I belong to a Facebook group called “Chartered Air Travel with Pets.” It has more than 42,000 members who mostly share tips about flying overseas with pets and advertise privately chartered cross-country and transatlantic flights.
Think about people who are moving, say, from Toronto to Lisbon and don’t want to deal with the hassle — and potential dangers — of having their 90 pound Great Dane or 85 pound rottweiler fly cargo on a commercial airline.
While perusing posts in that Facebook group, I am always daydreaming. What if I could afford the $10,650 fare for a flight from New Jersey to Munich late in the summer with one of my yellow labs? We’d have a blast! Never mind that the pricey fare is just one way. (Hey, it’s a fantasy.)
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All I can do is fantasize because the options for air travel with large-breed dogs are limited or cost-prohibitive.
Enter BARK Air.
Recognizing the “overwhelming demand for a dog-friendly airline that allows dog parents to transport or travel with their dogs,” BARK Air is launching next month and will serve the New York City metro area via Westchester County Airport, Los Angeles via Van Nuys Airport, and London via Stansted Airport, according to a press kit from the company.
To be sure, BARK Air is still pretty unaffordable. A one-way ticket from New York to LA is $6,000, and it’s $8,000 from New York to London per dog (“the human companion flies free,” touted the company.) BARK Air is partnering with a jet charter company to offer the flights and is the latest offering from BARK, the dog toy company established in 2011 offering themed subscription boxes of doggie toys and treats.
It’s true, the demand from pet owners to travel with their furry friends is strong. Not too long ago, people used to exploit an emotional support animal loophole of sorts to bring their pets in the cabin of commercial airlines. It was as easy as buying an official-looking vest on Amazon, getting a doctor’s note attesting that your pig — or snake, duck, or peacock — is your emotional support pet, and voila, you’d be given a free pass to bring the animal on board, consequences be damned. (To be clear, service animals are always allowed on planes but that’s a different, legally protected designation than the more vague emotional support category.)
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That loophole has thankfully been tightened. So unless you have a small dog or a cat that can fit in a small carrier, you cannot bring your pet in the cabin of a commercial flight. You’d have to fly it cargo, a terrifying prospect.
There are a few smaller, independent air carriers with limited routes that allow big dogs in the cabin, like JSX (a round-trip fare for late May from Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., to Miami-Opa Locka executive airport is about $2,800 for one person and one large dog), as well as the more expensive Skye Pet Travel based in Australia and K9 Jets.
It may take a while for fares on BARK Air and other independent airlines to become more affordable. But with the size of the market — between 87 million and 91 million American households own a pet — it’s an overdue service and an overlooked business opportunity.
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This is an excerpt from ¡Mira!, a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Marcela García. Sign up to get this in your inbox a day early.
Marcela García is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at marcela.garcia@globe.com. Follow her @marcela_elisa and on Instagram @marcela_elisa.
