AirAsia submits enhanced SOPs on special child seats to authorities

This comes after the airline was recently criticised by a mother, who said her family was asked to get off the plane before departure despite having declared and received approval for a special aircraft seat for her quadriplegic daughter during check-in.

In a statement today, AirAsia said it had completed a review of the circumstances on flight AK 1776 from Singapore to Kuching on May 26.

“The review identified an opportunity to strengthen existing processes relating to the assessment of medically approved CRDs and other specialised travel requirements.

“AirAsia has since introduced enhanced procedures to better support guests travelling with specialised needs,” it said.

AirAsia X chief safety and quality officer S Saravanan apologised for the inconvenience and said the decision was made in “accordance with the applicable safety requirements and operating procedures in place at the time”.

“It was never our intention to prevent any guest from travelling.

“While we always strive to accommodate and support all guests to the greatest extent possible, there may be instances where safety and operational considerations determine the options available,” he said.

The mother had said on Facebook that her daughter, who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, had flown using the same seat before and called for greater clarity on AirAsia’s policies for passengers with disabilities.

She said that after being escorted back to the terminal gate, her family was informed that arrangements could be made for them to board the next available flight to Kuching.

Her family, however, declined to continue travelling after being informed that they risked being offloaded again if the next pilot in command also objected to the use of the special seat.