United Continental Holdings Inc’s (NYSE:UAL) United Airlines is temporarily suspending its PetSafe program.
PetSafe is a service that United Airlines offers that lets owners end their pets on flights. The pet cargo service came under fire last week after making a series of mistakes that caught the attention of the media.
The first includes the death of a small dog on one of United Airline’s flights. There was also a case of one dog that was supposed to be heading for Kansas ending up in Japan. Finally, the airline had to divert a plan to Ohio after a pet was loaded onto it by accident. All of these incidents haven’t put the airline’s PetSafe program in the best light.
United Airlines says that the suspension of the PetSafe program will last until May 1, 2018 while it conducts a review of it. The airline says that it won’t be accepting any new reservations until this process is complete, reports CNNMoney.
Customers that have already scheduled flights for their pets can still choose to go forward with them. The airline also notes that it will still allow passengers to bring some animals with them. However, these must be small pets in carry-on bags.
United Airlines is the airline company with the most animal deaths in the past five years. This includes 18 of the 24 animal deaths from last year. It also handles the most pets of any airline, with 138,178 animals sent as cargo last year out of 506,994, USA Today notes.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
