Travel Support for Travellers with Mobility Challenges
An experienced caregiver travels with you from door to door, and your wheelchair, transfers, and ground transport are arranged before you leave.
Last updated: October 10, 2026
Portage provides accessible travel assistance for people whose disability, injury, or limited mobility means they need support on a journey: wheelchair and power chair users, travellers living with a condition such as MS, Parkinson's, or a spinal cord injury, and anyone recovering from surgery or a fracture. A Case Coordinator plans the trip, and a Travel Companion or Medical Escort travels with you. Intake confirms which service fits.
What makes flying harder when you have limited mobility?
Airline assistance is built around the airport and the aircraft: a wheelchair to the gate, help on and off the plane. Four things fall outside it.
The transfers. Moving from your own chair to the aisle chair, into the seat, and to the washroom mid-flight takes hands, sometimes two sets.
The equipment. Your wheelchair or power chair has to be documented, gate-checked, and returned to you at every connection.
The distance. Connections in a large airport can take more stamina than the flight.
The ends of the day. Getting to and from the airport ne
How does Portage help?
Your Case Coordinator arranges the journey in advance: airline assistance at both airports, carriage of your own wheelchair or power chair including the battery paperwork, connection times that suit your pace, and wheelchair-accessible ground transport at each end. Where a transfer takes two people, we plan for it before the trip.
Travel Companion
An experienced caregiver who travels with you from door to door. Your Companion assists your transfers to the aisle chair and seat alongside airline staff, accompanies you to the washroom in flight, manages bags and connections, and provides hands-on personal care. You manage your own medications; your Companion makes sure they aren't forgotten. The usual fit when mobility is the main need.
Medical Escort
A regulated healthcare professional who travels with you from door to door. Your Escort assists your transfers to the aisle chair and seat alongside airline staff, accompanies you to the washroom in flight, manages bags and connections, and provides clinical care on the journey. Your Escort administers your medications and monitors your condition as it requires. The fit when a condition also needs clinical attention on the way.
Your Case Coordinator will ask about your equipment (the type of wheelchair or power chair, its battery, size, and weight), how you transfer today and whether it takes one person or two, how far you can comfortably walk if at all, your medications list, and the addresses at each end. If you are travelling soon after surgery or a fracture, some airlines ask for medical clearance; we will tell you if that applies and help you obtain it. If you need a wheelchair or other equipment at the destination, we can help arrange it.
See how a Portage journey works
What should I prepare?
Guides for travellers with mobility challenges
Two guides that answer the questions we hear most.
Questions from travellers with mobility challenges
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Usually not. Using a wheelchair is a mobility need, and a Travel Companion provides the transfers, personal care, and airport support the journey takes. A Medical Escort is the fit when a condition also needs clinical care on the way, such as medications that must be administered. Intake confirms the level of service before anything is booked.
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Yes. Airlines carry manual and power wheelchairs at no charge. Your Case Coordinator documents the chair and its battery with the airline in advance, arranges for it to be gate-checked so you stay in it to the aircraft door, and plans each connection so the chair is returned to you. Your Companion or Escort is with you at every handover, so if anything is wrong with the chair on arrival it is raised with the airline right there.
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Yes. Your Case Coordinator arranges wheelchair-accessible ground transport from your door to the airport and from the arrival airport to wherever the journey ends, whether that is a home, a hospital or care residence, or a hotel. If the trip ends at a hotel, we can confirm an accessible room before you travel.
Let’s plan the journey
Tell us about the traveller and the trip. We'll recommend the level of support, plan the journey, and have a Travel Companion ready to go.