On SingaPaw Air’s flights, pets roam the cabin freely, sit beside their owners & are even offered meal options
There’s no sugarcoating it. A US$84,000 (S$108,000) flight to San Francisco with your pet is likely out of reach for most Singaporeans.
But that hasn’t stopped SingaPaw Air, which bills itself as Asia’s first pet jet-share service, from attracting a small and growing group of people willing to spend tens—and even hundreds—of thousands of dollars for the experience of flying with their pets in comfort and privacy.
On its flights, pets can roam the cabin freely, sit beside their owners, and are even offered meal options, much like any other passenger. Every detail, from check-in to in-flight care, is designed for the well-being of both animal and owner.
One recent customer paid just over US$30,000 (S$38,500) for a one-way trip from Singapore to Hong Kong for two people and four cats. Another spent US$15,000 (S$19,300) to holiday in Hong Kong with her toy poodle. And the airline is receiving more than 100 enquiries a day, with some customers booking up to a year in advance.
There clearly is demand for the service—and it is one that founder Jamie Wong saw coming long before anyone else in the region did.
“For me, animals are family”
Wong’s path to building SingaPaw Air is not a straight line.
The 38-year-old started his career in medicine and used to work as a GP at Raffles Medical. But the pull of entrepreneurship eventually won out. He went on to build a five-branch medical aesthetics business and a telemedicine startup that completed two rounds of fundraising, both of which have since closed.
Throughout all of this, he was running TheAsianPawrent, an online community platform for pet owners in Asia, on the side—not as a business play, but out of genuine love for animals.
Wong shares his home with five cats and three dogs, has rescued birds and sent them to animal welfare charity ACRES for rehabilitation, and actively donates to local pet welfare communities. TheAsianPawrent started as a place where pet owners like him could come together to share knowledge, discuss issues affecting their animals, and find community around modern pet parenting in Asia.
For me, animals are not a side interest. They are family. That belief has shaped the way I think about services, community, and the future of pet-related businesses.
Jamie Wong, founder of SingaPaw Air
The longer he ran that community, the more clearly one pain point kept surfacing: travel.
Pet owners across the region were hitting the same wall—restrictive airline policies, stressful cargo holds, banned breeds, and mountains of paperwork. The infrastructure simply hadn’t caught up with how people actually felt about their animals.
That insight, combined with a very personal moment during COVID-19, when Wong found himself unable to bring his family’s dog along on a private plane to Malaysia, became the spark for SingaPaw Air.
“I realised that while I was able to fly over on a private plane, our dog obviously could not enjoy the same ease of travel,” he said. “That was the moment I realised there was a real-world problem that could potentially be solved.”
The business was initially self-funded
Wong founded SingaPaw Air about three years ago, in 2023. “The concept took shape over time, but that was when we began laying the groundwork to turn the idea into a real operating business,” he said.
The airline was initially self-funded, which meant that Wong had to “build carefully” in the early stages. This was followed by two rounds of angel investment, with the company beginning at a valuation of US$2 million (S$2.5 million), according to the founder.
Today, SingaPaw Air claims to be the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, with only a handful of comparable players globally, such as Bark Air and RetrievAir in the United States, K9 Jets in Europe, and Skye Pets in Australia.
While Wong does not come from a traditional airline background, his experience building businesses in regulated industries proved highly transferable.
He also pursued a personal interest in aviation, spending time in flight simulators to practice piloting and understand aircraft operations. He even took some flight lessons, which helped him grasp the operational side of running an airline.
Although this experience was valuable, getting SingaPaw Air off the ground was far from simple.
Beyond registering the company and sourcing aircraft, a big part of the process involved securing the right approvals, including from Singapore’s Animal & Veterinary Service (AVS) and the Singapore Tourism Board.
At the same time, Wong also spent significant effort building an internal team that truly understood the emotional and practical challenges of travelling with pets.
We intentionally built a team of pet owners because people who live with animals understand the anxiety, the logistics, and the level of care required in a very different way.
Jamie Wong, founder of SingaPaw Air
Prices start at S$7K, and that’s just for a short hop to KL
SingaPaw Air operates on a jet-share model, which allows customers to book individual seats rather than chartering an entire aircraft. This approach, Wong said, makes the experience much more accessible compared to a traditional private charter, which can cost upwards of US$100,000 (S$128,500).
By selling per-seat access, SingaPaw Air brings the entry point down to around US$10,000 (S$13,000) per seat.
Its current routes include Singapore to Kuala Lumpur from US$5,500 (S$7,000), Singapore to Hong Kong return from US$19,200 (S$25,000), Singapore to Tokyo return from US$34,400 (S$44,200), and Singapore to San Francisco one-way from US$84,000 (S$108,000), among others.
For those seeking a fully private experience, the airline also offers dedicated jet charters, where the entire aircraft is reserved fully for you and your pets.
