BiPAP use on flights

Help and advicedesperately required from someone who takes flights using BiPAP!

I am writing this in the hope that someone knows the current regulations on using BiPAP in flights. My father, an MND sufferer, has only this week starting using night-time ventilation. He has a holiday booked to New Zealand in Jan, and has taken part in the pre-flight medical. He requires Oxygen for the duration of the journey (which the carrier - Air NewZealand have approved) but they have also said that CPAP can be used on the flight but not BiPAP. It is overall 24 hours of flight time and he will need to sleep during that time, therefore will need his BiPAP. He has batteries for the unit, and the hospital physiotherapists seemed certain that he would be able to use hi BiPAP unit on the flight. The consultants advised that he used oxygen for the time awake and the BiPAP whilst asleep. We are all shocked by the response from the airline, no reason has been given for the BiPAP not being allowed, he is distraught...and I just don't know where to go from here to try and get him to NZ !! (we are resident in the UK, but found your site whilst searching for advice) Do other airlines allow BiPAP ? Do we have any right to appeal ? Are there any agencies I can contact ?

TIA

Most US airlines don't allow xPAP in-flight at all, actually.

Personally I would just use the BiPAP and tell anyone who asked that it was a CPAP--I mean, it's not like a layperson could tell them apart, right? But I'm a rebel like that. They probably just have a regulation that says "CPAP is allowed" and so they don't want to allow anything that isn't CPAP.

Call it a Bi-level CPAP ... then it should qualify.

Seriously, though, a BiPAP, APAP, VPAP, or any other type of xPAP is essentially a type of CPAP device, and therefore should be allowed if a CPAP is allowed.

Thanks so much for your replies. So what would their reason be for disallowing BiPAP do you think ? It isn't that it is risky to use on the flight ? Would they turn him away from the flight if he was to turn up with it - would it be checked ?

My guess is that their policies state that a "CPAP" is allowed, and since a "BiPAP" isn't specifically listed in the policies, they assume it isn't allowed.

I don't see any safety issues. Actually, any CPAP machine that has EPR, C-Flex, or the equivalent is a type of bi-level CPAP (exhalation pressure and inhalation pressure are different). (My M-Series Auto CPAP actually says BiPAP on a label on the bottom, so the internals are apparently the same.)

Try explaining to them that the BiPAP is a form of CPAP. Perhaps a letter from your doctor would be helpful.

Thanks ! I will try and get the consultant involved and get some letter of explanation from them.