Air travel is a rigmarole at the best of times. But for most passengers, once the bags are dropped and security queues cleared, it’s plain sailing. Quick glass of something, stroll to the gate, board and settle in. Yet for passengers with disabilities and special needs, even once at the gate, the battle is sometimes only just beginning.

Travel nightmares — lost or damaged wheelchairs, poorly trained airline staff, manhandling and even being made to crawl to the toilets — far outnumber tales of positive experiences. But it’s something that TV presenter and disability advocate Sophie Morgan has long been familiar with. “Every disabled person I know has a travel horror story,” she says. Morgan has used a wheelchair since a road traffic accident left her paralysed from the chest down in 2003. “There was an element of disbelief and wanting the world back as I knew it. And that’s been something that I’ve been fighting for.”

Travel is at the centre of that fight. In 2023, Morgan founded Rights on Flights, a lobby group calling for a complete reset in the way disabled people are treated when travelling. She was prompted to act after her wheelchair was broken on a British Airways flight. “This isn’t a new problem; it’s been a problem since the beginning of air travel,” she says. “The system as it stands is completely ableist.”

Morgan now sits on the government’s new Aviation Accessibility Task and Finish Group, created late last year with the aim of improving disabled passengers’ experience of flying, ‘from booking to baggage claim’.

It’s being led by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, an 11-time Paralympic gold medallist, and includes representatives from airlines such as Jet2 and British Airways, as well as ABTA, the travel trade association. Airports such as Stansted and Glasgow are also represented on the panel.

It was unveiled by Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, last November and has until the summer to find out how best to ‘tackle problems which impact disabled passengers’ travel experience and dignity’ and agree short- and long-term achievable actions, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).

Issues it will examine include: passengers being left on board aircraft without timely assistance; poorly handled wheelchairs; inadequate service; lack of access to toilet facilities; and limited access to clear information about rights and services.

All are scenarios that many passengers with disabilities will be familiar with. In October, Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, was forced to crawl to the lavatory on a LOT Polish Airlines flight, an incident he described as “physically deeply uncomfortable and also, of course, quite degrading”. He was told by staff it was “airline policy” not to have aisle chairs (narrow wheelchairs that can be used on planes) on short-haul flights. It meant Gardner had no other way of getting to the toilet.

“Because of my injuries, I have a fast metabolism and food goes through me quickly,” he said. “So I couldn’t eat or drink anything, because there was no means to go to the loo afterwards. Everybody else could go, but I couldn’t.” LOT said it was “deeply sorry” for his “distressing experience” but added that while aisle chairs were on its long-haul Dreamliner planes, they weren’t on its short-haul aircraft because of “limited space”.

It later changed its stance. New information on its accessible travel page now reads: “If you require an onboard wheelchair on a narrow-body fleet route (short- and medium-haul flights), please contact us at least five days, but no later than 48 hours, before departure to ensure you receive the best support.”

Unlike Gardner, the majority of disabled passengers subjected to humiliating treatment while travelling don’t have a public profile or a media outlet through which to highlight their cause. Morgan says: “Every day, I’m inundated with messages from people around the world who know that we’re running Rights on Flights and are asking for help because they’ve got nowhere to go.” She adds: “Many of us don’t have a voice.”

There have been some signs of improvement across the industry — but it’s baby steps. For the first time since 2020, no UK airports were rated as ‘poor’ in the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) annual airport accessibility report, published last year, although it highlighted that more needs to be done. The body reviews every airport that handles 150,000 or more passengers a year (currently 28), and found that 11 were rated ‘very good’ and 12 ‘good’. Bristol, Gatwick, Cardiff, Liverpool and Norwich were categorised as ‘needing improvement’. This generally means the airports weren’t providing passengers with assistance quick enough, had not scored an average rating of 3.5 (where one is worst and five best) in customer satisfaction surveys, or hadn’t provided the CAA with the required information.

