Air NZ to accommodate wheelchair passengers

Air New Zealand will tomorrow introduce a lift service to help move wheelchair-bound passengers to and from their aircraft seats.

It will be available on Air New Zealand and Freedom Air jets operating out of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, Rotorua, Dunedin and Palmerston North.

It will be used at Hamilton from November.

Air New Zealand came under fire from disability advocates last year when it introduced a policy wheelchair-users had to supply a support person to help them in and out of their seats.

Air New Zealand said it was to prevent staff being injured by heavy lifting. The support person did not need to travel on the flight.

The introduction of the new equipment followed trials by Air New Zealand.

It comes six months after CCS, formerly the Crippled Children's Society, lodged a class action complaint with the Human Rights Commission alleging discrimination.

Group general manager airlines Rob Fyfe said Air New Zealand was proud to be one of the first airlines in the world to offer the lifting service.

It was the only airline operating within New Zealand to do so.

Air New Zealand was looking at similar options for their smaller regional turbo-prop services, Mr Fyfe said.

- NZPA