When Everyone Is Responsible, Is Anyone Accountable?
Who Really Owns Accessibility in Modern Air Travel?
By Prince DeAndre, Duke of Hanumanteshwar
June 30, 2026
One of the unexpected outcomes of writing about my recent journey home from India was the number of people who contacted me with the same question.
"Who was responsible?"
Was it the airline?
The airport?
The wheelchair attendant?
The ground handling company?
At first glance, the answer appears obvious.
Surely the airline is responsible.
After all, the passenger books a ticket with the airline, requests wheelchair assistance through the airline, receives confirmation from the airline, and travels on the airline's aircraft.
From the passenger's perspective, the relationship begins and ends there.
Yet modern aviation is far more complex than most travellers ever realise.
A single international journey may involve dozens of organisations working together behind the scenes. Airlines coordinate with airport authorities. Airport authorities work with government agencies. Immigration officers, customs officials, security personnel, baggage handlers, aircraft cleaners, caterers, fuel companies, and ground handling providers all perform highly specialised roles that most passengers never see.
Accessibility exists within this same ecosystem.
That is where the question becomes far more complicated.
The airline usually accepts the request for assistance.
The airport provides the physical infrastructure.
Very often, the person pushing the wheelchair is not employed by either organisation.
Instead, many airports rely upon specialist ground handling companies contracted to deliver Passenger with Reduced Mobility (PRM) services on behalf of airlines and airport operators.
To the traveller, none of this is visible.
Nor should it be.
Passengers purchase one journey.
They do not purchase a separate contract with every organisation involved in making that journey possible.
That distinction matters.
If responsibility becomes fragmented behind the scenes, accountability can become fragmented as well.
When assistance works well, passengers rarely stop to think about who employed the person helping them through the terminal.
They simply remember feeling respected.
When assistance fails, however, the opposite often occurs.
The passenger is left wondering who should have done what.
The airline may point toward the airport.
The airport may explain that the service is contracted.
The contractor may refer to staffing levels, operational demands, or airline instructions.
Everyone may have followed the procedures that govern their individual role.
Yet the passenger still experienced one failed journey.
Perhaps that is one of the greatest challenges facing accessibility today.
Systems are often designed around organisational responsibility.
Passengers experience them as human responsibility.
This distinction becomes even more significant as demand for mobility assistance continues to grow.
Global aviation is entering a period unlike any in its history.
Passenger numbers continue to rise.
Populations are ageing.
Hidden disabilities are receiving greater recognition.
Medical advances allow more people living with chronic illness to travel than ever before.
Each of these developments represents something positive.
Together, however, they place increasing pressure upon systems originally designed for a very different era.
The answer cannot simply be asking frontline staff to work harder.
Nor can it be expecting passengers to negotiate their accessibility needs every time responsibility passes from one organisation to another.
Accessibility should not depend upon knowing which company employs the person standing at the aircraft door.
It should depend upon the confidence that, once assistance has been requested and confirmed, every organisation involved understands that the commitment belongs to the journey itself.
Perhaps this is where the aviation industry has an opportunity.
Not merely to improve accessibility.
But to redefine accountability.
Imagine a future where the passenger never needs to wonder who is responsible.
Where every handoff is seamless.
Where technology allows accessibility requests to move effortlessly between airlines, airports, and service providers.
Where the first words spoken to a passenger are never, "Can you walk?"
Instead, they are simply:
"Welcome. We've been expecting you."
That may sound like a small difference.
In reality, it represents a profound shift in philosophy.
It moves accessibility away from proving eligibility and toward delivering confidence.
The passenger no longer carries the burden of the system.
The system carries the responsibility it accepted from the beginning.
In the next article, I want to explore another question that has emerged repeatedly throughout this series.
As requests for wheelchair assistance continue to rise around the world, are airports trying to solve too many different accessibility challenges with one single service?
If so, the future of accessible travel may not require more wheelchairs.
It may require an entirely new way of thinking about assistance itself.
About the Author
Duke Hanumanteshwar
Writer & Memoirist | Independent Political Strategist for Conscious Governance | Founder, H1927LLC (Global Leadership, Mindfulness & Diplomacy) | Co-Author of A Royal Commitment | Cultural Diplomat & DEI Advocate