Air travel could become smoother and less fraught for disabled passengers if a new charter for airlines and airports is adopted, say ministers.
Disabled flyers have long complained of lost or damaged wheelchairs, struggles with access on planes and in airports, and poor customer service.
If adopted, the charter would remove the £2,000 limit on payouts for damaged wheelchairs.
It would also enforce better training for airline crews and baggage handlers.
In the longer term, the charter would encourage the industry to look at ways to allow people to take their own wheelchairs into aircraft cabins.
More than half (57%) of passengers with a disability say they find flying and using airports difficult, according to a survey by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Accessibility minister Nusrat Ghani said that statistic needed to be addressed and the proposed charter included measures to make "real changes".
"We are committed to continuing the progress the industry has already made in making the aviation network truly open to all," she said.
Chris Wood, from campaign group Flying Disabled, said the charter was what they had been working towards.
"My aspiration is to have people flying in their own wheelchairs to a destination within two years and it looks as if the UK could lead the way in making this happen," he said.
Frank Gardner, who travels widely for his job as BBC security correspondent, has shared some of his own experiences to highlight the obstacles faced by wheelchair users.
In March, on his way back from Ethiopia, he was stranded on an empty aircraft for almost two hours after staff said they had lost his wheelchair.
At the time, he said: "That is your legs gone - it is a basic human right".
Mr Gardner, who has used a wheelchair since being shot in Saudi Arabia in 2004, has spoken of airports having a "casual disregard" for disabled passengers.
Last year a paraplegic athlete dragged himself along the floor through Luton Airport after his self-propelling wheelchair was left behind on a flight.
And in November a man with a spinal problem was taken to hospital after he collapsed at Heathrow Airport while waiting for a booked wheelchair that failed to turn up.
Comments