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RetrievAir is cleared for takeoff and landing on Long Island.
The new dog-friendly airline went paws up last week with its first flights, including service between Republic Airport and the Chicago, Denver, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles metropolitan areas.
“We knew that the New York area is a very important destination for us,” said Benton Miller, the 33-year-year-old founder and chief executive of RetrievAir. “People want to go to it, there’s a lot of pet parents that live there and there’s a lot of opportunities for us to go to a lot of great places that we believe pet parents want to go — hence, Florida, Denver, Chicago.”
And the rates are comparatively affordable.
Click here to tool around with the booking and pricing. We found one-way flights to Florida for as low as $349 (Fort Lauderdale) and $399 (Tampa), as part of a NY promotion. Most hover at around $800, give or take $50.
That includes dog and passenger.
Miller said the prices make sense when compared with the cost of going on the road with a pet or two.
“You end up spending $1,000 to drive anyway with hotels and fuel and gas,” he said. “Or you spend just above that and have your pet sit with you and you’re there in two hours — versus two days.”
Keep scrolling to learn more.
How it happened
The executive airport in Farmingdale is among nine destinations nationwide served by RetrievAir, a startup whose name is a nod to Maple and Willow, the two chocolate Labrador retrievers that live with Miller and wife, Whitney.
With family in Texas, the Minneapolis couple faced the prospect of leaving their dogs behind while traveling, taking the dogs on long, pricey car trips or putting them in cargo compartments on commercial flights.
None were appealing options.
“One. we’re not going to put them in cargo and two, we don’t have charter money,” Miller said. “I eventually got so fed up with it, that my wife and I sat down with a glass, or maybe two, of wine and made a decision one night while I was getting my MBA at Indiana [University].
“So we decided that we’re going to solve it.”
How it works; what it costs
The result is RetrievAir, which offers passengers the opportunity to fly alongside their pets on 30-seat planes that have been retrofitted from 50-seat carriers in order to offer more room for two- and four-legged travelers. Cats must travel in containers approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Pets can sit with their humans and must be on leash or harnessed as planes taxi on the runway and during takeoff, landing or bouts of turbulence.
RetrievAir flights are staffed and operated by RVR Aviation, a licensed U.S. carrier, and planes operate at smaller airports or terminals in an effort to make flying with pets “as frictionless as possible,” according to Miller.
“You’re not waiting on the [Transportation Security Administration] line with 2,000 other people, you’re not waiting in a terminal with 500 other people…” he said. “You’re in a quaint, peaceful lobby where you’re waiting to then step out on the tarmac with your pet right in your hands or on a leash.
“Then you just hop on the airplane and sit down and you go.”
Get comfy
Miller, who described himself as “a pet parent with no aviation experience,” previously worked as a regional manager for 3M, the Minnesota-based conglomerate. To get the aviation side of things off the ground, Mark Williams — who has more than 30 years of experience in the industry — came on board as co-founder and senior advisor.
Miller said he’s confident that their concept of a pet-centric airline is going to fly.
“I gave up a job I loved,” said. “I was more than happy to get rid of it because I know this is going to work.”
The shift, he said, has been “energizing” because of interest from pet owners who’ve taken long-distance trips on cars.
“There are people who are like, ‘We will never make this drive again,’” Miller said. “They say, ‘We heard about you from a friend and we want to book right now.’”
Catering to Long Island’s pet population is a good fit, he said.
“There’s a little bit of dog country happening there,” Miller said. “We want to support that, cultivate that and be a part of it.”
