Greece launches an animal airlift to evacuate pets and their owners from the Mideast

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — This was an animal airlift. Dozens of dogs and cats arrived in Athens on Wednesday with their owners aboard a special evacuation flight for Greeks with pets who were trapped by the current war in the Middle East.

Emotional scenes unfolded at Athens airport as small dogs leaped for joy after being let out of their special travel carry cases. The government-organized Aegean flight from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates carried 45 pets and 101 people.

“Our pets are not luggage, they are part of our families,” said the Greek Interior Ministry’s Special Secretary for the Protection of Companion Animals Nikos Chrysakis. He said the interior and foreign ministries had worked together for days “so we can have this good result, for the animals and people to return home safely.”

The Israeli and U.S. attack on Iran has wreaked havoc on airline travel across the Middle East. Countries have been forced to repeatedly shut their airspace and cancel thousands of flights in major airline hubs such as Dubai and Qatar as missiles flew overhead. Hundreds of thousands of travelers found themselves stranded.

For Danai Koukoulomati, finding a flight that would also take her cat Muay Thai was non-negotiable.

“To me, my pet, my cat is my family. There is no chance I’m going to leave him behind,” she said. But she couldn’t find any flight accepting animals in the cabin or in the cargo hold. “It is very, very difficult to fly out of the country with your pets.”

As for dealing with the war, Muay Thai was far more stoic than she was herself. When explosions sounded, “he would hide in the bathroom and that would be all. He was a calm cat,” Koukoulomati said. “I was not as calm as my cat. I need to take some lessons from him.”

Alexandra Papayanis, who has been living in Dubai for five years, arrived with her dog Sirtaki – named after a Greek dance – and a second dog she brought out for a friend. She too said she had struggled to find an evacuation flight that would take animals.

“It’s so important. I mean, our pets are part of our family,” she said. “And in these very difficult circumstance, the challenges we are facing is how to bring our dogs and our cats back.” Returning to Greece with Sirtaki “was absolutely fantastic,” she said.

For another passenger, Maria Theochari, leaving Dubai without her dog Matisse was unthinkable. “Like my kids, I have Matisse,” she said. “This is important for me. I don’t separate my animal or my kids, it’s the same for me.”