Ryanair to lift limits on blind passengers

Budget airline Ryanair today revealed plans to end restrictions on the number of blind or partially sighted passengers it could carry on a single flight.

The move came after the low cost carrier was criticised for removing nine visually impaired Travellers from a plane bound for Italy from London Stansted.

Following consultation with the National Council of the Blind of Ireland, Ryanair announced it would no longer insist that visually impaired passengers, travelling with a companion, notify the airline.

In September the nine passengers were asked to leave the plane shortly before take-off because there were already three disabled passengers on board. Ryanair said for safety reasons it could only accommodate four disabled passengers on each flight.

Des Kenny, chief executive of the National Council of the Blind of Ireland, praised Ryanair for the move.

“Ryanair are to be congratulated for taking the lead in improving what has been a problematic area for vision impaired passengers when flying,” he said.

“It is also a major step forward for the European Aviation industry as a whole and I hope that other airlines will follow Ryanair’s example.”

If approved by the Irish Aviation Authority, visually impaired passengers travelling with a sighted companion, on a one-to-one basis, will no longer be required to pre-advise Ryanair and will not be included in the aircraft safety limit of four disabled passengers per flight.

Caroline Green, Ryanair head of customer services, said it was a common sense decision.

“This is a common sense change, which follows an incident where a group of vision impaired passengers were not able to travel because the aircraft safety limit for reduced mobility passengers was exceeded,” she said.

Ryanair warned that visually impaired or blind passengers travelling alone will have to pre-advise the airline.