Last Friday night, when the drizzle fell on the asphalt, 10 passengers boarded a Gulfstream G4 directed from the Teterboro airport in New Jersey to Farnborough airport, just southwest London. They did not seem to notice the luxurious leather seats or the treats located in champagne flutes in the armrests.
Nor had they enjoyed particularly up the stairs of the plane.
This was the inaugural flight of K9 Jets, a private Jet charter company based in Birmingham, England, founded in response to both a growing desire among pet owners to travel with their animals and a growing frustration before the process every time more challenging to fly with them. The passenger’s manifesto included nine dogs, mainly on the largest side, and a Sphinx cat, as well as 10 humans.
Most people on board moved to Europe. One said that his mix of Australian cattle dogs, Jasmine, needed cardiac surgery that saves lives. Everyone had one thing in common: an aversion to put their pets in the load load.
Pet owners seeking to transport their pets on commercial flights must navigate a mosaic of rules that vary according to the airline. The service animals, which are not considered pets, can be in the cabin and left not confined, but other animals are subject to restrictions of size that require larger pets to travel as a load, although some airlines will not transport specific breeds.
According to the US Department of Transportation, which does not specify whether pets were in charge, more than 200 pets, most of them, died on flights on flights, which does not specify whether the pets were charged. The department has advised the owners of deflated nose dogs such as Pugs and Bulldogs that consider the risks of sending these races as a load, citing a much higher mortality rate than for other dog breeds.
Nose dogs are more frequently found with difficulty breathing, compared to other races, according to the American School of Veterinary Surgeons.
Last year, seven pets died during flights, according to data from the Department of Transportation. Of these deaths, six occurred on flights from Hawaiian Airlines. Five of these animals were short -faced dogs sent in charge, said Marissa Villegas, a spokeswoman for Hawaiian Airlines.
Mrs. Villegas said that before traveling through Hawaii, passengers traveling with pets must recognize and accept the risks.
Private operators intervene
Meanwhile, private aircraft companies have intervened, offering pet air trips inside the plane without spending hours trapped in boxes or carriers. Some, such as netjets and Vistajet, have dedicated PET programs. On views of view, pets feed on main meat cuts, toys are offered and a soft sleepy carpet is given.
Leone Qi, president of Vistajet Us, said there has been a constant increase in the number of people traveling with their pets and that approximately half of the company’s clients bring to their animals. Most are dogs, but she said there have also been rabbits, hawks and once, a chameleon. Vistajet sells memberships that offer different levels of access to flights. Madelyn Reiter, a company spokeswoman, refused to detail prices.
Mrs. Qi said the PET program had often been “the determining factor” to convince customers to update more expensive memberships that offer more space in the cabin.
On private flights, dogs under 150 pounds can generally sit on the seats of an aircraft, although pets must be secured by a seat belt or placed in a carrier during the taxi, takeoff and landing, said the operators of private aircraft. In some airplanes, once a person buys a seat, there is no additional cost to transport a pet or requirements to buy a seat. Multiple companies even help customers navigate the country’s specific pet restrictions and gather the documents required for entry, another obstacle to fly internationally with pets.
But these private flights can be incredibly expensive, with a price that can run tens of thousands of dollars, even for a national excursion from one coast to another.
For years, Rusty Rueff, a 62 -year -old start advisor and investor who lives in the San Francisco Bay area, flew to his dog throughout the country in Pet Airways, an airline founded in 2009 that only transported animals. But the company closed several years ago.
Mr. Rueff said that although he had flown privately with his Bulldog French Theo, 5, several times during the pandemic, it was not a practice he wanted to continue. When he had tried to fly commercially with a previous dog, also a French bulldog, sometimes they had been forbidden to board the plane, he said. That uncertainty has made him reluctant to fly commercially with an animal.
Instead, his family leads through the country from the Bay area to Rhode Island, where they have a summer place. He called the annual trip “a pain.”
“I just don’t understand why airlines do not recognize the business opportunity,” said Rueff. “We will do anything for our pets, just like we will do anything for our children.”
Big dogs in the cabin
K9 Jets expects to capitalize on that feeling, initially offering flights between New York and Paris, Lisbon and London. Of the 17 flights listed between May and the end of September, eight are exhausted. In autumn, the company can expand the service to additional cities, including Dubai. Unidirectional tickets between New York and Europe pass around $ 9,000 per seat. Pet owners can buy a seat for your pet; Otherwise, they can sit on the floor without charge. Pets cannot fly without human accompaniment.
Adam Golder, the founder of K9 Jets and G6 Aviation, a private aircraft, said they planned to add more summer flights in response to the growing demand.
“There are hundreds of people who are waiting for a flight,” said Golder. “I think people don’t want to put them in a box and say goodbye to them.”
K9 actually does not have any plane. Flights are operated by US license aircraft carriers, including pegasus elite aviation. K9 Jets is using Gulfstream G4 planes that can accommodate 10 passengers.
Dee McLaughlin and his partner James bought two seats on the opening flight of K9 Jet last week. They were accompanied by Bentley and Murphy, their Golden Retrievers in English, who rested calmly on a cream sofa aboard the plane. They were on their way to Ireland, where the family is moving, from Los Angeles. To get to New Jersey, they had taken four flights in two days in JSX, which offers public flights rented to a limited number of domestic destinations and allows medium and large dogs in the cabin, either in a carrier or on the floor.
Mrs. McLaughlin said “absolutely feared” put the dogs in charge. He investigated alternatives for months, undermining social networks to obtain advice on the rental of a plane with other strangers of related ideas. Then he discovered K9 Jets, who called “a game change for pet parents like us.”
“We feel really good because dogs will be on our sides,” Ms. McLaughlin said. Finally they rent a private jet for the final stretch of the trip, from London to Ireland. Their air trips would cost more than $ 35,000.
Private Jet Footprints
Golder said that until now, most of the possible clients move or travel for long periods of time. Most of the human passengers on the company’s flight last week said they were flying privately for the first time.
Private flights do not come without an environmental cost. Research has shown that private planes emit many more carbon dioxide emissions by passenger than commercial airplanes. According to Transport and Environment, a defense group based in Brussels, private airplanes are 5 to 14 times more pollutants than commercial airplanes and 50 times more polluting than trains.
Mr. Golder said that K9 Jets is compensating for the carbon emissions of each flight.
Studies have found that the rich are causing a disproportionate impact on the weather. A 2020 article published in the Global Environmental Change magazine estimated that 1 percent of the world’s population is responsible for issuing half of the carbon dioxide emissions of commercial aviation.
But some pet owners, such as Ali and Mary Borzabdi, feel they have no choice. Mrs. Borzabdi and her dog, Jasmine, were on the flight of K9 Jets to London last Friday. Jasmine, a sweet and excitable dog with severe heart disease, was nervous and used a diaper aboard the plane. In several weeks, it is scheduled for surgery in London.
“We have no children. All we have is a dog, ”said Mr. Borzabdi. “You try everything and I hope it works.”
(Tagstotranslate) Private aircraft
