Air, Business, Freight News, Logistics

Ten years of flying our four-legged friends

[ June 6, 2013   //   Chris ]

Virgin Atlantic is celebrating ten years of flying pets around the world. As the first scheduled airline to carry cats and dogs from the US into London Heathrow under the Defra Pet Travel Scheme, Virgin Atlantic has flown over 15,000 pets since the “Flying Paws” scheme launched in 2003 to destinations as far flung as Cape Town, Los Angeles and Sydney.

To celebrate, the airline is working with the Canine Cookie Company to give a “Happy Barkday” cake for dogs and a ‘purrfect” birthday cake for cats and is also giving owners extra miles for their Flying Club account.

Virgin Atlantic’s director of cargo, John Lloyd commented, “Since the introduction of the Pet Travel Scheme in 2003, we have quite literally taken the lead in providing a pedigree service for our furry friends and we are seeing more and more passengers trusting us with their precious cargo.

“We’ve transported so many breeds all around the world – ranging from Siamese cats to Australia and Yorkshire terriers to the Far East. We’ve carried animals for customers who want to make sure their pets also get a holiday in the sun, for those staring a new life abroad and we’ve even flown police sniffer dogs trained in the UK to the Caribbean.

Famous furry faces that have flown with Virgin include Uggie, the star of Oscar winning film The Artist flew and Mugly, when he travelled to the US to claim his ugliest dog accolade.

Tags: Virgin Atlantic