Pet Jet Travel consolidates pet bookings after IATA accreditation

Pet Jet Travel has launched three booking paths for air travel with animals—in-cabin dogs and cats, pets in the hold, and assistance dogs—after securing recent International Air Transport Association accreditation. The Barcelona-based travel agency and technology company says its new platform supports direct airline ticketing and New Distribution Capability connectivity, bringing flight sales and specialist pet arrangements into one workflow.

The product addresses a fragmented booking process. Founder Zubair Bakhtiar said: “For millions of people, pets are part of the family, yet booking a flight with them remains unnecessarily complicated. Travellers often have to book their own ticket first and then contact the airline separately to find out whether their pet can travel, what documentation is required and whether there is space available.”

For travelers, the immediate benefit is fewer airline calls when Pet Jet Travel can validate the animal and secure or request space. It is not a guarantee of carriage, because the platform itself says the airline decides at check-in and destination authorities decide on arrival.

In plain terms, one booking removes much of the paperwork; it cannot override an airline or border decision.

How does the booking process work?

Pet Jet Travel handles three booking types:

• PETC: dogs and cats traveling in the cabin.
• AVIH: larger pets traveling in the aircraft hold.
• SVAN: assistance dogs.

In-cabin pets travel through the airline’s own booking channels. Hold and assistance-dog bookings are requested from the carrier and confirmed by the airline before travel. As carriers digitize pet services, Pet Jet Travel says its team will place those requests directly with the airline for the customer.

Cabin capacity is finite: every airline limits the number of pets allowed on each flight. The platform uses live pet-space availability when an airline exposes it through its booking system, and submits a request when the carrier does not. That distinction matters because a request is not confirmed inventory.

Before submitting a booking, Pet Jet Travel says it checks the pet’s weight, breed, carrier or crate size, route eligibility and required documents. The airline still has final acceptance at check-in, while destination authorities control entry requirements.

In plain terms, Pet Jet Travel can coordinate the file and the request, but the airline still controls the final carriage decision.

What does the AI actually check?

The platform uses agentic artificial intelligence to cross-check documentation, animal weight, crate dimensions and route-specific rules before sending a booking to the airline. Route files can include a microchip, rabies vaccination, pet passport or health certificate, and blood tests, according to the company.

“We’ve built Pet Jet Travel to bring those processes together,” Bakhtiar said. “With our IATA accreditation now secured, and by combining modern airline distribution technology solutions including NDC with agentic AI, we want to make travelling with pets as straightforward and reliable as booking any other journey.”

He also set the commercial pitch: “Our focus isn’t simply on finding flights, but on helping customers get the entire booking right from the beginning: pet and person checked together in one booking, so you know before you travel that your pet meets the airline’s requirements and has a place requested on your flight.”

The AI is presented as a way to catch issues before they become rejected bookings, delays or airport complications. Pet Jet Travel has not published an error rate, rejection rate, automation rate or measured time saved, so the claimed efficiency remains unbenchmarked.

The strongest evidence disclosed is a completed full-booking test, from search through check-in, inside Pet Jet Travel’s test environment. The setup followed the NDC approach that an unnamed leading European airline has set for partners; the company has not identified a live passenger booking or a carrier from that test.

In plain terms, the software has passed Pet Jet Travel’s own rehearsal, not a disclosed volume test with named airlines.

What does this change for travel sellers?

IATA accreditation gives Pet Jet Travel the credentials to connect with airlines through NDC and support direct ticket sales. For travel sellers, that could move pet-related servicing from repeated airline calls into a specialist intermediary, provided more carriers expose pet services and inventory to agencies.

Pet Jet Travel says it plans to add pet-friendly airlines as carriers open those services to agencies through NDC. Bakhtiar has 18 years of IT experience, including more than eight specializing in Passenger Service Systems, NDC and Global Distribution Systems, and holds bachelor’s degrees in Aviation Management and Commerce.

The announcement names no airlines, prices, transaction fees, commissions, bookings or revenue targets. It also provides no timetable for adding carriers and no count of routes with live pet inventory. Without those figures, the platform’s effect on agency revenue, airline share and distribution margins cannot be measured.

Live availability also works only where airlines publish it, while other cases depend on a request and confirmation. That leaves Pet Jet Travel exposed to carrier policy changes and limits how much inventory a seller can promise before the airline responds.

The next meaningful test is simple: named airlines must accept live pet bookings through NDC, and Pet Jet Travel must turn that access into completed bookings without rejections.