Flying on a plane is generally an awful experience, but next time you’re crammed in the middle seat counting down the hours. Imagine having so many spare dollars lying around that you can spend them on flying 80 falcons in a plane. Yes, they exist.

Time and again we all witnessed the glittering lives of Saudi sheikhs and princes. They can even bring London traffic to a halt with their fleet of gold-plated supercars or stir up a storm on social media with photographs of their pet wild cat casually buckled up in the passenger seat.

The photograph, shared by a Reddit user, shows countless feathered passengers exhibiting utmost discipline and patience. This picture is going viral and for darn good reason. The bizarre image shows the hooded animals dotted around the cabin among passengers, each bird seemingly tied securely down to the seats.

Transporting falcons in the Middle East is a pretty common practice. Falconry training birds to hunt has been practiced in the Middle East for thousands of years and is still a popular pastime in the United Arab Emirates. The falcon is also the national bird of the UAE, so it makes sense that airlines flying out of there would accommodate the birds’ transit needs.

Falconry is quite popular in the Middle East, and the UAE even requires passports for the birds to fly. As per the reports, the UAE government has apparently issued passports for more than 28,000 falcons between 2002 and 2013! There are even specially-designed falcon perches for first class birds to travel in style.

Falcon Passport:

“You are permitted to carry one falcon on board the Economy Class passenger cabin of an aircraft, and a maximum of six falcons are permitted within the Economy Class cabin of an aircraft (country regulations may apply),” the policy states.

It is the owner’s responsibility to make sure all necessary documentation of your pet is available before travel, such as their health certificate and identification or pet passport. Lufthansa even has a bird stand called the Falcon Master to make the birds feel at home.

It’s definitely not the first time. In 2013, a photo similar to the one above went viral

So if you’re looking to transport a falcon in the near future, it may not be as hard as you think depending on where you’re going.

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