Pet Airways’ pet-only flight to be launched

Pet Airways has announced that it will launch the first ever pet-only airline service, serving five cities to start with, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.Alysa Binder, one of Pet Airways’ founders said, “We believe there is truly a need for this. Putting your pet in cargo, just isn’t the ideal situation, and it doesn’t have to be your only choice.”

She also said that Suburban Airlines’ commuter planes will be used to fly to the five destinations.

Pets will travel in the Beech 1900, a 19-seat turbo-prop passenger plane, from which seats will be removed.  The planes will be fully-lit and climate-controlled.

Pet Airways has already started accepting reservations for its first New York – Los Angeles flight, scheduled for July 14, 2009, costing $149 for a one-way flight.

Pet Airways plans to fly to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, and other cities by 2009-end.

Millions of travelers fly with their pets and pet attendants are recruited to take care of those pets on the flights.

Now, with Pet Airways, when a passenger wishes to take his pet along, he would have to drop his pet at a Pet Lounge, located at the airport.

The pets board the plans with the help of pet attendants who take care of the pet during the flight, and help pets to disembark. The pets are then taken at the Pet lounge from where the owners can pick up their pets.

Pet owners can also log on to a website to track their pets’ travel progress.

Many communities and pet welfare organisations have appreciated this move.

“Within the last 20 years, there has been a great deal of concern and care over the welfare of pets, and airlines are now very restricted for where they can keep the animals, the temperature of the environment, the length of the flight, and things like that,” said Greg Hammer, DVM, of Dover, Del.

Animal care director for Best Friends Animal Society, Patty Hegwood was quoted as saying , “Travel can be a very noisy and scary experience,” he said.

“It is incredible that there are folks like Pet Airways who are committed to safe air travel for animals,” he added.