No cattle class for these pampered pooches

We have all heard the saying ‘pigs might fly’ but now thanks to an American company BARK Air, dogs will fly.

The parent company Bark has been involved for many years in supplying food , dental chews, personalised gifts in fact everything that a human might need for the furry friend but until now they weren’t offering  a travel service.

VIP flights for dogs

With effect from May 23 2024, they have started regular flights between Los Angeles, New York and London using specially chartered aircraft which have a capacity of 15 dogs and their human partners, although they undertake not to take bookings for more than 10 pairs.

Until now, apart from assistance dogs, if you wanted to travel with your dog, you would sit in the cabin and depending on size, your dog would either be in a bag with you or in a container in the hold.

There’s none of this with BARK Air, the dog is the guest and the human is there for the ride!

First class experience

BARK Air has taken the white glove experience typical of a human’s first-class experience and redirected all that pampering to pooches – from booking to arrival, to in-flight services and disembarkation, dogs will truly be the VIPs and treated to a positively luxurious, curated experience.

They are assigned seats, only have to wear leads for take off and landing, will be offered a range of treats and the concierge is even on hand to clean up after any unfortunate accidents.

It’s not cheap with the New York to London flight costing $8,000 one way although the human travels at no extra cost but it is easy with the flights leaving small private airfields such as Biggin Hill in the UK.

If this takes off in a big way, the number of destinations and regularity of flights is expected to increase.