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.