Renat Anpilogov, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Your Accessible Flight, discusses aviation accessibility in this guest article ahead of this year’s Passenger Experience Conference.
Accessibility in aviation is often discussed in terms of inclusion, passenger experience, and regulation. On paper, the framework is clear. But on the ground, accessibility is defined by something much simpler — decisions made under time pressure.
For ground handlers, supporting passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) is one of the most operationally complex parts of the job. No two situations are exactly the same. A powered wheelchair arrives with unclear specifications. A battery raises safety questions. A lastminute aircraft change suddenly affects what can be accepted.
And there is rarely time to stop and search for answers.
In these moments, staff are expected to make the right call — quickly and confidently. But the information they need is often fragmented. Some of it sits in manuals. Some in internal systems. A lot depends on experience, or on finding the right colleague to ask.
So, in reality, teams spend time double-checking, escalating, and trying to reduce uncertainty.
That uncertainty has a direct operational impact. It slows down turnaround, creates friction between teams, and increases pressure on staff. Most importantly, it is felt by the passenger — often as stress, confusion, or inconsistency.
I have seen this from both sides. In our team at Your Accessible Flight (YAF), some of us are wheelchair users ourselves, so we understand these challenges not only operationally, but personally.
For example, it is not unusual to see a family travelling with two children with disabilities arriving at the airport five hours before departure — not two or three, but five. And even then, they often do not have time to rest, visit a lounge, or simply have a coffee. Most of that time is spent navigating check-in, security, and assistance processes.
This is what accessibility looks like in reality — not a single moment, but the entire journey. This is also where artificial intelligence starts to make a practical difference. Not as a headline innovation, but as a tool that supports real-time decisions.
At its core, the value is simple: giving staff clear, reliable answers when they need them. Can this wheelchair be transported on this aircraft? What are the battery handling requirements? How should battery capacity be correctly calculated?
When those answers are available instantly, the dynamic changes. Decisions become faster. Communication becomes more confident. Fewer mistakes happen.
And in aviation, confidence on the ground translates directly into trust in the journey.
However, technology alone does not solve the problem.
AI tools in this space only work if they reflect real operations. They need to fit naturally into workflows, function under time pressure, and be trusted by staff. Just as importantly, they must be informed by the lived experience of passengers with disabilities — not only by regulatory frameworks.
This is how accessibility moves from policy to reality — not in strategy documents, but in day-to-day decisions on the ground.
At Your Accessible Flight, our focus is practical — helping staff quickly verify wheelchair compatibility, understand requirements, and reduce uncertainty in real situations.
Because in aviation, accessibility is not an abstract goal. It is something that either works — or doesn’t — in a matter of minutes at the gate.
And those minutes define the experience.
This topic will be explored further in a panel session at the Passenger Experience Conference (PEC) at the Hamburg Messe on Monday 13th April 2026. PEC takes place ahead of Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) on 14-16 April. For more information and tickets, visit www.passengerexperienceconference.com.
