Airport hires adorable new staff member to help reduce travel stress

Airports can be stressful places… Crowds of people rushing about trying to check-in, luggage trailing behind them causing some sort of obstacle course, security checks, flight delays, gate changes, the announcements advising of your final boarding. It’s enough to make your muscles tense.

In an effort to help travellers reduce their anxiety, the San Francisco International Airport employed a new staff member whose sole responsibility it to keep you calm.

Meet LiLou. A small, spotted Juliana pig.

Now while LiLou is pretty darn cute, she’s also breaking history becoming the first pig to be certified in the Animal Assisted Therapy Program of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SFSPCA). She’s also the first non-canine to the brigade of 22 therapy animals roaming the San Francisco airport’s terminals wearing her ‘Pet Me’ vest.

She is a pretty clever little pig too!

LiLou greets travellers with her snout, she can wave, twirl and stand up on her back legs, but perhaps the most outstanding of all of her skills is her ability to play a tiny toy piano. Naw!

What do you think of having such a program at an airline? Do you have a fear or apprehension of flying?