Disabled passengers won new rights of access to airline travel in the European Unon today when the European Parliament adopted measures to ensure EU airports help less mobile travellers.
"It means that disabled passengers will have won a one-stop shop for a guaranteed service they can expect in all airports in the EU," said Stephen Hogan, a spokesman for the Airports Council International.
The new rules were partly prompted by outrage over Ryanair making a disabled man, Bob Ross, pay for a wheelchair when he turned up to take an international flight in March 2002.
Under the new rules, the airport would have to provide a wheelchair at either end of a flight within the EU, Mr Hogan said.
"What this guarantees is that people with reduced mobility will have the same access to air travel as other people," Mr Hogan said.
Airports will be responsible for providing a service to move disabled people from their arrival at the airport car park to the check-in counter and enable them to check-in, register baggage and board the aircraft.
If the flight lands in another EU country, the airport there would have to help the passenger as far as the car park, Mr Hogan said.
But Mr Hogan said it will also mean some airlines having to pay higher fees to cover the costs airports will have in complying with the new rules. The costs charged by airports to airlines will be in relation to how much of the airport's traffic they account for.
EU member states have already given their informal approval to the measures and are set to rubber-stamp them. They will be introduced over a two-year period.