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Charges for Oxygen (Airlines)

It is a pleasure, Mr. Jones, to serve under your chairmanship. I wish to declare an interest; I am a trustee of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, as listed in the Register of Members' Interests. I wish to bring to the attention of the House the fact that some airlines charge large fees to those who need to use supplementary oxygen when flying. I am grateful to the 218 right hon. and hon. Members who signed early-day motion 1,444, in which I called on airlines to scrap those charges. I am also grateful to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, the British Lung Foundation and the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign for their detailed advice and information. Pulmonary arterial hypertension—PAH—causes high blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries, which carry blood from the right side of the heart to the lungs. The condition causes those arteries to thicken and narrow, which restricts blood flow in the lungs. The resulting symptoms are breathlessness, chest pains, angina, fatigue and fainting spells. PAH is relatively rare, but sufferers from other breathing conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and muscular dystrophy can experience similar symptoms, and require supplementary oxygen to help get sufficient oxygen into their blood. Along with medication, those symptoms can be managed with extra oxygen, which can be obtained from a cylinder or an electronic concentrator. Oxygen from either source eases breathing difficulties, allowing patients who otherwise could not undertake even gentle activity to regain mobility. Oxygen is as indispensable to sufferers as the wheelchair is to those with walking difficulties. Unfortunately, that fact is not recognised by many airlines. It is hard to imagine a company refusing to allow people the right to bring a wheelchair into a building and then charging them to use a centrally provided one. However, that is what is happening to many oxygen users who want to fly. Many airlines refuse to allow patients to keep their oxygen with them on flights. Instead, they insist that affected passengers should buy oxygen directly from the airlines, sometimes at huge cost. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association conducted a secret shopper exercise. It found that of the 22 airlines surveyed, only five allowed people to bring their own oxygen cylinders on board, and only nine allowed the use of oxygen concentrators. Some notable exceptions aside, almost every airline that refused permission told the secret shopper that she could be supplied with oxygen by the airline throughout the flight—for a fee. The charges mostly range from £55 to £250, but in some cases are much higher. The British Lung Foundation became involved in the case of Mr. Palmer, who suffers from PAH. He was told by the Emirates airline that he would have to pay an extra £1,972 to be supplied with oxygen on his flight to Australia. In another case, the same airline told a sufferer from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that he would be charged £2,800 to use oxygen on a flight from Manchester to Dubai. In both cases, the airline backed down when the passengers called in the British Lung Foundation. However, not all airlines back down, and many people are told to pay up or lose out. One PAH sufferer said:""I have just had to cancel my holiday to Singapore and Australia. I have been on the phone to Singapore Airlines for an entire week. I have my own travelling concentrator, and this one is pictured on the airline's website to be OK to use on board, but only if you pay 1st class! I think I have been discriminated against."" That was not justified on the grounds of either security or safety; the airline was prepared to allow the device on to the plane, but only if the passenger could come up with a huge premium. Another lady described the bureaucratic nightmare of trying to access oxygen on Ryanair. She said:""When I was due to fly to Spain I faxed off my fit to fly letter and then phoned to pay my £100. They said I was not now allowed to fly with them as I need 2 litres per minute flow, but they only provide 4 litres per minute. Their safety officer said that 2 litres per minute was for children only, even though my doctor had said that was all I require. Also they can only provide oxygen for 2 hours. I flew BA in the end, but the whole thing was so stressful."" The Guardian quoted one passenger as saying:""With many of the airlines it's a catch-22 situation. You can't take your own oxygen on board but they charge you a fortune for the privilege of using theirs…Disabled people have to fight constantly for things I feel should be made available to us when we need it. Oxygen is a necessity that is keeping me alive and healthy."" Although some financial help is available from charities for those who need help in paying the charges, it can be an unnecessary drain on the charities' resources. