JoAnn Brehm has a new great-grandchild she has never seen. With five great-grandsons, the 76-year-old Broomfield woman is eager to get out to San Diego to see her first great-granddaughter.
When she makes the trip, her flight to the West Coast may be easier, thanks to a new Federal Aviation Administration regulation. For the first time, Brehm – and thousands of others like her who use supplemental oxygen – will be able to fly with her own supply, provided the airlines adopt the rule in time.
“This is wonderful news,” Brehm says. “In the past, I’ve had to pay $150 (extra) for their oxygen, and if you change planes they charge you again.”
The regulation, which goes into effect Aug. 11, ends a decades-long policy of requiring passengers on medical oxygen to rent tanks and tubes from the airlines. Many carriers, including Frontier, didn’t even offer that. The policy came out of an era when smoking was allowed on airplanes and oxygen tanks were deemed hazardous. Travelers who used oxygen were stuck without their lifeline while waiting in terminals and making connections. Layovers could be nerve-wracking. It made travel so inconvenient or difficult that many simply stopped flying.
The new rule allows, but does not require, airlines to permit passengers to travel with their own portable oxygen concentrators during all phases of flight, including takeoff and landing. Only two units, the Inogen One and the AirSep LifeStyle, have been approved for use on commercial aircraft. Other makes and models are expected to win approval within the next few years, says FAA
spokesman Dave Catey.
The American Lung Association, which lobbied for the rule, called it “an especially significant victory” for the more than 1 million Americans who use supplementary oxygen.
“This is a real breakthrough,” said Dr. Tom Petty, a pulmonologist and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Rush University in Chicago. Petty is one of the pioneers of oxygen therapy, going back to the 1960s. Ironically, at 72, he now uses supplemental oxygen himself.
“How would you get from the curb to the gate?” Petty asked. “There were all kinds of problems. And the airlines really didn’t want to be in the oxygen business.”
“The government needed to wake up to the fact that there were about a million people out there who’d given up (on flying),” said Phillip Porte, executive director of the National Home Oxygen Patients Association and the National Association for Medical Direction of Respiratory Care. For the past 10 years, Porte’s groups pressed hard in Washington to get the rules changed.
Oxygen users shouldn’t start booking flights just yet. Many airlines, including United and Frontier, are holding off while they review the ruling. They’re looking at a lot of things, from flight-crew training to plane configuration. It will probably be months before any airlines change their policies.
“There are a lot of things we need to address first (before adopting the rule),” says United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. “We need to train our employees on these types of devices. Does the person need a specific seat? What if a flight is diverted?” She could not say when United might adopt the rule.
Frontier, which never offered oxygen rentals in the first place, is eager to serve a new market, says director of customer relations Doug Skelton.
“We’re very interested in this,” he says, adding that Frontier will hold several meetings with its engineers, flight crews and other employees to address the ruling. He says safety and security issues are part of the mix.
“What if there’s a 20-inch snowstorm and someone’s battery ran out?” Skelton says. “That’s something we’d have to be prepared to address.”
Skelton says it would take several months for the airline to implement the rule.
The units approved for in-flight use weigh just under 10 pounds and fit under an airline seat, including those on regional jets. They are smaller versions of the suitcase-sized portable oxygen concentrators patients have been using at home for years. The machines draw air from the immediate area and pass it over a material that captures the nitrogen molecules. A 90 percent oxygen mix is left and flows through a tube to the user’s nose. The
oxygen is delivered via pulse flow, meaning it flows only when the user is breathing in.
The portable versions run on batteries that can last 2 1/2 to three hours, depending on oxygen flow. In the future users may be allowed to plug them in at their seats. For now, batteries and spares will have to do.
“We’re strongly recommending they bring extra batteries when they fly,” says Daryl Risington of Inogen. The California-based firm manufactures its units in Longmont.
Oxygen is available only through a doctor’s prescription and is usually covered by insurance or Medicare. The FAA-approved units will most likely rent for $250-$400 a week, with patients able to use them for the duration of the trip.
Assuming the airlines eventually adopt the rule, if Brehm wants to fly to San Diego to see her great-granddaughter, she’ll have to rent, because she uses a different brand at home.
But she’s familiar, and comfortable with, the new technology. Her own Invacare Homefill II portable oxygen concentrator has freed her from the uncertainties of home delivery. One unit, a larger version of the airline-approved technology, makes the oxygen, and another compresses the gas into small, portable cylinders Brehm carries with her. Similar units, called Total O2, are manufactured by Chad Therapeutics.
“This has really been a blessing,” Brehm says. “Before, I had to wait for them to bring me oxygen. It was, ‘Oh, I can’t leave, ’cause my O2 guy’s coming.’
“When you’re on oxygen and waiting for it to come, you get a little nervous.”
Staff writer Laura Watt can be reached at 303-820-1483 or lwatt@denverpost.com.
When airlines implement the FAA rule on flying with supplemental oxygen, it may be possible to rent a unit from your oxygen supplier. Contact them to ask.
For information on newer oxygen technologies and the FAA rule:
Federal Aviation Administration
Website: faa.gov
National Home Oxygen Patients Association
888-646-7244
homeoxygen.org
American Lung Association
800-586-4872
lungusa.org
Inogen Inc.
Goleta, Calif.
866-765-2800
inogen.net
e-mail: info@inogen.net
AirSep Corp.
Buffalo, N.Y.
716-691-0202
airsep.com
e-mail: mpd@airsep.com
Invacare Corp.
Elyria, Ohio
800-333-6900
invacare.com
Chad Therapeutics
Chatsworth, Calif.
800-423-8870
chadtherapeutics.com
