Airline to allow giraffes on board as 'emotional support animals'
In a move welcomed by nervous fliers, the tiny Kenyan airline Icarus Air has announced that from March 1
st it will allow passengers to be accompanied by a giraffe as an 'emotional support animal'.
FAA regulation 4A-29147 (Appendix G) currently restricts such animals to domestic pets including cats, dogs, small birds (excluding pigeons) and '
other such creature as shall be deemed to be of essential psychological reassurance to a passenger during his/her/its flight'.
It is this last phrase which Icarus Air successfully cited in a recent Supreme Court appeal, leading to the market-leading announcement. We understand that passengers will be permitted one giraffe each, up to a maximum height of 4 metres. Giraffes will have no duty-free allowance but will each be allowed a 22 kg carry-on basket of Arcacia leaves.
The airline's CEO David Lankenua was highly enthusiastic about the new service.
"This is a very exciting day for our company," he told Spoofflé. "It means that Icarus customers, even very scared ones, can now fly without a care, anywhere in the world."
We asked Mr Lankenua for flight costs for a typical return trip from Nairobi to New York on one of the company's three Boeing 707 aircraft.
"Well," he said. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. A single flight to New York with a 3 metre giraffe would cost only $29."
Mr Lankenua was reluctant to give a price for a return flight, adding only "let's see how the flight to New York goes. If it gets there, we'll try to come back as well."
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