Pets take to the air in private jet luxury

Sunday, 2 November 2025

Joanna Maddison and her husband Liam launched Skye Pets in 2021 after the couple could not find an alternative to putting their three huskies in the cargo hold of an aircraft for a trip back to the UK.

“I said, you know, something's got to be done, or we've got to find another way. And there was nothing out there.”

So they decided to launch their own pet flight business using chartered aircraft that would allow pets to fly in the cabin with their owners, and quickly discovered there was demand among the more than 20,000 pets that fly to and from Australia as well as New Zealand.

Skye Pets fly out of Auckland to Melbourne and Sydney on a charter jet, and some of those flying to Melbourne will then catch Skye Pets' flight to Asia, Middle East, the UK or the US.

The typical customer is a pet owner who just doesn't want their pet to fly in cargo, and they are almost exclusively moving to another country, Joanna Maddison says.

“These are just regular people who might be saving up because they want a better way for pets, not necessarily because they want a different method of travel.”

She says the service is not for the super wealthy, who would take their own private jet.

“It's the people who just really want better for their pets and will just go the extra mile. And it might be someone who takes a little bit longer to save to get to that goal.

“So instead of moving in six months, they're moving in 12 months because they want their pets to fly a different way”, or out of a necessity.

Often they have a breed, such as a French bulldog or pug, that international airlines will not carry because their snub-nose make them vulnerable to breathing difficulties, heatstroke, and oxygen deprivation during the journey in the hold.

Other cats and dogs might have medical requirements that need to be administered while travelling and can't fly cargo because of those reasons, she says.

“So for someone who is flying London to Melbourne, the options are really limited, and some parts of the year it is not possible to fly them at all. For those pet owners, it's actually a necessity. The only option is us,” Maddison says.

But the service is not cheap. A flight from Australia to the UK costs about $40,000 while the hop across the Tasman on a private jet shared with three others will set you back about $13,500.

How it works

Skye Pets leases aircraft and sells the seats. The type and size of aircraft depends on the distance and demand.

Flights across the Tasman are operated by smaller private jets such as an eight-seater Embraer Phenom 300. Usually there would be four human passengers and four animals.

Long haul flights from Melbourne or Sydney to London are operated using an Airbus A319 chartered from Australian private airline Skytraders. The aircraft, which normally seats up to 150, is transformed into a private jet with just 28 business class and premium economy seats, giving dogs and owners lots of space, complete with a doggy toilet area set up at the rear and patches of real grass. “So it's a comfortable journey.”

“Once on board the animals are crated for take off and landing and when the seat belt signs are off, they're then free to come out of their crates, and they can be with their owners at the seat,” she says.

Cats tend to remain in their crates for the journey and the dogs appear unaware of their presence. Most owners put a blanket over the crate to keep their cats calm.

Dogs are allocated a seat next to their owner, and other than going to the toilet area, remain there. Dogs are not allowed to mingle on the flight to avoid any potential conflicts.

“You'd be surprised how relaxed the dogs are actually, once we're airborne,” Maddison says.

The three-stop flight to London goes via Singapore and Dubai, stopping only to let off and take on passengers, refuel and change crew. Transit pets are not allowed off the plane at the stopovers. And the trip takes about 24 hours to complete.

Skye Pets has flown more than 500 pets since launching, on nearly 20 flights, of which seven were across the Tasman and the rest long haul.

The most popular destinations are the UK followed by Singapore and Dubai. Many passengers travelled on to other destinations in Europe, Maddison says.

This year the service is being expanded to the United States with the addition of a return hop across the pond from London to New York before retracing the route back to Melbourne.

Most passengers are expats emigrating to Australia or Australians returning home.

The Melbourne to London route runs every six months, and services to New Zealand are offered every few months. A new route from Melbourne to Auckland and Los Angeles is also planned, Maddison says.

“We're the only company on this side of the world that does in-cabin pet travel on a pay per seat, private basis.”

But there are some commercial airlines, including Etihad, Korean Air and Turkish Airways that allow pets to travel in the cabin.

Big expansion plans

Demand is growing and the couple are learning what works and what doesn’t.

The business has reached a turning point where it is making sense. “We've learned so much over the last few years.”

The next phase is about breaking into new territory, learning about new markets and hiring its first staff, she says.

Maddison says Skye Pets will add more flights to its schedule and has plans to expand its service to more destinations in the United States next year, followed by its first Asian destinations, Hong Kong and Japan, probably in 2027.

“Demand just keeps growing as we have got more exposure… and the need for more flights will rise.”

There are not many countries in the world that require quarantine, but New Zealand and Australia are among the toughest, she says.

But other countries often required a “huge list of all the different vaccinations and blood tests” as well as inspections and import permits.

A range of other pet specialist airlines, including K9 Jets, Bark Air and VistaPet offered similar services in different parts of the world.