DisabledTravelers.com Travel Blog

The FINANCIAL — Over the past few years, Air France has been making every effort to make travel for disabled and reduced mobility

passengers as easy and simple as possible.

In 2001, a specific assistance service called SAPHIR* was launched, the only service of its kind in the world, which gave a new dimension to our relations with our customers and greatly contributed to alleviating stress linked to organizing air travel for these passengers. The progress made, in conjunction with associations, doctors and Air France staff has been considerable, and is constantly being improved.

“The past fourteen months have undoubtedly been the most intense in terms of development, both with regard to extending access to existing services internationally and implementing new services both on the ground and on board aircraft”, declared Patrick Roux, VP Marketing Air France.

Air France was wonderful! On our trip back on 5/19/10, they performed a procedure which created a large, aisle-wheelchair accessible restroom for me in the center of the plane! My husband couldn’t believe it. And they were happy to do whatever was necessary to get me on & off the plane in comfort. My one criticism is that on landing at CDG, they couldn’t find my wheelchair for about an hour and I had to sit in the very uncomfortable aisle chair while they tracked it down. After a 10 hour flight it wasn’t too pleasant. But in general they couldn’t have been nicer.