Specialty jets allow people with pets to ditch the cargo hold and travel in style
Ronin is a calm 4-year-old dog. But the 50-pound Goldendoodle has always hated crates. And Jane Little, who reported this story for The World, said she couldn’t put her in one and hand her over to go in the cargo section. That’s where K9 Jets came into the picture. It’s a pay-per-seat service founded in 2023 by Adam Golder, an aviation jet broker, who responded to the surge in demand after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You wouldn’t put a baby in cargo,” he said, pointing out that people are attached to their pets more than ever before. “You want to sit next to your babies in the cabin.”
K9 Jets has flown more than 5,000 pets up front and is expanding its routes across Europe and to Canada and Dubai. But the US to the UK is its most popular route and is sold out for months, he said, adding that “our phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the election in America.”
More than 4,000 Americans applied for British citizenship in the first half of this year — a record number and a 39% increase from last year. And those leaving the US are taking their beloved pets with them. So, services like K9 Jets have become increasingly popular.
A competitor, Bark Air, is also usually packed. These companies charge an average of $9,000 one way from New Jersey to London. But despite the price tag, the majority of the clients are not the super-wealthy.
On the trip that Jane Little took to the UK, there were eight humans on a Gulfstream G-IVSP flight, alongside 10 dogs and one cat named Graham. Most of the people were relocating to the United Kingdom.
Gloria Haynes was moving to the Isle of Man off the northwest coast of England with her rescue dog, Piper, a mini Dachshund. “She came from a not nice place,” Haynes said, adding that she would be too traumatized to endure the separation if she went in the hold of a commercial plane.
Haynes had booked passage on the Queen Mary, a luxury ship that ended up setting sail without her because the required health paperwork had not arrived in time. “It was so stressful and so heart-breaking,” she said.
Her husband sailed as planned but she and Piper were left in New York re-applying for another certificate and scrambling to find a cancelation flight instead.
The US government must endorse a vet-provided pet health certificate within 10 business days of travel for all pets arriving in the UK, and the tight timeline, low staffing and the high volume of requests meant many people were left sweating as they awaited the precious documents. Ronin’s vet said she has completed three to four times as many certificates this year.
On the UK flight, one person didn’t make it because they had applied for the wrong certificate. Another got their endorsed one back at 11.30 p.m. on the eve of travel.
On board the jet there were walnut inlays and cream leather seats, which were covered with sheets for the night flight. No canine accidents occurred thanks, perhaps, to the requested six-hour fasting ahead of the flight.
Greg Powell was on the flight to deliver his family’s two King Charles Spaniels — Hudson and Sara — to his daughter. She had just moved to London to start a job at the Institute of Cancer Research because, he explained, the Trump Administration’s funding cuts meant she was among the many research scientists who had to go abroad.
Aboard the flight, Gena Kopf served drinks and sandwiches. She had crossed the Atlantic three times in four days and clearly loved dogs. She chatted to and stroked Ronin, saying this was the calmest group she had flown.
“I didn’t have a good experience on the last one. I had a little bite,” she said. Still, she forgave the dog because she said it is a stressful experience for them on planes with the unfamiliar surroundings and the engine noise.
Graham, the cat, sounded least at ease. He meowed from inside his crate while the dogs, including Ronin, all slumbered peacefully on their chairs.
The night otherwise passed smoothly and quickly. Upon landing at London Luton Airport, British officials boarded the plane to check the pet certificates. No one got sent back.
Ronin was handed a doggy bag with a luxury cookie and soft toy bone with her name on it, as the families all went off to their new lives.
Adam Golder of K9 Jets said that while most travelers want to head to Europe, there are plenty of people flying back to the United States, and his main problem is getting hold of enough jets to fulfill the demand.
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