JET-SETTING stallions and high-flying hounds at New York’s Kennedy International Airport can look forward to their own new luxury terminal.

    The US$48 million private facility is called The ARK at JFK. It’ll handle more than 70,000 animals flying in and out of the airport every year, from cats and dogs to horses, cows, and even sloths and aardvarks.

    The large animals will have their own climate-controlled stalls, and dogs will occupy hotel suites featuring flat-screen TVs, bone-shaped splashing pools and spa services.

    Owners will be able to monitor their pets through webcams.

    It will include more than 70 climate-controlled horse stalls equipped with soft floors so racehorses won’t hurt their hooves. Dogs will be allowed to frolic at a 20,000-square-foot (1,858-square-meter) “resort” run by the pet-boarding chain Paradise 4 Paws.

    It will have bone-shaped splashing pools, massage therapy and other spa services like “pawdicures,” the company says on its website.

    Travelers can drop off their pets at “top-dog suites” before getting on a plane. The suites will go for around US$100 a night and include a human-size bed and flat-screen TV.

    Construction began on the animal terminal that is opening next year and will replace the cramped Vetport from the 1950s that now handles animals in transit.

    The ARK will sit on the site of an unused cargo terminal leased from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that runs the airport. A 30-year lease has been agreed for the projected 178,000-square-foot development.

    Around 110 jobs are set to be created by the construction, with estimates of US$110 million to be generated in revenue over the 30-year period.

    The Ark will provide both airside and landside services to board, kennel, quarantine, import, export and transport large and small animals.

    There will also be a Paradise 4 Paws kennels, an aviary and a veterinarian, all designed to relax the animals before they fly out.

    Additional services will include transportation in dedicated climate controlled vehicles from aircraft, terminals, cargo facilities and other airport locations.

    A livestock export handling system designed by Professor Temple Grandin, the leading authority on livestock movement, will allow for the safe and efficient handling of cattle, goats, pigs and sheep from truck to aircraft.(SD-Agencies)