wheel chairs

The arrangement I am familiar with is to contact the airline, they then arrange it both ends, which avoids any language problems.

You say "for transport to departure gates and also on arrival to go as far as the baggage area?". Are you saying you do not need it to get on and off the aircraft? The usual arrangement is for wheelchair passengers to be taken on and off the aircraft by the a hoist. If you only need to get as far as the gate, AFAIK that isn't done with a wheelchair, but with an electric buggy carrying up to 4 passengers.
Photo of one: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/502/18679193992_b8b25e3e9d_b.jpg

Are you planning to fly in and out of one of these airports? I hope that you are not intending to fly between these cities as it is much faster and easier to take the train.

Just to be clear - this is for a passenger - rather than someone who wants to meet/accompany a passenger?

I'm doing this and my flight to CDG from JFK leaves in 3 days.

When I purchased my airline tickets online on Delta's website, I requested wheelchair service both at JFK for departure and at CDG when I arrive. The Delta agent confirmed that I would have the wheelchair until after I have my bag from the baggage carousel. In fact, she said the person would lift the bag from the carousel for me.

We are flying home via AMS and Delta arranged for me to have wheelchair service when I arrive at AMS for departure and when I arrive at JFK.

B.D., contact your airline and make arrangements for that.

I would like to have confirmation that these chairs will be available
before we make our reservations.

You can contact the airline in advance but you can't arrange & confirm the wheelchair until AFTER you buy your tickets.

My experience is the same as Continental's. If you walk into the airport they will call a transporter who arrives with a transfer chair and takes you to the gate and also down the jet-way to the aircraft. If you need assistance getting from the door of the plane to your seat they have a very narrow wheeled chair that fits in the aisle. There will be someone waiting on the jet-way at your arrival in the next city to take you to baggage claim and ground transportation. If you have your own wheelchair or transfer chair a transporter will push you even if you have a companion, if you would like them to. Then, the companion is freed up to deal with carry on luggage.

You arrange this when you are buying your tickets.

To add to David's comment, nobody but passengers are allowed through security, and you can't meet passengers at the arrival gate, you have to wait in the public areas at "arrivals", after immigration, luggage collection and customs.

And I hope you are talking about flying into or out of these airports from outside Italy. Travelling between these cites is faster by High Speed train, and more comfortable, and a lot easier for wheelchair users.

A previous post by the OP regarding car service may shed some light on the flight situation, although I don't know where Rome fits in:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/car-service-516db17e-f5c4-402e-93c3-67bd2ed65de2

We are now 79 and 80 and need a bit more assistance...

We plan to go again in May and would like the name of a car service to
meet our plane in Florence and deliver us to the apartment we are renting, perhaps do a day tour for us to San Gimignano and then take us from Florence to Santa Margherita. Subsequently we will be going to the Milan Airport.

Kathy, thanks for posting that, it clarifies things.

I don't know for sure, but I assume the reason for asking about Rome airport is that they will have to change there to fly to Florence airport.

B.D., we just flew in and out of Milan via London Heathrow yesterday. You may need to request assistance not just to the gate but to the plane itself. In Milan Linate airport, we were bused to the plane on the tarmac and had to climb a stairwell to get onto the plane. At Heathrow, we had a last minute terminal change and again they bused us to the plane where we had to climb down from the 2nd floor gate area and then up to the plane. Just so you know that all boarding/off boarding experiences may not always include jet bridges.

Thank you all for your responses!