Guest

May 23, 2025

Assistance requested for less mobile passenger

We recently had a holiday with RSD who use Freebird Airlines. We had asked RSD to request Assistance at the airports for my husband and the friend going with us on the holiday. RSD advised that they had put in the request to the airline but could not guarantee the service – how true that turned out to be. My husband is quite capable of walking but not the long distances that you have to walk in an airport. On the departure journey through Gatwick North all went exceedingly well. However, the return journey was a different matter. To keep the costs low the return was Skopje-Manchester-Gatwick, a nightmare that we were not made aware of until a few days before the start of the holiday. We had to deplane at Manchester, go through Security again, and get back on the same plane in the same seats. Of course we had arrived as an International flight and were departing as a Domestic flight en route to Gatwick. No Assistance materialised but we asked the staff and eventually wheelchairs appeared and took the 2 passengers to the departure gate. We were told at the check-in desk that Gatwick would be informed that 5 wheelchairs would be needed for all the Assistance passengers. On arrival at Gatwick, guess what, no wheelchairs. We walked up 2 airbridges where we found a phone in a corridor for Emergencies. We used this phone explaining our dilemma and were told that someone would come in 5-10 minutes – which they did, and the Assistance passengers were taken through Passport control into Baggage Reclaim, with great help from the lovely lady driver. Apart from this, the seat pitch is minimal, 28 inches (71cms), your knees will touch the seat in front. Infact one passenger had to sit sideways as he was very tall and his legs simply did not fit the space available. Oh, and the other thing, it would be totally impossible to adopt the “Brace” position in an emergency because there is no space. Passenger comfort is at an all time low on this airline.