Sri Lankan Airline, Disabled Passengers, Medical Certificates Etc
By Bandula Kothalawala -April 8, 2015
Dr. Bandula Kothalawala
Once again Sri Lankan Airlines is in the news, not surprisingly, for all the wrong reasons. While the lurid details of the extent of the alleged abuses by the top management of the airline have been well publicized and may have even attracted some interest from TV drama producers in Sri Lanka, it seems that the travails of its passengers have received scant attention from any quarter. I should like to put on record my recent ordeal with the airline.
I am a disabled person on a wheelchair. On 25 March 2014, I made a booking on the Sri Lankan Airline’s website on UL 0504 to travel to Colombo to attend the funeral of my brother who, I had just learnt, died of terminal cancer. I contacted the Airline’s office in Colombo immediately afterwards to check whether the booking was OK and request wheelchair assistance. To my surprise, I was told that the Airline’s rules and procedures required passengers to be able to walk unaided up to their seats and that, if they could not, they should produce a medical certificate signed by a doctor. I pleaded with the Airline officials in subsequent phone conversations to help me out in the circumstances and also informed them that I had travelled on Sri Lankan Airlines flights on four occasions (eight trips in total) to and from Colombo since October 2011 and that the last trip was made in November 2013, without ever having to produce any medical certificate.
I also explained to them that I had my own wheelchair, that I could go right up to the aircraft door, if necessary, which I often do, and that I needed assistance only to go to the seat. The officials concerned were unwilling to listen to me and steadfastly refused to provide any assistance without a medical certificate, which contravenes the interpretative guidelines from the European Commission on the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air[1]. Please, see Q2 which clearly states that “the Regulation does not impose an obligation on disabled persons to provide evidence of their disability or reduced mobility (whether medical or other) in order to justify the assistance required. Thus carriers are not allowed to ask for such a proof as a precondition of selling a ticket or permitting carriage.” As far as I am aware, the Sri Lankan Airline website does not publish details of any restrictions on the carriage of disabled persons or persons with reduced mobility, as required by the EU regulation concerned which could have served as a warning against making the booking. After a lengthy conversation with the Airline officials, I had no alternative, but to request that the booking be cancelled. I had no other reason whatsoever to cancel the booking. Not only was the BA alternative more expensive at £609.27 compared to £580.75 already paid to Sri Lankan Airlines, but it was also more inconvenient, the return flight (BA 2042)landing at 23.25BST at Gatwick on 3 April 2014. Moreover, the booking with Sri Lankan Airlines was made at 16.41GMT on 25 March 2014 whereas the booking with British Airways was made at 18.38GMT on the same day after all attempts to secure assistance proved unsuccessful.
