Heathrow boss says TikTok wheelchair 'travel hack' to blame for additional airport delays: Reports

The chief of Heathrow Airport has blamed a popular TikTok "travel hack" for additional delays, due to passengers pretending to be disabled or injured in order to skip queues.

Speaking to LBC Radio on Monday (Jul 25), Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said there has been more demand for wheelchair support at the airport compared to pre-pandemic times.

“Some of this is because people are using the wheelchair support to try to get fast-tracked through the airport. That is absolutely the wrong thing to be doing.”

When asked if some people were abusing the rules by pretending they needed wheelchair assistance, Mr Holland-Kaye confirmed it and pointed to supposed "travel hacks" that were being recommended on TikTok. 

“Please don’t do that, we need to protect the service for the people who need it most.”

In a TikTok video posted in June, user WolfJenko said that he pretended to be injured in order to get through airport security faster.

"Faked hurting my leg to get through security faster and onto the plane back from Ibiza," he wrote in a video caption. 

The video also showed him being pushed on a wheelchair through airport security, bypassing snaking lines of other passengers. He also said he had an entire row of seats on the flight to himself.

According to the Telegraph, the man was a 28-year-old student who had travelled from Turkey to Bristol.

People with disabilities on TikTok have called out passengers who faked injuries at the airport to make use of wheelchair assistance. 

A video by user disabledgirl showed a flight attendant sharing an “airport hack” where passengers fake injuries and use wheelchairs to skip queues.

“There is a special place in hell for people who see wheelchair assistance as a fun quirky little airport hack,” said the user, who was on a flight from Philadelphia to Heathrow.

She added that the airport was "understaffed" and that she was "forgotten about" and "treated like cattle". 

LBC Radio also reported that 20 passengers on wheelchairs were left waiting in Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3 for assistance to get through immigration last week.

“We do have as many people now working in our Passengers Requiring Support team as we had before the pandemic. We've seen demand has gone up significantly," said Mr Holland-Kaye.

He also added that "half of all the people" who requested assistance only did so once they were on the plane.

"If you really need the service, then you will be letting us know well in advance so we can make sure there are enough people there to meet your needs," said Mr Holland-Kaye. 

According to The Guardian, Mr Holland-Kaye also said delays were partly caused by passengers “travelling with more than they normally would” and people failing to “check in all of their makeup” before going through security. 

Passengers at Heathrow Airport have been plagued by long queues and baggage issues in recent weeks as demand for travel rebounds after the pandemic.

Like other airports across Europe, Britain's busiest airport is struggling to cope amid staff shortages across the whole aviation sector. 

Heathrow on Jul 12 said it would cap departing passengers at 100,000 a day to limit queues, baggage delays and cancellations. It also asked airlines to stop selling tickets for flights that could be curtailed, said Reuters. 

According to Reuters, airlines at Heathrow had already responded to a government appeal to cut capacity, but the airport said it needed them to go further. 

Heathrow's capacity cap will run from Jul 12 to Sep 11, according to Mr Holland-Kaye in an open letter. 

"We recognise that this will mean some summer journeys will either be moved to another day, another airport or be cancelled and we apologise to those whose travel plans are affected," he said.