FOUR special passengers were welcomed aboard a flight out of Southampton Airport this week.

A quartet of critically endangered turtles took to the skies to complete their journey from London Zoo to the National Reptile Zoo in Kilkenny, Ireland.

The creatures flew with Flybe accompanied by zoo director James Hennessy.

The Roti Island snake-necked turtles will be housed at the National Reptile Zoo’s Lost World exhibit located inside Funtasia in Drogheda Co.Louth after which time they will permanently relocate to their new home in Co.Kilkenny.

Roti Island snake-necked turtles can be found in just three sites on Roti Island, a small Indonesian island, 311 miles off the coast of Australia.

Flybe’s cargo operation is no stranger to transporting rare species – previous special passengers having included ospreys, seals, Blondie the albino hedgehog who was flown to Guernsey, a sextet of rare Australian ‘big belly’ seahorses to the Deep Sea World Aquarium in Edinburgh, and 10 stump-tailed macaques who travelled from Edinburgh to Southampton.

Flybe director of customer care, Jonathan Breedon, said: “We are always pleased to help transport such precious cargo and so were happy to assist the National Reptile Zoo in ensuring that these VIP turtles could travel as quickly and safely as possible over to their new home Ireland.”