Will Allow Passengers To Monitor Pets In Real Time ... For A Fee

Delta has begun offering passengers traveling with their pets the option of using a device that will allow the traveler to monitor their furry friends during a flight.

Beginning last Wednesday, passenger traveling with pets out of 10 selected airports can rent a gadget developed by Senum Wireless Corp that monitors such things as the air temperature in the area where the pets are traveling, and whether their cages are right-side-up or on their sides. The device is placed in the cage, and sends data such as ambient temperature and how a cage is positioned. If certain parameters are exceeded, Delta's call center is notified by the device. Passengers can also track their animals online. The device is available for a $50 fee.

Bloomberg Business reports that the Sendum PT300 can also be used to monitor such items as temperature-sensitive organs being transported for transplant, but when something happens to an animal on a airplane, it makes headlines.

Delta's track record with animals is not stellar, having had the most deaths of any U.S. carrier in the past five years, according to the report.

The service is not available for animals being transported by checked baggage at a passenger terminal.

Another caveat is that the device cannot transmit data during a flight because of restrictions on cellular transmissions from an aircraft. But Neel Jones Shah, a former Delta cargo executive who now is an an airline adviser to Burnaby, British Columbia-based Sendum, said many incidents with animals occur while the airplane is on the ground, not in flight.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.delta.com, http://sendum.com/