Nazi rules

I would have thought this was a sick joke until I read it – it wasn't April Fool's Day 

– 'We can't let the poor or the afflicted, in short the hoi poloi, get in the way of the elite, going about their lawful business'

Air New Zealand bans disabled passengers from all flights

the Civilian,

17 May, 2013

Air New Zealand has today announced a policy that will bar disabled passengers from being able to book tickets on both domestic and international flights, in order to help prevent future inconvenience to normal, human passengers.

The decision follows an incident earlier this week on a flight from Auckland to Wellington, in which an Air New Zealand gold elite passenger was humiliated when she was asked to leave her seat for the benefit of a wheelchair-bound woman who could not conveniently move to another one.

Air New Zealand has since apologised to that gold elite passenger and had a stern word with the disabled woman, 39-year-old Tanya Black. Ms. Black has subsequently appeared on TV One’s Seven Sharp to apologise for her behaviour, but it has done little to quell public outrage over the incident.

In response to that outrage, the airline held a press conference this morning to announce a new policy on the disabled.

“Air New Zealand would like to announce this morning that it is no longer allowing physically or mentally disabled passengers on any of our domestic or international flights,” said chief executive Christopher Luxon. “What happened to our gold elite passenger earlier this week was unacceptable. No customer should be forced to endure a lengthy one hour flight, including taxiing to and from the gate, in a seat with a different arbitrary number and slightly varied location to the one they booked; and certainly not for the benefit of a cripple.”

The announcement has so far been well received by the public, as well as frequent fliers like traveling businessman Jarrod Shaw, who himself is a gold elite member.

“I’m really glad Air New Zealand has had the courage to take these steps,” he said. “When I first saw what happened on the news, I said to myself ‘Woah, that could’ve been me.’”

The company has said it will be taking extensive security measures to prevent any disabled passengers getting on their planes, and will not hesitate to forcibly handle paraplegics who try to pretend they can walk.

Luxon said that Air New Zealand would not rule out establishing disabled-only routes, and said they could have some running between select cities in the near future.

“It probably wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience for us,” he said. “We’d just use some old cargo planes we’ve got lying around.”

COMMENT

It does appear that this is from a satirical publication- not my idea of good satire, I must say. 

Here are some comments from Facebook, sent to Air New Zealand:

Is it true that Air New Zealand bans disabled passengers from all flights ? The way the article is written in The Citizen, it seems like a joke. "...in order to help prevent future inconvenience to normal, human passengers." Are we not ALL human passengers? Disabled or not?

"Air New Zealand gold elite passenger was humiliated when she was asked to leave her seat for the benefit of a wheelchair-bound woman who could not conveniently move to another one." I don't don't the circumstances of how Ms. Black humiliated the gold elite passenger, but it CANNOT be any more humilating than Air NZ saying that disabled passagers are not "normal" or "human". It seems to me that Air NZ needed to handle this situation with the "HUMANS" that were involved in this situation. 

Banning the disabled as a whole is absolutely ridiculous and absurd. If this new ban is true, I look forward to the disabled, families of disabled, friends of disabled, health professionals who care for the disabled, advocates of the disabled and those who believe that all people no matter age, sex, handicap, race, color, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry BAN your airline.

Sincerely,
Tiffany Hansborough
Disabled American

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand prides itself on the customer service it provides to all passengers including passengers with disabilities. The article you refer to is from a satirical website.