Townsville Airport, in far north Queensland, has teamed up with local therapy animal trainer and provider Sensitive Companions as part of a “pawtnership” for people with a fear of flying.

Chris A Randall from Sensitive Companions will bring a trained therapy dog, Tink the Alaskan malamute, to the airport three days a week for nervous flyers to spend time with her before flights.

Townsville Airport is spending $10,000 on the initiative.

Here is Tink interacting with travellers from Townsville Airport’s Twitter feed.

There’s growing recognition for the positive effect of therapy animals, although airlines in the US say they’ve had it passengers trying to bring strange, fake “emotional support” animals, including snakes, spiders and lobsters, on flights.

In February, a woman who tried to take an emotional support peacock on her United Airlines flight, but was denied.

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