Tourist fraudsters found a “selfish” way to bypass gigantic queues and take advantage of the accelerated passage of pre-flight formalities during air chaos at European airports. They began to use wheelchairs en masse and pretend to be disabled to go through pre-flight procedures earlier than others. The fact is that you can order a wheelchair free of charge at any airport, including Ukrainian ones – a special employee will take such a passenger in a wheelchair out of turn through all formalities and checkpoints. They filmed their scams on their phone cameras and posted them on TikTok.
According to the British media, information about massive false disability was confirmed by the executive director of Heathrow Airport in London, John Holland-Kay. According to him, passengers are pretending to be sick to avoid terrible queues at the airport, which is caused by a lack of staff and strikes by the remaining employees of the airline. It was emphasized that the new trend increased the demand for wheelchairs.
For example, one tourist revealed on a TikTok account that he was actually “faking a leg injury to get through security faster” and get home faster from the party island of Ibiza. Another posted on social media a “step by step” guide showing how to make the pretense as convincing as possible.
At the same time, airport employees understand that they are hostages of enterprising tourists, but they cannot do anything about it. “Our “passengers in need of support” team now has the same number of people as it did before the pandemic, and not as much as at the main counters. We have seen that the demand for their services has increased significantly, there are many more people in wheelchairs than before covid. Why is this happening? To some extent, this is because tourists have become accustomed to pretending to be infirm, transferring to wheelchairs to go through Fast Track (accelerated passage of pre-flight formalities individually accompanied by an airport employee). According to the rules, we are obliged to do this,” explained the head of the London airport. This is because huge queues continue to dominate many airports in the country, as desperate passengers try to catch summer by the tail, preparing for vacation.
Speaking about the new trend to skip the queues, the director of Heathrow Airport revealed that wheelchairs on TikTok are one of the top tips given to tourists this summer. “Please don’t do this, we need to keep the service available to people who need it. In addition, half of all people requesting the service only check their privileges on the plane. If you need a service, you’d better let us know in advance so we can make sure there are enough staff to meet your needs,” he added.
Birmingham Airport, another popular UK departure point, also reported a 20 percent increase in wheelchair users. Officials said they had to buy more wheelchairs and hire additional staff to help those “in need.”