One of the stars of last week’s airline seating expo was a radical idea: a seat that converts to allow a power wheelchair user to fly in the chair, tethered to all the amenities of the usual airline seat.
Developed by Delta Airlines subsidiary Delta Flight Products and Air4All, a British consortium that works to make travel easier for people with disabilities, the prototype folds up major portions of an aisle seat, enabling the wheelchair to enter, be tethered and then have access to tray table and infotainment systems.
Air4All points out that, so far, flying is the only transportation mode that isn’t required to provide safe and dignified travel for wheelchair users in their own equipment, often requiring passengers to be lifted and placed in seats and to check the wheelchair. In recent months, there have been widespread reports of damage to checked wheelchairs.
While press coverage of the expo focused on new features for first class and on yet more schemes to double-deck passengers, the real game-changer could be the wheelchair seat.
