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Deaf passengers sue Tiger Airways for discrimination
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Sat, Apr 12, 2008
The Straits Times
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CANBERRA - FOUR deaf air passengers from Melbourne have launched a discrimination case against Tiger Airways for not allowing them to travel without a qualified carer.
The four lodged the complaint with the Australian government's anti-discrimination watchdog agency after a representative of Tiger Airways Australia told them that they could not make an interstate flight without a care provider who could hear.
The Herald Sun newspaper reported yesterday the four were eventually permitted to take their seats on the March 4 flight but a flight attendant told them they would not be allowed to fly alone again on the airline.
| The flight attendant wrote on a piece of paper that the group required a carer on the plane because of their 'deafness', local reports said.
But airline spokesman Matt Hobbs denied that the airline had any such policy, and said he was investigating the complaint.
Mr Hobbs, Tiger Airways Australia's head of corporate communications, said the cabin manager had written the four a note saying: 'In future, so you know, you'll need to travel with a carer for safety reasons.'
'We're clarifying with all staff that deaf people do not require a carer to travel with them,' Mr Hobbs said, adding that he could not explain the widespread misunderstanding within his company.
'We are apologetic and very sorry that the people involved in this feel in any way that they've been discriminated against or upset by this in any way,' he said.
Australia's disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes said the problem was not limited to Tiger, the Herald-Sun reported.
Talking to Sky News, Mr Innes acknowledged that there have been 'endemic problems in airlines over the past few years where people with disabilities have been refused carriage because of their disability'.
'The introduction of low- cost airlines has been one of the reasons,' he said.
Mr Innes said these carriers often applied unnecessarily strenuous or zealous interpretations of airline safety regulations and their staff were not trained well enough.
'What you get sometimes are individual decisions which are outside airline policies,' he said.
In 2006, Virgin Blue was forced to back down over its policy requiring wheelchair- bound passengers to be accompanied by a carer.
Last week, Mr Innes co-chaired a forum with Mr Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities Services, on the treatment of disabled people by airlines.
Mr Shorten said the government was concerned that discrimination was taking place 'in the name of safety'.
'The reality is most people with impairment can understand (safety) instructions and fly,' he added.
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