Mumbai: A dog owner booked an entire business class cabin of an Air India flight for his pet to travel in luxury. The dog boarded the Air India flight AI-671 early on Wednesday morning.
The owner would have spent more than Rs 2.5 lakh for the two-hour-long flight from Mumbai to Chennai. The fare for a business class seat on Air India Mumbai-Chennai flight is around Rs 20,000.
"The J-class cabin on Air India A320 aircraft has 12 seats, so the cute pup flew in luxury," the source told media.
Dogs have travelled in Air India business class before, however, this is probably the first time that an entire business cabin was booked for a pet.
Air India is the only Indian carrier that lets domestic
pets in the passenger cabin. A maximum of two pets are allowed on a flight and the pet is seated in the last row of the booked class.
Between June and September of last year, Air India flew 2,000 pets on its domestic flights.
Last year, a Mumbai-based cyber security researcher named Deepika Singh took up the initiative of reuniting six pets with their owners in Delhi.
In another incident, a couple slid out of a moving plane along with their dog at New York's La Guardia Airport in December last year.
In 2019, a miniature service horse was spotted travelling with its owner on an American Airlines flight from Chicago to Omaha. The pony helps her with medical alerts and mobile assistants.