Your Relocation Guide to Transporting Animals by Air
Around two million pets board commercial US flights every year.
Sometimes traveling with your fur babies by land or sea is not an option. If you have time constraints, then airline travel is often the best way to go.
But transporting animals by air is not for the faint of heart. Traveling alongside or shipping your pets will demand more of your patience (and bank balance) than you thought you had. But it’s all worth it to have your pet move abroad with you or compete in an international competition.
Ready to begin the frustrating yet rewarding challenge of pet travel? This relocation guide has all the best tips to help you figure out how to ship your pets as stress-free as possible.
Prepare the Correct Paperwork
Anyone who wants to transport pets by air (domestic or international) needs to follow the IATA’s rules. This is the International Air Transport Association. Their Live Animals Regulations (LAR) include everything you need to do.
One of the first things you should prepare is paperwork. It may take some time for you to gather all the documentation and make the bookings.
Here are some examples of the paperwork you might need:
- Airline reservations for your animals
- Pet passports and visas
- Pet health certificate and vaccination record
- Animal import permits
- Shippers and consignee’s certificates
- Photos of your pet and their container
- Personal information e.g. weight, breed, age, etc.
- Your details on their container
Applying for their passport is one of the first jobs you should do in case the passport office rejects it. For example, if the appearance of your dog does not match its breed then they might reject the application. Problems like this will take time to fix.
Research Country Regulations
When you are transporting animals across borders, you need to follow the import rules of that country.
Some countries demand animals to have specific vaccines. Others will not allow animals to enter their country until they finish a quarantine period.
Provide Proper Air Travel Containers
You can prepare everything else right, but if you don’t have the proper container, then your animal isn’t going anywhere.
The container should follow both the IATA and airline guidelines. Every animal container should be a certain weight and size depending on the animal.
For example, smaller horses can fly in horse air transport containers three at a time. But larger, show horses might need the entire container to themselves.
Containers for dogs can often only consist of certain materials like fiberglass, plastic, metal, and wood. They are very specific so you need to do your research depending on the type of animals you are transporting.
Transporting Animals Is Difficult but Possible
Transporting animals, whether they are your pets or livestock, is difficult. But with these tips, you should feel better prepared for the task. Remember that animals travel across the world every single day and there’s no reason why you cannot make that possible too.
If you’re traveling or relocating abroad, you’ll need all the travel tips you can get! Lucky for you, our travel section has tons of articles with expert advice, so go check them out.
