Pet Jet Travel launches one-stop online booking
Pet Jet Travel (PJT), a Barcelona-based travel agency and travel technology company specialising in air travel with pets, has announced the launch of its new flight booking platform following its recent accreditation by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The new platform combines New Distribution Capability (NDC) airline distribution technology with dedicated services for passengers travelling with dogs and cats. Pet Jet Travel’s newly secured IATA accreditation provides the credentials to support direct airline ticketing and NDC connectivity, bringing flight distribution and specialist pet travel arrangements together within a single booking experience.
Founded by airline distribution technology specialist Zubair Bakhtiar, Pet Jet Travel aims to address a longstanding challenge for pet owners: the complexity of booking flights that accommodate both passengers and their animals, particularly when navigating different airline policies, documentation requirements and restrictions.
Zubair Bakhtiar, Founder of Pet Jet Travel, 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.
“We’ve built Pet Jet Travel to bring those processes together. 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.
“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.”
Pet Jet Travel handles three types of booking: dogs and cats travelling in the cabin (PETC), larger pets travelling in the aircraft hold (AVIH), and assistance dogs (SVAN). In-cabin pets are booked through the airline’s booking channels, while hold and assistance-dog bookings are requested from the airline and confirmed by it before travel. As airlines roll out their digital booking channels for pets, Pet Jet Travel’s team arranges the booking directly with the airline on the customer’s behalf.
Each airline limits how many pets can travel in the cabin on each flight. Pet Jet Travel’s platform is built to use live pet-space availability where airlines share it through their booking systems, and to request space directly from the airline where they don’t.
Pet Jet Travel checks each pet’s documents and airline eligibility before booking, including weight, breed, carrier or crate size and route requirements. Final acceptance of the pet and its documents rests with the airline at check-in and with the authorities at the destination.
A central feature of the platform is its use of agentic artificial intelligence to validate booking information before it is submitted to the airline. The technology cross-checks details including pet documentation, animal weight, crate dimensions and route-specific requirements, helping to identify potential issues that might otherwise lead to rejected bookings, delays or complications at the airport.
The platform manages the airline side of the pet booking and checks the documents each route requires (microchip, rabies vaccination, pet passport or health certificate, and any blood tests), reducing the need for owners to contact airlines individually or navigate specialist booking processes themselves.
Pet Jet Travel has completed a full pet booking test, from search to check-in, in its PJT test environment, following the NDC approach set out for partners by a leading European airline. The company plans to add more pet-friendly airlines as carriers open their pet services to travel agencies through NDC.
Bakhtiar brings 18 years of experience in the IT sector, including more than eight years specialising in airline distribution technologies such as Passenger Service Systems (PSS), NDC and Global Distribution Systems (GDS). He holds bachelor’s degrees in Aviation Management and Commerce
Pet Jet Travel launches one-stop online booking
