Rescuing Family Members From Involuntary Euthanasia

"There's a huge demand. People want to get their pets back [to their  home countries], their cats and their dogs and their rabbits, and they just can't get them back via commercial routes."

"There is this new sort of wave of jet pooling where people come together and try to find a date and say 'right, we're going to go on this day'."

Chris Phillips, pet and medical charter manager, Air Charter Service

 

"We can't predict how the future's going to be ... every week we get another airport that's dropping the routes."

"Quite a few people [were looking at the option of hiring private jets]."

"The heartbreaking thing is ... [for] a lot of people, their dog is a member of their family, they're drawing the short straw by paying these extremely high rates."

Steve Pheby, senior consultant, Ferndale Kennels and Cattery

 

"Flights are frequently cancelled [at] short notice, which makes it really hard as the pets have to have their paperwork and vet checks done within a certain time frame relative to the flight."

Annett Schirmer, Hong Kong-based academic

Caviar flew from Hong Kong to the UK on a Dog Express jet in December and the pet travel company has three private jet flights scheduled in the coming months. Credit: Dog Express PST

"We were waiting for the pet cargo ticket for so long. Even if it's too expensive for us, it was a special experience." Expensive yes, but somehow people like Bianca Ho who saved 5-year-old Caviar by flying out with him on a private charter to the U.K. found it worth every penny. Flight on a commercial airliner just wasn't working for them, she had already waited for over six months. Her dilemma is one shared by many animal lovers suddenly finding themselves in an untenable position.

 

One faced by Hong Kongers finding the only way they could rescue their animals from the draconian position taken by health authorities to 'eliminate' potential danger from animals passing on the coronavirus to humans in Hong Kong living with beloved family pets to avoid having their pets gathered up by Hong Kong authorities and euthanized was to literally spirit them away, fly them out of the no-longer semi-autonomous area to remove them from the danger posed by new anti-COVID regulations.

 

A handful of hamsters were found to be COVID-positive, leading to a directive that all pet shops on the island close, and a thousand hamsters destroyed. Knowing their pets were next on the agenda, Hong Kongers have responded to the new pandemic restrictions that squeeze freight space on commercial flights, by chartering private jets. Zero COVID regulations have led to soaring cargo rates and flight cancellations.

 

 

The response was people grouping themselves for the purpose of leasing private jets with the fairly steep passage of roughly $31,250 for every owner with a pet. Passenger flights were banned by Hong Kong authorities from eight countries, representing a portion of the city's tough elimination policies for the coronavirus threat. Airline companies in attempting to keep pace with changing regulations have been cancelling flights.

 

Expatriates are now abandoning the city just as increasing numbers of locals join immigration schemes the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada have arranged following the political destabilization of 2019 in the Chinese territory. China's zero-tolerance for any potential vectors of the virus from any source has seen authorities taking to culling suspected animal species to avoid human contact and feared subsequent infections.

 

Even people found to have visited the now-shuttered 150 pet stores have been quarantined for fear of animal-to-human transmission. In the first half of 2021 Hong Kong's population was diminished by 1.2 percent. Now people who can afford the stiff freight are taking their pets with them, despite struggling with insufficient numbers of flights, which has led inevitably to a growing demand for private jets.  

Before the pandemic, explained Steve Pheby of Ferndale Kennels and Cattery, his business was generally balanced evenly between importing and exporting pets. In this new, evolving situation the situation is now 90-95 percent export-based. Hong-Kong based Pet Holidays arranged 18 private jets for pet relocation in 2021 for flights to the U.K. and to Canada, Taiwan and Singapore, whereas in 2020 there were none.

 

 

Another 20 private jets chartered for pets' escape representing roughly a third of clients moving from commercial flights to chartered services are anticipated for 2022. Dozens of flights were arranged last year by Top Stars Air, a business aviation sales company. Currently, the company receives about 20 requests daily. Its next flight, a jet to fly in from Dubai minus the crew disembarking in recognition of Hong Kong's strict quarantine requirements. 

An academic based in Hong Kong, Annett Schirmer planned to relocate to Europe in May and was focused on arranging a flight for her three dogs and cat, through social media. U.K. pet travel operator PBS International Freight working with private jet companies has seen "a large increase" in demand from Hong Kongers.