visit their children or return home with their grandchildren. Airports like Newark, JFK, Chicago, and Delhi are vast, and the walk from the check-in counter to the boarding gate can be as long as a kilometer, not to mention the long queues for immigration. Wheelchairs are a real need for these elderly passengers.
The executive mentioned that in 2024, an 80-year-old man at Mumbai Airport was unable to access wheelchair service and had to walk from the plane to the terminal, ultimately dying from exhaustion. The airline involved was heavily fined by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of India.
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