All Wheels Up

Financial Incentives for Wheelchair Accessible Airplanes

This student team created a budget impact model that shows that a wheelchair spot on a plane should not be perceived as an expense and loss of revenue due to one less seat in the cabin, but instead could be a cost savings. To accomplish this the team explored a number of factors including tarmac turn-time savings, loss of revenue for the 80% of wheelchair users not traveling (and their families), cost to replace or repair damaged wheelchairs, legal fees associated with current airline wheelchair practices, negative viral posts/media related to wheelchair damage or mistreatment of people with reduced mobility, and more.