The next generation of airport user experience: Airport therapy dogs
Photo Credit: Kyra Hubis and her "therapy dog" Henry James stop to visit Nelson and Charlotte Hill and their 15-month-old daughter at Mineta San Jose International Airport in San Jose, California, on January 28, 2013. The duo roam the airport terminals looking for anyone who needs relief from fears of flying or other stresses. San Jose Mercury News/MCT / Karl Mondon
Skift Take
This is a pet project that we can support. Anything that can help passengers loosen up and take the stress out of travel has to be a good thing.
There's a new breed of airport dog. They aren't looking for drugs or bombs — they are looking for people who need a buddy, a belly to rub or a paw to shake.
"His job is to be touched," volunteer Kyra Hubis said about Henry James, her 5-year-old golden retriever that works a few hours a week at the San Jose airport. "I am just standing there with him. They are talking to him. If I need to answer for him, I do. But I am at the end of his leash, he's not at the end of mine."
Mineta San Jose International Airport is widely credited with introducing the first airport therapy dog in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, when flights were grounded, passengers were stranded and reaching friends and relatives in the East was nearly impossible. Passengers were anxious and afraid.
Enter Orion, owned by a volunteer airport chaplain who got permission to bring the dog
