Thousands of pets stranded worldwide by flight cancellations and border closures

Desperate pet owners split up by coronavirus travel curbs. Picture: Pixabay.

Desperate pet owners split up by coronavirus travel curbs. Picture: Pixabay.

Published May 8, 2020

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When Guy Nizan flew to Israel

with his wife and daughter for a family emergency in March, Gula

0 their six-year-old German shepherd mix – stayed behind in New

York with a pet sitter.

But as the coronavirus outbreak accelerated and airlines

began cancelling flights, it became clear the family would not

be coming home anytime soon. With airlines scrapping pet

transport services, the Nizans became increasingly desperate to

have Gula join them until the crisis abates.

"We just couldn't stand the thought of her being alone,"

Nizan said.

After nearly two months, a pet transportation firm found a

spot for her on one of Israeli airline El Al's rare

freight flights. She was one of the lucky ones, however.

More than a thousand pets are currently stranded worldwide

by the flight cancellations and border closures aimed at curbing

the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, according to seven

international pet transport firms contacted by Reuters.

Major airlines like United Airlines Holdings Inc,

which have slashed passenger flights by more than 90%, suspended

their pet programmes in mid-March, saying the transports no longer

made sense financially or could not be continued safely.

Only a handful of carriers, including IAG Cargo, a sister

company of British Airways, still transport pets. IAG,

which was quick to set up cargo-only flights on passenger

aircraft, flies dogs from New York to London on a daily basis.

Australian pet owners have been hit especially hard. No

airline currently transports pets to the country, which has

stringent regulations on animals that include extensive checks

and treatments prior to boarding a flight.

That meant Frances Hayter and her husband Alan, on an

eight-month work secondment in Texas, had to make a

heart-wrenching decision when they caught one of the last

flights back to Australia, leaving their 10-year-old cat Indigo

to follow later.

"We don't have kids, so abandoning our pet was a pretty

serious decision," Hayter said.

Indigo has been boarding with a veterinarian in Houston

since March 18, but Hayter said the Abyssinian's advanced age is

a constant worry.

Indigo is one of some 20 Australian animals that Scott

Williams, the owner of Pet-Express, is trying to fly home.

He is trying to arrange a charter flight, but the logistics

and costs could be prohibitive. Transporting a pet across

borders costs thousands of dollars at the best of times and pet

agencies said the coronavirus restrictions increase the price

tag further.

On the bright side, Ross Hayes, the deputy manager of

London's Heathrow Airport animal reception centre, said some

airlines were trying to recover lost passenger revenue by

transporting cargo, including pets.

Pet transportation makes up a sliver of the $65 billion

global air cargo market and many airlines offer the service

solely to retain passengers.

Some 40 cats and dogs arrived at Heathrow on a single day

last week, one of the few global airports still handling pets.

Hayes said that was more than expected but still a far cry from

the more than 150 pets they handled per day last year.

"We have a lot of correspondence with people desperate to

get home with their cats and dogs and we'll do our best to

assist them," he said.

Within the US, only American Airlines Group Inc

and Alaska Airlines still fly pets domestically

on limited direct routes.

That has been a boon to Sunny Summers, the Georgia-based

owner of Exec Pet Transportation. Demand for her business,

driving pets across the country in vans, has increased by 25% since flights were cancelled.

Reuters

Related Topics:

#coronavirus