The announcement that Virgin Australia will soon be letting small animals onto flights has some pet owners excited to bring their furry friends on holidays, and others concerned about health matters. Here are five quick questions answered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Ure said it was challenging finding suitable pet-sitters when booking a holiday.<\/p>\n
“Our puppies are like our little humans,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s very costly because you need to find someone to look after your dog, which can be more than what your holiday costs.<\/p>\n
“He has a lot of anxiety if he is with a stranger and I can’t put my puppy into the kennels because he wouldn’t cope.”<\/p>\n
Not excess baggage<\/p>\n
Sunshine Coast pet owner Bree Logie said it was “about time” Australia caught up with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Animal behaviourist trainee Bree Logie says she also has concerns about dog interactions on flights. (Supplied: Bree Logie)<\/p>\n
She has hopes that bigger dogs will be included in the future.<\/p>\n
“Being a big dog owner, the service probably won’t benefit me. But I really am excited for small dog owners,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I’m training to be an animal behaviourist and I do have to say there are some positives and negatives to everything.<\/p>\n
“The welfare of the dogs needs to come first if it’s a stressful environment for the dog.<\/p>\n
“If the dog’s not trained in obedience and it’s not a comfortable experience for the travellers then that’s not a good outcome.”<\/p>\n
Aircraft cleanliness<\/p>\n
While Ms Ure supported the idea of her pooch Charlie Star riding shotgun, the logistics were yet to be tested.<\/p>\n
She said her dog gets distressed easily and she expected there will be challenges with the trial.<\/p>\n
“If he is within a 20-metre radius of another dog he will react and try and take it down. [He] is happy to take on big dogs,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There could be an issue if there were other pets on the plane.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dog owner Josie Ure thinks the airline may face some challenges with the dog passenger trial. (Supplied: Josie Ure)<\/p>\n
“The other issue is they would have to clean the dog areas very well because there is nothing worse than sitting down and you’ve got dog hair everywhere.<\/p>\n
“Then there are people who don’t wash their dogs very well and it smells of dog.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a great idea, but I can just see a few issues arising.”<\/p>\n
Tourism tick<\/p>\n
Sunshine Coast tourism bosses hope the announcement will boost visitor numbers.<\/p>\n
Visit Sunshine Coast chief executive Matt Stoeckel said the new policy removed a barrier for pet owners.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Matt Stoeckel said the opportunity will attract pet owners to the region. (Supplied: Visit Sunshine Coast)<\/p>\n
“It’s a step in the right direction, people treat their pets like family,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If you’re a little pooch in Melbourne, why wouldn’t you want to come to the Sunshine Coast?<\/p>\n
“The [$149] cost is probably more affordable than kennels.”<\/p>\n
Pet pilot set for take-off<\/p>\n
The first flights will commence on October 16 with the trial running through to the end of January.<\/p>\n
Pets must be secured in a pet carrier which must be stowed under the seat in front of the owner for the duration of the flight.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Virgin Australia plans to run the trial from October to the end of January. (Adobe Stock)<\/p>\n
A medical officer for the company Kelly Bofkin said the airline had taken a rigorous approach to addressing allergy and hygiene considerations.<\/p>\n
“We have looked to best medical evidence, worked with other airlines who currently carry pets and consulted with peak allergy bodies in developing our policies and procedures,” Dr Bofkin said.<\/p>\n
“Our aircraft are fitted with advanced HEPA [High Efficiency Particulate Air] filtration systems, which capture more than 99 per cent of airborne particles, including pet dander.”<\/p>\n
The company said it would use the trial to obtain feedback before rolling out the service across its domestic network next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Star is an eight-year-old poodle with a major case of FOMO. His owner Josie Ure is delighted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,2475,2474,2485,44,101389,31276,11942,6771,12807],"class_list":["post-151055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cats","tag-dogs","tag-gold-coast","tag-news","tag-pet-passengers","tag-pets-on-planes","tag-sunshine-coast","tag-tourism","tag-virgin-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}