Cats and dogs could soon be allowed on Virgin flights

Travellers could soon be allowed to take their small pets onboard Virgin Australia's domestic flights.

Transcript

00:00 In what must be welcome news to animal lovers around the country, Virgin Australia has unveiled

00:06 plans to become the nation's first airline to let pets travel in the cabin of airplanes

00:11 alongside fellow passengers.

00:13 Now this service will be limited to smaller cats and dogs, pending regulatory approval,

00:19 and it's not expected to be up and running until about 12 months from now.

00:22 The airline has also emphasised that for the comfort of other passengers on planes, animals

00:27 will be kept in designated rows and be required to travel in approved carriers.

00:32 But the airline says it's introduced this service because of overwhelming demand among

00:35 its customers and it's already up and running in places like North America and Europe.

00:40 Here at Melbourne's domestic airport, it's had a fairly welcome response among travellers.

00:44 The pet is actually like a family member, so that is, you want to see it in the next

00:48 two years.

00:49 It would be awesome.

00:50 That's the good news.

00:51 I have no problem with that.

00:52 I think it's wonderful.

00:53 It's designed to be travelling around the countryside on bloody passenger airplanes.

00:57 They've got no place in the cabin.

00:59 It's a safety issue.

01:00 Simple as that.

01:01 It's not yet known at this stage how much this service will cost.

01:04 Virgin Australia says that and several other details will come out in the next couple of

01:08 months.

01:09 It's also emphasised that there will be no changes to the way that assistance animals

01:12 currently fly.

01:13 But as mentioned, the airline is hoping to have this service up and running at some point

01:17 in the next year.

01:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]