From Gulliver’s blog at Economist.com:

PET AIRWAYS has flown its first passengers. (Unlike most other media outlets, Gulliver winces at the prospect of referring to the animals as “pawsengers”, Pet Airways’ preferred designation.) The airline, which transports dogs and cats in the main cabin of modified planes, made its inaugural flight from New York yesterday.

We first wrote about Pet Airways in April, and the response was universally positive. Indeed, Pet Airways could well be onto a good thing, since its services do not cost much more than less comfortable transport in the cabin of a regular plane. Success may depend on how quickly the company can expand its operations: it currently links New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, but has designs on serving 25 cities in the next three years. The public’s attention has certainly been piqued; now all Pet Airways needs to do is invest a bit more money in its website. When Gulliver recently looked, the site wasn’t working because of Over Capacity. Not what you want on day two of operations.