Dan Wiesel, CEO of Pet Airways, embraces a canine passenger. The start-up, animals-only airline caters to owners who don’t want to put their pets in a jetliner’s cargo hold. Dogs and cats ride instead in kennels inside an air-conditioned cabin. (Yanina Manolova / Associated Press)
Attendant Alyse Tognotti checks on passengers during a training session in Nebraska. Up to 50 animals ride in the air-conditioned cabin of a 19-passenger turboprop plane refitted with kennels. The company calls them pawsengers. (Dave Weaver / Associated Press)
A cat waits in its crate before its flight from Southern California on Pet Airways. Flights follow a set route, beginning in New York, then traveling to Baltimore/Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Denver; and ending in Los Angeles. The following day, the plane makes the same trip in reverse. . (David McNew / Getty Images)
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President and CEO Don Weisel greets his passengers. Wiesel conceived of the pet-centric business after placing his Jack Russell terrier on a cross-coun try flight several years ago: “I was so stressed out.” (David McNew / Getty Images)
A dog waits for his flight on Pet Airways, which caters to owners who don’t want to send their pets into a plane’s cargo hold. “We’re starting to see a major shift in the way pets are perceived and treated,” said Adam Goldfarb, director of the Humane Society of the United States’ pets-at-risk program. “But now, it’s not enough for our animals to be well-cared- for. There’s a major shift from care being only adequate to care being really exceptional.” (David McNew / Getty Images)
