An image on Reddit of a Saudi prince who brought 80 hawks on a plane Monday morning is going viral. This may sound strange, as the very image of aeroplanes to us is a cramped little seat with barely any space to swing your leg and 80 hawks as your co-passengers just don’t go hand in hand.
However as per laws, transporting falcons in the Middle East is actually a pretty common practice. Falconry (training birds to hunt) has been a patent practice in the Middle East for thousands of years and is still a popular past time in the United Arab of Emirates. To add on the falcon is the national bird of the UAE.
According to an Atlas Obscura article, falcons can get their own forest green passports to fly in the United Arab Emirates. This international falcon passport allows the falcons to travel to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Morocco, and Syria. Such a passport is only valid for three years as per the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Climate Change and Environment rules.
A spokesperson for the airline Flydubai told Frank Kane, a reporter for UAE news website The National, that falcons must have their own seat and are placed on a cloth to avoid accidents. The business class cabin was entirely reserved for falcons on his Flydubai flight and to our surprise, the sight of an aeroplane full of falcons is not rare!
Etihad Airways, Qatar airways also allow falcons on its planes.
“We accept the carriage of falcons in the main aircraft cabin provided that all the necessary documents have been obtained. We also accept falcons as checked baggage,” Etihad writes on its website.
An Etihad spokesperson told Business Insider that, based on the cabin and flight crew uniforms, it’s unlikely the photo was taken on one of the airline’s planes.Qatar Airways wrote on its website that you can bring a maximum of 6 falcons in economy class.
