Bark Air is a new pet airline offering $US6000 flights for dogs

On board, a canine-specific menu will include “dog Champagne” – that’s chicken broth, in case you’re wondering – among other treats. Pet messes will be quickly cleaned up. Bark plans to install replaceable carpet tiles on the aircraft to help keep planes spotless – and eventually to create an onboard play area that will resemble a dog park.

‘It’s our great hope that those prices come down’

“We’ll find out if this is a service that the world wants and values,” says Matt Meeker, chief executive officer and co-founder of Bark. “If not, we’re going to have a heck of a time finding out.”

The initial routes were selected for being the busiest out of New York, Mr Meeker said. For pet owners, they may also represent journeys that are essential – for cross-country or international moves, for instance – and not easily achieved by car or ship. (Cunard Line famously has kennels aboard its transatlantic ships, but they typically spend seven nights at sea.)

Among the most likely customers will be BarkBox’s 2.3 million active monthly subscribers.

“It’s our great hope that those prices come down over time,” said Mr Meeker. “The current pricing is the most it will ever cost us to operate these flights. If the demand is there, we have ways of lowering those prices.”

Bark isn’t the first airline to cater to pets. In 2007, Pet Airways started a network of pet-friendly domestic flights, with fares typically ranging from $US500 to $US1200. The company shut down four years later due to financial losses.

Undeterred, Mr Meeker said the market was bigger now than it was 12 years ago, when Bark was created. About 65 million households in the US own pets, up from 38 million then.

‘Bark Air faces an uphill battle’

Private aviation company VistaJet saw pet travel surge by 86 per cent from 2019 to 2021, the first two years that it offered its (ongoing) VistaPet program. It is available only to the company’s members and includes such in-flight amenities as doggy beds. Now, it says, one in about four customers chooses to fly with pets (including cats and rabbits), and there was a 43 per cent year-over-year increase in the number of overall pets flying from 2022 to last year.

“Bark Air faces an uphill battle,” said Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. Notwithstanding the advantage that comes with the built-in BarkBox audience, he said: “I don’t believe Bark Air will offer enough utility, convenience and value to appeal to enough pet owners and be profitable.”

This may be besides the point, however. Bark might be willing to take a loss on the flights, he said, if it meant keeping subscribers more engaged with its core BarkBox business. “It may see greater gains elsewhere, such as growing its subscriber base, seeing subscribers order more product or both.”

Bloomberg