MONTREAL – A rule at WestJet Airlines that bars some power wheelchairs from most of its planes effectively cuts off users from air travel in parts of the country and discriminates against people living with a disability, advocates and passengers say.
The Calgary-based airline caps mobility aids at 300 pounds on the vast majority of its aircraft, according to its website, a limit that rules out many power wheelchairs.
After flying with WestJet for years, Manitoba resident and former MP Steven Fletcher said an airline agent told him his wheelchair was not allowed on a flight from Winnipeg to Toronto last February due to its weight.
“I was astonished,” he said. “I thought it was a mistake.
“It is a deliberate corporate attempt to restrict through policy who can or cannot fly on their aircraft,” he said in an interview, calling the move “discriminatory” and “against common sense.”
At issue is what reasonable accommodation looks like for power wheelchair users, with a couple of carriers arguing that safety and regulations justify the weight limits. Advocates stress the severe curtailment of mobility for individuals whose wheelchair serves as an extension of their body – and the fact that most airlines impose much looser restrictions.
In Fletcher’s case, he was forced to use a different wheelchair on his trip, causing pain and pressure sores that required medical attention, he said.
“It has real-world effects.”
Recently, the parents of a 14-year-old girl from Saskatoon were told she could not fly to Mexico for a planned family vacation because her specialized wheelchair was too heavy. Her trip was denied despite the fact she had flown with WestJet from Saskatoon using the same mobility device before.
“Our team is working with the family to help with their upcoming travel,” WestJet spokeswoman Julia Brunet said in an email Monday when asked about the incident. The wheelchair was “significantly above” the airline’s new weight threshold, she said.
The airline says accessibility regulations allow it to refuse transport of heavier mobility aids.
It landed on the 300-pound limit last year after a technical analysis, which examined the “maximum allowable weight limit per square inch for the cargo holds” of its Boeing-made planes, according to a submission in response to a regulatory complaint filed by Fletcher.
“A maximum weight limit of 300 pounds was confirmed as appropriate to ensure that carriage of wheelchairs did not jeopardize aircraft airworthiness,” the company told the Canadian Transportation Agency.
All but six or seven of WestJet’s 145 active jets are narrow-body planes, according to ch-aviation, an industry data provider. The airline’s website says no wheelchairs over 300 pounds can be loaded onto those narrow-bodies – all Boeing 737s – as well as WestJet Encore’s three-dozen De Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprop planes. Some of its handful of wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets also have the 300-pound limit.
“Both of these aircraft types are fully capable of accommodating power wheelchairs such as mine when proper procedures are followed,” Fletcher argued in a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
No other major North American airline maintains such a low cap for Boeing 737 jets or similar-sized planes, added John Morris, founder of U.S.-based WheelchairTravel.org.
“I would be curious if other carriers are unsafe as a result of carrying power chairs,” he said, noting that the 737 was until recently the world’s most popular commercial aircraft.
“That is not a restriction that is common.”
However, the same limit is in place at B.C.-based Flair Airlines, which exclusively flies 737s, according to the budget carrier’s website.
The policy “matches standard practices across all Canadian operators of this aircraft type,” claimed customer experience director Duncan Pattillo in an email.
“The policy is necessary to ensure safe loading and secure stowage, in line with the aircraft’s certified weight limits.”
American Airlines imposed a similar ceiling in 2020 before walking it back amid a backlash, fuelled by an advocacy campaign launched by Morris.
That two of Western Canada’s most prominent airlines prohibit a range of power wheelchairs on thousands of flights a month poses a problem, advocates say.
Many routes are served by only one or two airlines. WestJet is the sole national carrier flying the Saskatoon-Calgary and Regina-Edmonton routes, while Edmonton-to-Winnipeg is served by both WestJet and Flair. Busier corridors often feature a third airline such as Air Canada, which appears to be the only option for many people living with a disability.
“A 300-pound weight limit would prevent the majority of custom power wheelchair users from using WestJet’s services,” said Devin Glim, a lawyer at the ARCH Disability Law Centre.
Nor can the specialized devices simply be swapped out for smaller ones.
“My wheelchair is an extension of my body. It allows me my independence, the quality of life that I live,” said Maayan Ziv, founder of AccessNow, a Toronto-based platform that shares information about accessible places across the globe.
“Without my custom mobility device, my entire life changes. It’s not something that I can easily just go and pick up off the shelf.”
WestJet said in its regulatory submission it has “clearly complied with all of its obligations,” pointing to Canada’s Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations. These state that an airline can refuse to transport a mobility aid if it “would jeopardize aircraft airworthiness,” weigh too much for the lift or ramp, or prove too large to fit through the cargo door.
The rules also require airlines to inform the passenger about other flights run by the carrier that can handle the wheelchair “and offer to book any such alternative trip for the person.”
Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group, pointed to a recent precedent.
In March, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the country’s transport regulator that sought to boost accessibility for air travellers living with a disability.
The Canadian Transportation Agency had ruled in 2023 that Air Canada must find passengers whose wheelchairs were too big to fit through the cargo doors a similar flight on a comparable route or, if that was not possible, swap in a plane capable of carrying the mobility device.
“The legal obligation is accommodation up to the point of undue hardship,” said Lukacs.
The regulation “provides a floor, not a ceiling,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2025.