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association has told me that in the past seven years the charity has paid about £50,000 in grants to cover the cost of airline charges for its members. The association said:""This is money that could be spent on something beneficial, such as respite weekends for children, or a specialist nurse, not subsidising airlines."" Ultimately, the high charges mean that airlines are at risk of pricing oxygen users out of the air travel market. Emirates has announced that it will scrap the charge altogether in response to "feedback from customers", but not many airlines have followed suit. The fees that they continue to charge amount to a tax on the disabled. That practice needs to end. I shall read on to the record the names of airlines that charge and those that do not. I list first those of the 22 airlines surveyed that no longer charge. British Airways, easyJet, Flybe and Virgin Atlantic do not charge; and after the campaign by the three organisations that I mentioned earlier, Cathay Pacific and Emirates no longer charge. I now list the airlines that charge. Air Canada charges 150 Canadian dollars. Air France charges €182. Alitalia charges the cost of a second seat. BMI charges £100. El Al charges £75. First Choice charges £150 for short-haul flights and £250 for long-haul flights. Iberia charges £124. KLM charges €100. Lufthansa charges €150 for short haul and €300 for long haul. Ryanair charges €148. South African Airways charges £150. TAP charges €150. It is pretty much a lottery, particularly for those travelling on longer-haul flights, who seem to be charged most. All airlines should allow people who are dependent on supplementary oxygen to travel at no additional charge, if they have medical clearance to do so. There seems to be no reason why that cannot be achieved. Legislation establishing the principle that disabled people should not be discriminated against when travelling is already in place. European Union regulation 1107/2006 obliges airlines to carry passengers' medical equipment free of charge. Airlines that charge interpret oxygen cylinders as not coming under that category, but stronger guidelines could oblige them to change their view. The Equality and Human Rights Commission told me that it""questions whether airline companies' refusal to carry passengers' oxygen cylinders and concentrators without charge—or at all—is within the law."" It says that it is""seeking to clarify the regulations so that airlines do not inappropriately charge people who require oxygen"." The Department for Transport's code of practice "Access to Air Travel for Disabled Persons and Persons with Reduced Mobility" advises that air carriers may approve the carriage of small gaseous oxygen or air cylinders for medical use, and recommends that portable oxygen concentrator devices should normally be allowed if they are battery operated. The Department clarified that guidance in response to inquiries from the British Lung Foundation, stating:""The Code of Practice makes clear that airlines should consider portable oxygen cylinders as medical equipment which passengers should have a right to take on board free of charge in addition to standard baggage allowance."" That is quite clear. The code of practice states that air carriers can make a charge to provide passengers with oxygen. However, the Department has also told the British Lung Foundation:""We do not believe that the EC Regulation requires airlines to provide oxygen free of charge, but we would encourage airlines to offer this service at their discretion"." Airlines can thus be in no doubt that the charges that they are currently levying run contrary to the spirit of the rules. It is clear that stronger guidance—or legislation, if necessary—is needed if the practice is to be stamped out permanently. In the USA, the Air Carrier Access Act came into effect on 13 May 2009 and requires all airlines on flights that depart from, or arrive in, the US, and US airlines wherever they are in the world, to allow passengers to use their own portable oxygen concentrators free of charge, as long as they have been tested and labelled as meeting federal airline administration requirements. The United States believes that there should be no charge. Airlines will, of course, need to follow security procedures, but if some airlines currently allow passengers to take their cylinders or concentrators on board, and if airlines are obliged to carry concentrators in the USA, the necessary security procedures clearly exist already and could be made compulsory in the UK and throughout Europe. To refuse patients the right to carry medical equipment that has been certified as safe, and then to charge large sums for alternative provision, is outrageous. Some airlines have responded to the campaign and changed their charging policy, but it is still a lottery. I trust that the Department will work with its European partners to produce crystal-clear guidance to airlines stating that they should not be charging for the service. I hope that the Minister will respond positively to end this blatant discrimination by some airlines against disabled passengers.