WestJet wheelchair weight limit frustrates passengers, advocates
Global News
Advocates say a policy by WestJet capping the weight of mobility aids like power wheelchairs at 300 pounds is unfair and potentially unlawful.
Darby Young is a frequent flyer, but heading to the airport isn’t as simply as dropping off her bag and boarding the plane.
“I check in the same time you would,” she said, “but that process takes a little more time.”
Living with cerebral palsy, Young uses a motorized scooter to get around. When she checks her bags, she also relinquishes her ride, which flies with her in the cargo hold of the aircraft.
“The crew, for me, has been fantastic. They come up, greet me, they ask a million questions, which I’m all about,” Young smiled.
As an advocate for people living with disabilities, Young says her experience with her roughly 115-pound scooter has been positive for the most part.
But she’s baffled after learning of a WestJet policy limiting the weight of mobility aids like hers to 300 pounds or less.
“I think they’ve been misled,” Young said, estimating 75 per cent of power wheelchair users likely have equipment weighing more than that.
The Calgary-based airline says on its website that mobility aids are capped at that weight when loaded with other bulk baggage on all three of its mainline aircraft — the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing 737, and De Havilland Dash-8. The maximum allowable height and width varies on each aircraft.
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