After numerous incidents involving dogs on its aircrafts, United Airlines has suspended transporting pets in the cargo holds of its planes.
United began a systematic review of their pet travel program to make improvements to better the experience for customers and their animals.
The airline will honor all existing PetSafe reservations made as of March 20, 2018, but will not make any new reservations.
The review came after a 10-month-old French bulldog Kokito died on a United flight after a flight attendant instructed its owners to stow the puppy in the plane’s overhead compartment.
A day later, the airline mistakenly flew a 10-year-old German shepherd to Japan instead of to its owners in Kansas. The family instead received a Great Dane scheduled to fly to Japan.
Later that week, the airline diverted a plane mid-flight because a dog on the plane was supposed to have been placed on a different flight.
The suspension does not apply to its in-cabin animal policy, but the airline will issue colored bag tags to better identify pet carriers.
