With pet travel incidents being in the news, and the holidays coming up, we here at The BarkPost wanted to know the real story behind pets traveling on airlines. So we did a little digging, and a bunch of research, and what we found was surprising.
Conclusion: Airlines actually do a pretty good job of transporting pets.
Considering the number of people and pets U.S. airlines fly just domestically per year, the incident percentage of pets (in which we included pet deaths, injuries, and lost animals) was incredibly low, in most cases averaging below 0.005%. That’s amazing! Especially considering sometimes, there are factors are out of their control (like pet health, age, etc).
Here’s the breakdown for ya:
Granted, we understand that no one wants their pet lost, ever. And we hope that soon airline regulations can change so all pets can fly in the cabin! But until then, it’s good to know that when you fly with your pooch over the holidays, they’re going to be pretty safe.
References: All figures obtained from Media Relations Departments of: Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, as well as the following sources:
Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Reports
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Animal Airline Incident Reports
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- ” by Jol Silversmith, third amendment.com
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Few Pets Experience Trouble on Airlines
- ,” by Adina Solomon, aircargoworld.com
