I’ve served on the Aviation Advisory Committee for All Wheels Up for the past five years and have seen firsthand how committed the organization is to moving accessible air travel forward. What stands out is how different the conversation becomes when it begins with lived experience. It becomes less about accommodation after the fact and more about what good design, sound policy, and stronger collaboration should have been from the start.

Thanks to advocates like Michele Erwin and Chris Wood of UK-based Flying Disabled, momentum around accessible air travel is building across the industry. That was evident at the social event SEKISUI KYDEX hosted on behalf of All Wheels Up at AIX this past April, where people from across aviation were talking seriously about accessibility, inclusion, and passenger experience as design and engineering priorities.

That energy carried through the rest of the show. AIX 2026 included several meaningful accessibility developments, and the Crystal Cabin Awards’ new Accessibility category was a clear sign of progress.

All Wheels Up marks its 15-year anniversary in 2026, a milestone that reflects just how far the conversation around accessibility has come. To cap that off, All Wheels Up was recently named to the 2026 Forbes Accessibility 200, an honor that highlights innovators and impact-makers moving accessibility forward.

When I attended the All Wheels Up Global Forum last year, Bill Crowley, a fellow AWU board member, said something I haven’t forgotten: “If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we get a wheelchair spot onboard a plane?” That question gets right to the heart of the issue. These barriers don’t exist because the challenge is too small to matter or too difficult to solve. They exist because solving them requires focus, urgency, and willingness to rethink what has long been accepted.

While the organization’s mission is to increase awareness and promote safer, more dignified, accessible air travel through research and advocacy, its broader vision goes further: a future in which passengers with disabilities can travel safely and with dignity, including the ability to remain in their personal wheelchairs during flight. It’s an ambitious goal, but one grounded in data, testing, partnership, and persistence.

When I attended the 2023 Global Forum, I sat next to a woman in a power wheelchair who told me she dreams of visiting Paris someday. Because I’ve visited Paris many times for both business and leisure – and too often taken that kind of travel for granted – her comment stayed with me and made me more determined to be part of the solution. As a former airline employee, I understand that wheelchair spots need to be revenue-neutral and work for all passengers. I told her I hoped to see that within the next ten years.