A lot happened in accessible air travel this week, but it isn’t all equal. One item is a law that will change what airlines in Europe can charge; others are prototypes, or promises with no date attached. We’ve put them in order of how much they’re likely to affect your next trip.
In some cases, yes. On Tuesday, October 20, the European Parliament gave final approval to new rules on passenger rights and how they’re enforced, by 652 votes to 2. One change matters directly to disabled travelers: when an accompanying person is needed for safety reasons, airlines will have to carry them free of charge.
That condition is doing a lot of work. This is about safety, not a free carer ticket any time you choose to travel with an assistant, and how airlines decide when a companion is needed will matter a great deal. We’ll be reading the final text closely.
It also brings Europe closer to what the US already requires. Under the Air Carrier Access Act, if an airline decides you need a safety assistant when you’ve said you can travel alone, it can’t charge for that person; if you choose to bring one, it can. Canada goes further on domestic flights, where large airlines must give a support person an adjacent seat at no extra cost if you need help with things like eating, taking medication, using the bathroom or transferring to your seat.
The new rules also let national enforcement bodies investigate airlines on their own initiative, without waiting for a passenger to complain. That’s a bigger deal than it sounds. Formal complaints take time and energy that a lot of disabled travelers, fresh off a bad trip, simply don’t have.
The catch is timing. The Council of the EU still has to formally sign off, and the rules are due to apply from October 23, 2027, alongside the wider overhaul of EU air passenger rights.
The UK government backed a package of measures on Monday covering staff training, how mobility aids are handled, and new powers to fine airlines and airports that fail disabled passengers. We’ve covered it in full here.
Dubai International Airport is testing an autonomous wheelchair that can take a passenger from check-in to the departure gate, The National reported on October 19. It finds its way using four LiDAR sensors, can be programmed to collect a passenger from the lounge and take them to the aircraft at boarding, and has a manual override so anyone traveling alone can stop it along the way. Ground handler dnata is running the trial at Concourse D in Terminal 1, and the airport wants to extend it to Terminal 3.
Self-driving airport wheelchairs aren’t brand new; Tokyo’s Haneda Airport decided to adopt a similar system back in 2020. Still, anything that lets a wheelchair user move through a terminal on their own terms, rather than waiting to be pushed, is worth watching. The real question is whether chairs like this become a standard option or stay a showcase.
Emirates, meanwhile, used Dubai’s AccessAbilities Expo, which ran from October 19 to 21, to show what it’s working on. That includes an audio-led cabin familiarization experience for blind and low-vision passengers, and a prototype Accessible Lounge Suite, a private wheelchair-accessible space with a powered recliner, grab bars and room for your chair. The suite is being developed for First Class, with other cabins a possibility later. We’d like “later” to come quickly. Accessibility that starts at the front of the plane only helps the people who can pay for it.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN body that sets global aviation standards, unveiled a new accessibility strategy at a symposium with airport and airline industry groups in Montreal on October 14 and 15. It covers the whole journey, from booking and security to connections, baggage and disruption, and gives particular attention to non-visible disabilities, including neurodivergent travelers.
There are no timelines or targets yet. But ICAO matters because its standards eventually filter into national rules around the world, and this strategy is meant to guide future updates to them. It’s slow work, but it’s the kind that outlasts any one airline’s good intentions.
Virgin Australia has engaged external disability training organizations to review every stage of its passenger journey, along with its policies and how staff support disabled passengers, Australian Aviation reported on October 15. The airline has also set up an accessibility advisory panel. It follows the August incident in which advocate Shane Hryhorec was removed from a Sydney to Adelaide flight in a dispute over where his wheelchair’s power-assist device could be stowed; we covered it at the time. Shane has asked the Australian Human Rights Commission to pause his complaint for six months while he works with the airline directly.
A training review is a sensible start. What wheelchair users really need from it is a written rule on power-assist devices that crew apply the same way on every flight. Australia’s draft aviation disability standards, which closed for public feedback on October 2, are the other thing to watch.
Disclosure: The World is Accessible works with Shane Hryhorec on Wheel Around the World.
Hawaiian Airlines ran its biggest practice flight yet in Honolulu on Sunday, October 18, with 258 participants, Hoodline reported. Travelers with autism, sensory sensitivities and other disabilities went through check-in, security and boarding, and then an Airbus A330 pushed back and taxied without ever taking off. It was the airline’s first practice flight on a widebody aircraft, run with Never Quit Dreaming, the Hawaiʻi Autism Foundation and the Autism Society of Hawaii.
Rehearsals like this can look small from the outside. For some families, they’re what makes a first real flight possible. Emirates says it has now run 80 of its own across six continents, and we’d like to see many more airlines treat them as standard rather than occasional.
Islamabad International Airport has launched what it describes as Pakistan’s first Sunflower lanyard program, letting passengers with non-visible disabilities quietly signal that they may need extra help or time, Minute Mirror reported on October 19. Lanyards only work when staff recognize them, though, and the airport hasn’t set out its training plans yet. For a sense of scale, Dubai Airports says it has handed out more than 40,000.
One caution worth repeating, and the UK’s aviation accessibility group made the same point in its report this week: the lanyard shouldn’t be the only accepted way to ask for help.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Will companions of disabled passengers fly free in the EU?
Under rules approved by the European Parliament on October 20, 2026, airlines will have to carry an accompanying person free of charge when one is needed for safety reasons. The rules still need Council approval and are due to apply from October 23, 2027.
Can US airlines charge for a disabled passenger's assistant?
If a US airline requires a safety assistant against the passenger's own assessment, it can't charge for that person. If the passenger chooses to bring an assistant, the airline can.
Does Dubai airport have a self-driving wheelchair?
Dubai International is trialing an autonomous wheelchair at Concourse D in Terminal 1 that can take passengers from check-in or the lounge to the gate, with plans to extend it to Terminal 3.
