Protecting Accessibility and Understanding the Rising Costs of Airport Assistance

By Jennifer C Rykaczewski

President and Executive Director

Affordable Skies Coalition

Recent media coverage, including a WSJ article, has renewed public discussion around wheelchair and mobility assistance at airports, particularly when travelers board with assistance and later appear able to walk off the aircraft at arrival. The issue has drawn attention from travelers, airline employees, and advocates alike.

Let’s be clear from the start. Affordable Skies strongly supports disability access and the right to travel with dignity. Many disabilities are invisible, variable, or situational. A traveler may need help navigating long terminals, standing in extended lines, or managing pain or fatigue, yet still be able to walk short distances at different points in the journey. Federal law rightly protects these travelers by prohibiting airlines from demanding medical proof or forcing passengers to justify their needs publicly. These protections are essential and must remain intact.

This is a sensitive issue, but it is an important one. Travelers with disabilities must be supported, protected, and treated with dignity at every step of their journey.

At the same time, protecting accessibility does not mean we should avoid discussing how misuse of assistance services affects the broader system, including consumers who ultimately pay the price.

Through our surveys, cost consistently ranks as the number one concern raised by travelers. Yet most consumers are understandably unfamiliar with how airport services are funded and operated. Wheelchair and mobility assistance is not symbolic. It requires trained staff, coordination, and time. When demand for these services grows beyond what is driven by genuine accessibility needs, operational costs increase, boarding slows, and congestion rises. Those costs do not disappear. They are reflected in higher fares, added fees, and reduced reliability across the system.

Acknowledging that some travelers misuse assistance services, whether to secure earlier boarding, avoid long walks, or reduce airport stress, is not an accusation against people with disabilities. It is an acknowledgment that any system built on trust can be strained when services are used for convenience rather than necessity. Avoiding that reality does not protect access. It quietly undermines it.

The impact of misuse is felt first by those who genuinely rely on assistance. Travelers with legitimate disabilities may face longer waits and inconsistent service as resources are stretched thin. Airline and airport employees are placed in difficult positions, expected to manage growing demand without the ability or authority to distinguish need from convenience. Other travelers experience delays and rising costs without understanding what is driving them.

Air travel is a shared system. Individual choices, often made to reduce stress or uncertainty, can have ripple effects that are not always visible in the moment. This is where consumer education plays a critical role.

Affordable Skies believes consumers deserve to understand what drives costs up, not to place blame, but to support the freedom to fly. When travelers have greater awareness of how airport operations, staffing, and assistance services function, there is less misunderstanding and less tension among passengers, frontline staff, and the public. Transparency empowers travelers to navigate the system more thoughtfully, helping preserve access, reduce strain, and keep air travel more affordable for everyone.

This is not a call for punitive measures, medical gatekeeping, or judgment based on appearances. Policies that rely on suspicion or after the fact assessments would harm people with legitimate, variable disabilities and erode trust. The solution lies in education, thoughtful system design, and honest conversations about how limited resources are used.

Accessibility and affordability are not competing values. Protecting the rights of travelers with disabilities and protecting consumers from rising costs are complementary goals. But achieving both requires acknowledging how misuse, however uncomfortable to discuss, affects the entire system.

Affordable Skies was launched one year ago to help address a critical gap in consumer advocacy in aviation. Our role is to educate travelers, elevate consumer concerns, and bring clarity to issues that directly affect safety, affordability and access.

If we want an air travel system that is accessible, fair, and sustainable, we must be able to talk about misuse without turning that conversation into an attack on disability itself. Done responsibly, consumer education strengthens understanding, reduces conflict, and helps preserve the freedom to fly for everyone.