Green Africa Airline, Hon Olanrewaju: What we demand
About four days ago, a concerned member of community of persons with Disabilities reported a case of Green Africa Airline’ refusal to board Hon Olanrewaju Oladosu, a special Assistant to Osun state Governor on Disability matter as well as a Person with disability who was going in company of other 2 states official (Ekiti state Special Assistant to the governor on Disability Matter-Akin Obanise and Hon. Folasade Arise, Chair, Disability board of Ondo state) who were all going from Akure Airport to Abuja for an official function that had to do with Disability Act review.
After a chat with this source, we saw a case of infraction of rights of persons with disability and decided to ask for redress. We created a campaign and shared online while other media houses were calling us to be involved. We did ask for caution pending when we have all the facts. But more importantly, we requested to speak with the affected person in the case and every other party.
We did have a conversation with Hon. Olanrewaju who felt brutalized and accused the Airline of discrimination against him. He expressed regret that the Airline caused heightened levels of stress and other mental health issues for him. He acknowledged he was able to travel eventually by paying heavily to join Overland Airway to Abuja the same day. So did Green Africa discriminate against him?
Hon Olanrewaju said he had to go with another airline after the Akure station manager of Green Africa Airline told him they do not have space for his wheelchair among many other reasons.
Meanwhile the organizer of the event who bought the tickets told him they had confirmed from the Airline if it would pick physically challenged passengers. He also pointed to lack of knowledge about disability laws as well as hostility towards PWDs by the ground staff.
To get the view of the Green Africa Airline, we called the mobile of the station manager of the Airline in Akure, one Mr Tola, picked the call. After enquiries, he maintained the Airline does not have a policy against boarding a PWD but that the issue was that their plane doors are too narrow and a mandatory requirement for them was that passengers must not be a near zero mobility person like Hon Olanrewaju presented, Given the nature of their aircraft, a zero mobility person could not be helped through the aircraft doorway.
In addition to this, for emergency and on air evacuation, their policy requires a form of mobility by all passengers. That was the reason they (Green Africa Airline) always ask almost or complete zero mobility people to consider buying tickets from Airline operators with bigger planes if they are aware in advance. It was confirmed they returned the ticket fee paid so he could buy a ticket from another airline.
We spoke to both Hon Arise Folasade and Hon Akin Obanise, who are also PWDs and government officials on the same trip. These two individuals were allowed to board the same Green Africa Aircraft which had been pre booked for the three of them. While these individuals are also physically challenged, they do not have a near zero mobility but a higher level of reduced and can walk unassisted.
These two did confirm that the event organizer claimed they asked if the airline would pick physically challenged passengers before they bought the tickets. According to them, Green Africa customer service was positive.
Hon Olanrewaju’s ticket, Green Africa promised Ramp and Wheelchair proviison
Unfortunately, the part of near zero mobility was never discussed with them. Also these two officials also complained bitterly about Green Africa Airline’s ground staff hostility and lack of knowledge of rights of PWDs passengers. They said they were subjected to queueing. This they had to make a case for as they were forced to be on a long queue while boarding at both Akure and in their return journey from Abuja.
The two also agreed that the kind of aircraft Green Africa Airline was using that day has a very narrow doorway which may not allow two passengers at the same time (The Physically challenged and the two who would assist in carrying him inside)
Their major grouse was that none of the airline staff explained this but just insisted they have no space for wheelchair
What are the major issues we are raising in our campaign?
-Airlines need to be transparent in their policy. If aircraft at any of their routes may not accommodate a potential near zero mobility customer, let that be stated before passengers commit their money. We expect that if Airline cannot board a passenger with near zero mobility, it should be clearly stated on their website or at the point of purchase.
-Airline ground staff, ground and in service, must be thoroughly tutored about excellent customer service especially when it comes to taking care of persons with disabilities wellbeing, on ground or in service.
-It is still very clear many Airline staff and operators do not know anything about disability rights and laws. Asking persons with disabilities to be on queue is a criminal offence.
-Greater awareness must be created within the PWDs communities to the effect that they must learn how to demand for their rights when this is denied.