Should I travel alone if I have dementia or cognitive impairment?

See: Traveling Alone: A Guide for Families with Air Travelers who have Dementia, Alzheimer’s or Cognitive Difficulties

Airlines require a passenger to travel with a safety assistant (PCA, travel companion physically able to assist with these functions) when:

• The passenger is unable to understand or respond to safety instructions.
• The passenger has both hearing and vision disabilities that prevent communication with airline crew during safety briefings. 
• The passenger has mobility limitations that would prevent them from evacuating independently in an emergency. 

A passenger who requires supervision, assistance inside the lavatory, administration of medications or feeding during flight, will need to travel with an assistant.

To travel alone successfully, you must decide how well you/the person living with dementia can perform these functions to do the following e.g.:

• Cognitive abilities: capacity to think, improvise, and problem-solve 
  • engage in meaningful conversation to get directions, give information
  • maintain control of essential documents: id, ticket, boarding pass, itinerary
  • ask and answer questions: self-identify or self-advocate
  • respond to changes in technology (e.g. obtain boarding pass, check luggage)
  • show id or boarding pass to airline, security and gate personnel
  • process signage and announcements: match ticket to monitor for flight information
  • respond to changes in flight information (changes in gate, concourse, departure/arrival times, baggage claim carousel; flight cancellation or diversion) 
  • have a plan of action for any health, sensory, dietary, or other needs in case a flight does not depart or arrive as scheduled
  • manage financial transactions in the airport
  • respond to security protocols, including separating and recollecting items for security screening, appropriate physical responses to screening protocol
• Physical abilities – functional mobility or adaptation (e.g. wheelchair)
  • walk distances
  • balance and stamina to stand in lines
  • use escalator, elevator, people mover, airport internal transport
  • grip strength for handheld items and/or carry-on luggage
• Functional hearing or adaptation
• Functional vision or adaptation
• Bladder and bowel control
  • independent use of bathroom facilities

To travel alone successfully, you must decide: 

• Can you/the person living with dementia behave within societal norms?

• Can you/they maintain social distance/respect personal space of other travelers and staff?
• Do you/they show proper behavior in lines?
• Do you/they experience agitation, hallucinations, or anxiety?

Inform yourself/the person living with dementia about resources available to you/them through the airport, airlines, TSA volunteer services, and private services for hire. If you/they intend to travel alone, make certain that you/they can self-identify and self-advocate for themselves to airline and airport employees.   

See the annotated list of resources available to air travelers with disabilities:
​
Traveling with a Disability: Services Available

Resources for Travel: Before Booking Flights

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Updated 1/17/2026

©2020-2026 Dementia-Friendly Airports Working Group