To highlight what flying is like for disabled travellers, Morgan made the documentary Sophie Morgan’s Fight to Fly for Channel 4 last year, for which she sent a group of disabled activists and friends undercover on flights to record their experiences. It made for distressing viewing: one man had to crawl to the bathroom, proving Gardner’s account is far from unique; a woman found her wheelchair had been broken by ground staff. A survey of 500 disabled people conducted for the documentary found that half have felt discriminated against when flying in the past five years.

My brother Stefan Clatworthy, who has cerebral palsy, says “nobody takes responsibility” for situations. “I’ve had my wheelchair returned to the plane damaged and with parts missing, including on one occasion the seat,” he explains. “My footrests have also been left in the hold. There’s never an apology.”

The issues go far beyond just wheelchairs, too. “When it goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong,” says Andrew Lamb, honorary president of the European Guide Dog Federation and a frequent flier with his guide dog. He says one of the biggest challenges is inconsistency in staff training and their knowledge of the rules. He recounts an incident where he was told by ground staff he wasn’t allowed to travel out of Gatwick with a guide dog. “They got it wrong. I took my bag and went back to the desks and booked on a different airline,” he says.

“The common theme is that there’s a great deal of ignorance by staff,” he says, adding that there’s also “inconsistency between the different carriers when booking”. The CAA regulations say it’s essential passengers inform their carrier in advance of travel with a guide dog, but adds “airlines must accept all assistance dogs for air travel without charge”. EU law also reinforces this obligation.

Travelling on trains can also pose challenges. “It can be worrying never knowing what’s going to happen,” says Sarah Leadbetter, from Narborough, Leicestershire, who’s registered blind and has a guide dog.

“The Passenger Assist app [introduced by National Rail in 2021, which lets people request assistance at stations in advance] has helped, but I’ve still had cases where the times of the trains haven’t matched up on the app or I’m on a train and no one comes to help. You want to be able to travel, but it’s such a challenge that it puts you off.”

This is why Richard Thompson, co-founder and CEO of accessible travel agency Inclu Travel, is on a mission to make it easier for disabled people to go on holidays that have been properly designed for them. In 2022, he founded IncluCare, a global travel industry certification scheme. The aim is to highlight destinations where everything — from watersports to spas and excursions — are inclusive. Amilla Maldives, an upscale island-resort, was the first to receive the certification, with other hotels — including Great Scotland Yard in London, Leopard Walk Lodge in South Africa and Hotel Éclat Beijing — expected to be accredited by the summer.

This year, Thompson will go further with the launch of Inclusive Luxury Travel Designers, a ‘concierge’ travel company offering specialist itineraries for disabled passengers in destinations such as Africa, New Zealand and Latin America. The start-up will be following established operators, such as Enable Holidays and Limitless Travel, which already offer specialist programmes.

This year could also prove pivotal to one of the most anticipated projects for passengers who use powered wheelchairs. After years of development, the Air4All system, which would allow passengers to stay in their wheelchairs on board planes for the first time, is set to begin tests. One of its creators is Flying Disabled, a consultancy founded by Chris Wood, whose son Jordan and daughter Tayla use wheelchairs.

Air4All is a seat that can be used by able-bodied passengers or converted into a space for a wheelchair. It will be secured using the ISOFIX system, which is already used in cars as a way to secure child seats, and the team are expecting the green light from the US Federal Aviation Administration in the first half of 2025. In the UK, Wood is working with the DfT and CAA, although there’s no exact timeline.

“We’re starting with a powered wheelchair because we wanted to drill down on the biggest challenge — batteries, which are not friends of flying because of the risk of fire,” Wood says. “But the aim is for all kinds of chair to be certified.” Airlines from every continent have expressed an interest in the product, but Wood stresses it’s “not over until the testing is done”.

What is clear is that disabled travellers deserve better from the travel industry, but there are some small signs of improvement. For those fighting for a better experience — more support, greater rights, equal treatment — change can’t come fast enough.