John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow Airport, has said that passengers are making travel chaos at the London airport worse by faking disabilities.
Speaking on Leading Britain’s Conversation (LBC) Radio yesterday, Mr Holland-Kaye said a ‘travel hack‘ that spread on TikTok encouraged travellers to pretend to be injured or disabled to claim wheelchair assistance at the airport.
A video showing a passenger skipping queues at Ibiza Airport, Spain, by feigning injury to get a wheelchair has been viewed 2.5 million times on TikTok.
When asked why some legitimately disabled passengers had recently faced delays, he said, “Some of this is because people are using the wheelchair support to try to get fast-tracked through the airport. That is absolutely the wrong thing to be doing. We need to protect that for the people who most need help.”
Mr Holland-Kaye added that about half of arriving passengers who request assistance only do so once they are on the plane.
He advised people who ”really need the service” to let Heathrow know “well in advance so we can make sure there are enough people there to meet your needs”.
