A enraged paralympian has demanded that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce explain the airline’s ‘disgraceful’ treatment of disabled Australians who are often denied access to their wheelchairs on flights.
Karni Liddell, a paralympic bronze medalist in 1996 and 2000, was flying from Brisbane to the Whitsundays for a paid engagement as a domestic abuse speaker, but her wheelchair was unable to board a Jetstar aircraft.
Ms Liddell claims she has been denied ‘at least ten’ times from traveling with Qantas or Jetstar, and that the Qantas Group is the worst offender when it comes to banning and destroying wheelchairs.
When she complained to a Jetstar worker Ms Liddell was told she was being ‘rude’.
A Queensland executive and mother, Emma Weatherley, who also uses a wheelchair, described Ms Liddell’s treatment as disgraceful and backed calls for Qantas and Jetstar to change.
‘I said ‘it’d be like me telling you to fly and just take your legs off’ and she said ‘stop being rude to me’,’ Ms Liddell said of her conversation with a Jetstar customer service operator.
On Thursday Ms Liddell was encouraging her ‘brothers and sisters’ in wheelchairs to share their stories and videos on social media and tag Qantas to try and get the airline to change.
‘Hopefully they might start listening to us,’ she said.
‘People with disabilities are ‘often rejected, yanked off flights, our wheelchairs get broken, often by Jetstar and Qantas unfortunately, for some reason. I’m guessing its training, I’m guessing its policy,’ she told Sunrise viewers.
‘I’d love to ask Alan Joyce about is why is this happening so regularly?’
Karni Liddell (right) lost two days work when Jetstar said she couldn’t take her wheelchair on a flight so she challenged Qantas boss Alan Joyce to explain
I’ve been kicked off at least 10 Jetstar and Qantas flights simply because they just see me as the riskiest person in the queue to board, they don’t see me as a passenger, they don’t see us as passengers or customers,’ Ms Liddell said in a social media post on Thursday.
Jetstar has a long track record of criticism by people with disabilities.
In 2009 the airline was forced to apologise to Paralympian Kurt Fearnley, who lashed out after he had to crawl around Brisbane airport rather than use an unsuitable wheelchair.
Ms Liddell said she is a frequent flyer with Virgin, which doesn’t stop her from taking her chair on flights.
She said air travel is ‘the hardest thing’ for people with disabilities to do, and regularly leads to them ‘fighting’ for their rights.
Ms Liddell admitted suffering ‘severe anxiety’ in airports because of how she might be treated.
She said there is ‘no consistency’ in the reasons she’s been given for not being able to take her chair – which can include restrictions on the number of wheelchairs on a flight or that the battery is dangerous.
She mocked the battery reason, saying the lithium batteries are ‘not dangerous’ and arrive ‘on a plane’.
A Jetstar spokesman told Daily Mail Australia that Ms Liddell’s ticket was bought through a ‘travel vendor’ and ‘did not include the requirement to travel with a 25kg lithium-battery powered wheelchair.’
‘Carrying a 25kg lithium-battery on our aircraft requires special clearance in advance of the flight’s departure.’
Ms Liddell said the only consistency she experiences is ‘being rejected or denied’ and not treated like a customer.
On social media she also noted the Jetstar ban cost her two days income that she would have made from speaking at the Premier’s Domestic and Family Violence Council.
On social media Liddell’s followers were answering the call to describe their difficulties with Qantas and Jetstar.
A Queensland mother and executive described a humiliating experience flying Jetstar when she was made to painfully walk on sticks for an hour through the Cairns terminal to collect her own bags and wheelchair.
‘I followed all the processes and it destroyed my confidence to travel independently,’ said Emma Weatherley.
‘I’m flying to Sydney next week and America the week after and this is my biggest concern, just getting my chair there!
‘Enough is enough. We are human, we are customers and we deserve to be treated with respect.’
‘I have only had bad experiences with Jetstar at Brisbane airport,’ another person commented.
‘Although, in Bali, Jetstar tried to get me to leave my motor attachment behind even though in Melbourne I’d brought it over to Bali a week before.’
A Jetstar spokesman told Daily Mail Australia ‘we … have spoken to her today to apologise personally and better understand what took place.
‘We have arranged a full refund and as a gesture of goodwill have issued an additional travel voucher.’