Prices for full charters are significantly higher, often reaching six figures for long-haul trips.
For example, a one-way flight from Singapore to San Francisco costs around US$330,000 (about S$424,000). Even shorter routes, such as Kuala Lumpur, can cost around US$30,000 (S$38,500) one way.
To manage these flights efficiently, SingaPaw Air employs a flexible operational model, including contract charters, membership charters, and block-hour arrangements. This allows the airline to tailor how planes and seats are allocated depending on demand, route, and booking type, while maintaining a consistent, pet-focused experience.
Currently, SingaPaw Air works with several licensed commercial flight operators, including Air7Asia, adjusting aircraft and service setups as needed.
Not just a flight
Onboard SingaPaw Air’s flights, a wide range of pets are allowed to fly beside their humans—there are no weight or size restrictions. The largest animal to board so far, according to Wong, was a Great Dane.
The airline also accepts breeds banned from cargo on most commercial carriers. Many airlines prohibit brachycephalic breeds—dogs with shortened snouts, such as French bulldogs and chow chows—due to a higher risk of respiratory distress in the cargo hold.
That said, SingaPaw Air takes extensive precautions to ensure these pets travel safely. Veterinary checks are conducted before every flight, and a certified canine first responder accompanies all journeys.
Pets also enjoy a streamlined clearance process that mirrors that of human passengers, with no need to arrive early. While animals must remain in carriers in the lounge, the aviation centre does not charge additional fees for them.
What differentiates SingaPaw Air from simply “a charter with a dog on board” is its positioning as an end-to-end travel ecosystem. Beyond flights, the company handles complex paperwork such as vaccination records and import or export permits, processes that can take months for pet owners to navigate on their own.
Travel to Japan, for example, requires an eight-month documentation process, which SingaPaw Air manages in full, completely free of service charges.
It also works closely with the AVS to coordinate inspections for arriving pets. Since SingaPaw Air flights operate from Seletar Airport, which lacks the dedicated animal inspection facilities found at Changi Airport, the team ensures a smooth process by working directly with AVS officers there.
“We work very closely with them to notify them of our arrival date and time, then they will send a team over here to ensure that the whole process, the inspection, is done smoothly,” Wong said in an interview with CNA.
Countries are categorised by AVS based on rabies risk. Destinations deemed rabies-free or low-risk, such as Hong Kong, Japan, and the US, allow pets to travel and return without quarantine.
Meanwhile, countries assessed as rabies-affected, including Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia, require a minimum 30-day quarantine on arrival, making them effectively one-way destinations for most SingaPaw Air clients.
It’s still early days for SingaPaw Air, but the runway is long
While trust was initially the biggest hurdle, today SingaPaw Air receives over 100 enquiries a day, with repeat customers and pre-bookings up to a year in advance, showing that demand is genuine.
In the beginning, a lot of the challenge was proving that the model was real, safe, and professionally executed. Once people saw the first flights take place, confidence naturally started to build.
Jamie Wong
Currently, around 70 to 80% of SingaPaw Air’s flights are for relocation purposes. These aren’t frivolous holiday trips, but emotionally significant moves where, for many customers, putting their pet through cargo simply isn’t an option they’re willing to consider.
Wong shared that the most common feedback from customers is how calm their pets are when travelling alongside them. “That sense of calm and closeness is one of the clearest validations that [SingaPaw Air] is solving a real problem.”
For a growing segment of pet owners, this approach resonates. The shift in how people relate to their animals is real and accelerating. Pets today have Instagram accounts, birthday parties, and healthcare plans. The idea that travel should reflect that same level of care isn’t as niche as it once seemed.
With demand building—Wong declined to share specifics, including profit margins—SingaPaw Air has begun expanding its offerings. Its latest addition is the pet discovery flight: a one-hour trip designed to acclimatise animals to altitude changes and engine noise ahead of a longer journey, starting from US$1,300 (S$1,700) for one passenger and one pet, with discounts for existing SingaPaw Air customers.
Looking ahead, the company is in the process of acquiring its own jet, reflecting Wong’s long-term goal to handle everything in-house, not just act as a middleman. The founder also has his eye on domestic pet travel within Indonesia and Malaysia—markets with strong pet ownership cultures but where affordable, regulated pet travel options remain scarce.
To support this growth, another round of fundraising is planned, potentially later this year or next, as SingaPaw Air expands its services and capabilities.
“The market is still in its early stages,” Wong said, “so rather than focusing purely on market share, our goal is to establish SingaPaw Air as one of the most trusted and category-defining names in pet aviation in the region. If we continue to solve real pain points, market share will follow naturally.”
- Find out more about SingaPaw Air here.
- Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.
Featured Image Credit: Jamie Wong/ SingaPaw Air