Jetstar refuses to let Karni Liddell on flight with wheelchair

Former Paralympian Karni Liddell says dogs are treated better than the disabled when it comes to flying after Jetstar wouldn’t let her board a flight with her wheelchair.

A former Paralympian was made to feel “powerless” after she was told by Jetstar staff that she couldn’t bring her wheelchair on a flight.

Disability advocate and Paralympic swimmer Karni Liddell attempted to board a flight from Brisbane to Proserpine on Wednesday morning for work, but was told she could get on the flight, but her wheelchair couldn’t.

“It was after an hour of talking that (the staff member) said I can fly but I can’t take my wheelchair … I said that’s not possible, it’s like her not flying with her legs and she said ‘don’t be rude to me’,” Ms Liddell said.

Australian Paralympian Karni Liddell wasn’t allowed to board a Jetstar flight with her wheelchair. Picture: Richard Walker.

Ms Liddell was told she needed to give five days’ notice to fly with the wheelchair as it contained a lithium battery. That was despite having already obtained a dangerous goods certificate.

A Jetstar spokesman said the airline “sincerely apologised” to Ms Liddell.

“Unfortunately her booking was made through a travel vendor and did not include the requirement to travel with a 25kg lithium-battery powered wheelchair,” he said.

“Carrying a 25kg lithium-battery on our aircraft requires special clearance in advance of the flight’s departure.

“We will reach out to our travel partners to ensure all requirements for customers travelling with a battery-powered wheelchair are clearly communicated on each booking to prevent situations like this happening again in the future.”

Ms Liddell said she had lost count of the number of times she had been booted from a flight because of her disability.

“We (wheelchair-bound people) go through hell before we get to the airport just on the phone answering all the personal questions, taking measurements,” she said.

“There’s so many things to do with flying in a chair. I don’t believe I’m going to get to where I’m going until I’m in the air.”

Jetstar has issued an apology to Karni Liddell. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Ms Liddell said in the past she had been abandoned in an airline-supplied wheelchair for more than an hour with no way to push herself or even go to the bathroom.

“We all say the same thing, you never feel more disabled than when you go to the airport. You feel powerless,” she said.

Ms Liddell said she also often struggled with airline staff on numerous occasions.

“The way that staff speak to me, I get treated worse than dogs when I fly and that has to be changed,” she said.

“You can do all the right things, it doesn’t matter … it comes down to them seeing us as not powerful as customers, because most of us don’t complain.”

In 2020, Ms Liddell was kicked off a merry-go-round at Dreamworld despite meeting the theme park’s criteria.

At the time, she called the situation “humiliating” and said it brought her to tears.