Immigrating abroad marks a significant turning point in life, requiring extensive preparation. Pet owners who wish to bring their pets along must consider how to transport them overseas. Now, there is no need to worry about ‘sending pets’ anymore. PET TRAVEL, a professional animal transport company, has prepared a comprehensive guide on pet transportation, aiming to assist you in successfully air-traveling your animals overseas.
For many years, PET TRAVEL has been providing a wide range of animal transport services to our valued customers, including pet relocation abroad, pet repatriation, and pet travel. We can design various forms of animal transportation solutions based on specific circumstances.
Options for animal transport
Pet in hold: Pets are carried as in-cabin baggage, accompanying passengers on the flight and transported in the aircraft cabin. This method helps cat transport and dog transport with small size (with a crate weight of up to 7kg).
Checked as luggage: Pets are transported as oversized baggage, accompanying passengers on the flight and arranged to be carried in the aircraft’s cargo hold (equipped with air conditioning and lighting). This method of animal transport is generally suitable for medium-sized pets (with a crate weight of up to 32kg). Upon arrival of pet air transport, pets can be collected at the designated Oversize Baggage area in the terminal building.
Pet Cargo: Pets are transported as live cargo, arranged to be carried in the cargo hold of the aircraft (equipped with air conditioning and lighting). This method of pet transportation is generally suitable for large dogs (with a crate weight of 45kg or above) or for individual animal transport services without a passenger accompanying. After the pet cargo arrives at the destination, pets can be collected at the Air Cargo Station in the airport. This type of pet transport service incurs cargo clearance fees.
This method of animals transport is distinct from the previous two methods, in that pets are not accompanied by their owners on the flight, and are instead treated as cargo. It is generally used for larger pets, and incurs additional cargo clearance fees.
Typically, airlines exclusively accommodate pet friendly transportation bookings made by dedicated animal transportation professionals. Certain countries or regions have restrictions on pets being carried in the aircraft cabin, prohibiting them from being treated as overweight baggage. For instance, in destinations such as Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, pets must be transported as cargo when traveling by air, rather than being allowed as overweight or in-cabin baggage.
The following popular countries/regions require pets to be sent via pet cargo:
- Australia and New Zealand
- Hong Kong
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- Ireland
- South Africa
In these destinations, pet transportation services are specifically arranged as cargo rather than being permitted as in-cabin or overweight baggage.