A young wheelchair user has said she was denied boarding access to a Ryanair flight in Dublin last week after she refused to walk up the stairs into the aircraft.
Niamh Herbert, a first-year European Studies student at Trinity College Dublin, had booked the flight to London with the university's fashion society.
The Ryanair flight was due to leave Dublin Airport for London Stansted at 6.30am last Friday.
She said the group arrived at the airport at 4.30am and stopped off for water before heading directly to the gate.
On arrival, she said a ground staff member asked if she would mind walking up the steps to the plane.
“He said for easiness would you mind getting up and walking up the stairs of the plane.
“I said, ‘How dare you ask me to do that’. I know I look more agile than someone with MS, but you’re still asking a wheelchair user to climb stairs.”
The 20-year-old has Friedreich’s Ataxia, a neuromuscular disorder of the central nervous system. She was using her own wheelchair in Dublin Airport on Friday.
Four of her friends remained at the gate while staff called the flight deck to make boarding arrangements for Ms Herbert.
She said the staff then informed the group that the plane’s captain “was getting impatient” and had called the boarding desk to explain that while he understood the delay, he couldn’t wait and needed to take off.
Ms Herbert convinced her friends to board the plane and watched the flight take off to London without her.
She said the staff agreed to let her board the next flight to London Stansted when she threatened them with action for compensation.
Ms Herbert had initially mistakenly booked to fly to London the day before her fellow students.
She had paid €160 to change her ticket when a spot became available on the Friday flight.
She said she called the airline to ensure the change had been processed and presumed her request for wheelchair assistance would be transferred across.
Ryanair statement
However, a statement from Ryanair said Ms Herbert “had not booked any wheelchair services” and that she arrived at the boarding gate “13 minutes before the flight was due to depart.
“Our crew provided full assistance and, as a gesture of goodwill, transferred this customer on to the next available flight, free of charge, and the customer flew to London Stansted.
“Thousands of passengers of reduced mobility travel with Ryanair on a weekly basis without issue and any customers who require wheelchair assistance are asked to book it in advance.”
Ms Herbert said she did request wheelchair assistance in her initial booking and does not understand why the airline said she arrived 13 minutes before takeoff.
“It’s their fault they neglected to carry over the details of my booking and I don’t know where they got that number of 13 from, I was definitely there a long time before.
“Even so, wheelchair assistance is something that should be available around the clock.”
While she was diagnosed with her condition as a teenager, the Trinity student only began using a wheelchair five months ago.
She said it has opened her eyes to the countless barriers people with disabilities face in Ireland.
“I don’t really view myself as having a disability, but there are now these roadblocks that stop me from doing things.
“I feel completely shocked and discriminated against after last week. At the root of it all I was turned away from a flight because I’m in a wheelchair.”
In a statement, the airline said: “A name change was made online at 2.39am [on February 16th], not by phone, and no wheelchair assistance (which is provided at Dublin Airport by OCS) was booked.
“There are no ‘roadblocks’ for passengers of reduced mobility when travelling with Ryanair.
“The only reason this customer did not board their original flight was because they arrived at the gate late and had not booked wheelchair assistance.
“Had they arrived at the gate on time and booked assistance, they would have travelled without issue, as they did when returning from London Stansted.”
