BARK Air allowed to fly dogs on charter at Westchester Airport until judge's decision

Westchester County has agreed to temporarily suspend enforcement of its airport-use restrictions against BARK Air, at least until a judge decides whether those restrictions are lawful in the first place.

The parties on Monday agreed to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Westchester seeking to bar BARK from the Westchester County Airport's private jet terminal, which is for use by private operators and charter jets. As long as BARK does not sell more than nine seats on its dog-first charter flight service, it will be allowed to operate out of the private jet terminal.

News of the dismissal provides much needed relief to BARK, which may have been forced to cease operations if it had been kicked out of the private jet terminal. The public terminal for commercial airlines is subject to a passenger cap, which could have severely curtailed BARK's ability to operate, at all, out of the airport.

But the agreement is provisional and will only remain in effect until a judge decides in an unrelated case whether Westchester's restrictions on the use of its private-jet terminal are lawful. If they are upheld, Westchester could begin to enforce the restrictions against BARK, potentially resulting in its ejection from the private terminal.

Will dogs still fly? BARK Air sued by Westchester days after 1st flight at county airport.

In a statement, Garland Harwood, a spokesperson for BARK, celebrated the lawsuit's dismissal, observing that "dogs can and will continue to fly first aboard BARK Air."

"BARK Air will continue to operate flights to and from HPN (Westchester County)," Harwood added.

Asher Stockler is a reporter for The Journal News and the USA Today Network New York. You can send him an email at astockler@lohud.com. Reach him securely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Dogs will fly on BARK Air while decision on restrictions considered