Airline Spotlight Bonus:  Take a virtual tour of the Lufthansa Animal Lounge!

The Lufthansa Animal Lounge offers pet friendly services for pets in transit.Call it the frequent fliers' lounge for pets, the Lufthansa Animal Lounge, whose thirteen-month construction ended in February 2008, offers state-of-the-art facilities for traveling pets and live animals ranging in species from horses to tropical fish.

The Animal Lounge is located at Lufthansa's main hub in Frankfurt, Germany at the Frankfurt am Main Airport.  As the busiest passenger airport in Germany, and the ninth busiest airport worldwide in 2009, plenty of pets pass through the airport on a daily basis.  "Lufthansa Cargo annually transports more than 14,000 household pets and 1,500 horses in addition to other animals," said Martin Martin Riecken, Head of Corporate Communications (The Americas) for LufthansaRiecken, Head of Corporate Communications.  "We offer [those] animals and pets traveling with us access to a 40,365 square-foot Animal Lounge."

All pets, including dogs or cats transported in the passenger cabin that have a transfer or layover time of more than 2-3 hours, are taken to the Animal Lounge, which offers three routes for pets:  transit, import and export (represented by yellow, red and green lines in the aerial graphic above).  Pets transiting through Frankfurt as part of a connecting flights stop at a veterinary examination area, where public-service veterinarians check compliance with animal protection and epidemic control regulations.  This helps ensure that pets going on to connecting flights are also healthy enough to continue on, reducing the risk of dehydration and allowing veterinarians to treat pets who might have fallen ill during their first flight. 

For dogs and cats, the Animal Lounge offers thirty nine "small animal boxes," which are climate-controlled and offer dogs and cats enough room to stretch their legs.  Additionally, the "animal keepers" at the Lounge are former employees of zoos, veterinary practices and police dog teams, which means your pet will receive the best of care during his stay-all without having to leave the airport!

The beauty of the Animal Lounge, for bothHorses are just one type of traveler at the Lufthansa Animal Lounge. pets and owners, is in the organization of the facility.  "Everyone involved in the transport of pets, including coordinators, veterinary doctors and freight handlers," Reicken said, "works in the same building."  This means that not only will your pet move quickly through the transit and inspection process-Lufthansa calls it their "fast lane" principle-but also there's no chance of your furry best friend getting lost in the shuffle.  "We have clearly distinct zones for export, import, transit and health inspections," said Riecken.  First class flying for Fido?  Yes, it's arrived.

PetRelocation.com's Pet Friendly Airline Spotlight series features our favorite pet friendly airlines for travel with pets.  These Spotlights will highlight one airline each week, Monday through Thursday, through the month of May.  We'll take a look at the various aspects of their pet programs, including amenities offered for pets, how to book a pet flight on each airline and their fee structures.  For a look at the rest of our Airline Spotlight series, check out the Airline Spotlight page or on Twitter as #PetReloAS.