Alaska Airlines has partnered with the Autism Society to invite guests to participate in practice flights at Portland International Airport.
The programme was launched to provide an opportunity for those with disabilities to practice elements of air travel, with the aim to reduce stress and improve customer service for all passengers.
Alaska’s Disability Office supported the practice flights, helping individuals with disabilities to experience entering the airport, going through security, boarding the flight and taxiing around the tarmac. The Disability Office was created in December 2022 to address disability matters, and since then, they have developed and presented 10 disability-related workshops, filled over 200 American Sign Language requests with four vendors, supported accessibility requests for more than 50 events, and presented on accessibility and disability inclusion at seven conferences.
Several guest testimonials expressed the benefit of having practice runs at airports:
“This experience really helps us because we have never brought our son on a plane before. Letting him go through the process is very helpful and we would like to try a real flight soon now that he knows what to expect.”
“For our daughter, giving her the opportunity to practice helps make a real travel experience more manageable and less scary. She gets to see new sounds and sights and go through security and knows what to expect on the day of real travel. Meeting with TSA and speaking to the flight attendants and pilots – hearing the engines go on – it all helps her to feel safer. It’s really wonderful.”
“Now that I know my daughter can handle walking on a jet bridge and sitting on a plane, and now that she sees it isn’t scary and the Alaska Airlines people are so wonderful, I have booked a family flight to Maui in two months!”
Alaska Airlines are also testing autonomous electric wheelchairs at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in the D and C concourses and will host another practice flight with the San Jose Mineta International Airport and The Arc, an organisation that promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and development disabilities.
Photos: Joe Nicholson, Alaska Airlines
