BRITANNIA AIRWAYS: ”Brynie” a four and a half year old Welsh Farm Collie bitch became the first animal to travel from the USA under the new ”Passports for Pets” scheme last week. Arriving on a Britannia flight from Orlando with her owners, who had booked a seat with Britannia simply because of the availability of the scheme, Brynie was met by Chas Munn, the airline”s cargo manager, at the Animal Reception Centre, Gatwick Airport. ”As expected, Brynie was in fine fettle after her journey. She had obviously enjoyed the experience,” Chas said. ”We are receiving many enquiries about the scheme and I am sure she will be the first of many pets to travel across the Atlantic with us.” Britannia is the only carrier licensed by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), to import pets from America under this scheme. The procedures involve a series of inoculations for the animal and implanting a small chip which is read by a handheld machine to verify the animal”s identity. Britannia carried over one thousand live animals last year alone under both the Passport for Pets scheme within Europe and the slightly different quarantine procedures in the USA. These have included iguana, domestic animals, ferrets, miniature horses, snakes and Vietnamese Pot-Bellied pigs. www.britanniaairways.com