Flying with a pet requires different planning
You may need to fly with your pet when joining or leaving your boat or vehicle, returning home, relocating, or continuing your journey another way.
Flying can involve unfamiliar handling, confinement, separation, carrier restrictions and airline or country requirements. What applies depends on your pet, the flight, how they will travel and where you are going.
Understand the journey your pet will experience, what may apply and what needs checking before you book
Is flying appropriate for your pet?
Flying can involve confinement, unfamiliar handling, separation, noise, temperature changes and periods when you may have limited access to your pet. Consider how these conditions may affect your individual pet and the journey you are planning.
🐾 Health & individual needs
Consider your pet’s health, age, mobility, medications and any individual needs that could affect whether or how they travel by air.
🛂 Passport & documentation
Consider the documentaiton requirements for the journey and the return journey.
🧠 Temperament & confinement
Consider how your pet copes with unfamiliar environments, noise, handling, separation and spending time in a carrier or crate.
🌡 Temperature & journey conditions
Consider departure and arrival conditions, journey duration, connections, delays and the time your pet may spend away from you.
✚ Veterinary & emergency considerations
Consider any veterinary checks or health documentation that may be required, and what arrangements may be needed if the journey is delayed or your pet becomes unwell.
You are assessing whether the journey is appropriate for your pet.
The flight experience can be very different for your pet
How your pet travels affects where they will be during the journey, how they are handled, the type of carrier or crate required and which airline arrangements may apply.
👜 In the cabin
(Small dogs & cats only)
Where permitted, your pet travels in an approved carrier with you in the passenger cabin. Pet size, weight, carrier, aircraft and route restrictions vary between airlines.
🧳 Checked / hold travel
(With you but only on certain routes / airlines)
Some airlines accept pets in a designated hold area, but only on certain routes and flights. Availability can depend on the aircraft operating that flight and may vary even on the same route. Airlines also impose crate requirements, including maximum accepted crate sizes, which can affect whether your pet can travel this way.
📦 Cargo — travelling as part of your journey
(Pet and owner normally travel within 5 days of each other)
Your pet may travel through an airline cargo service rather than as passenger baggage. You might fly separately, sail, drive or take a ferry while your pet travels by air. But must normally arrive within 5 days of your pet.
📦 Cargo pet transport
- Commercial
(Separate travel normally applies when more than 5 days apart)
Your pet does not always need to travel at the same time or by the same transport method as you. However, normally when you arriving more than 5 days before / after your pet, stricter commercial rules apply.
Your pet’s journey and your journey do not have to use the same transport method. Check how the applicable rules treat the timing and relationship between the two journeys..
Four things need to line up
Flying arrangements depend on several things working together. A route that works for you may not be available or appropriate for your pet..
🐾 Your pet
Does the journey suit your pet’s health, individual needs and ability to cope with the conditions involved?
✈️ Your airline & route
Does the airline accept your pet on the particular route, aircraft and flight you intend to use?
🧳 Your carrier & travel method
Does the carrier or crate and the way your pet will travel meet the applicable airline and journey requirements?
🌍 Your destination
What health, documentation, import, transit and arrival requirements apply to your pet’s journey?
These factors need to be considered together before booking. Detailed requirements can then be worked through as part of your pet’s flying readiness.
Continue into your pet's flying readiness
You don’t need to work through every flying requirement on this page. ZULSIRA will help you work through what applies to your pet, their flight arrangements and the journey you are planning.
1. Know your starting point
Understand how your pet may travel and the conditions they may experience during the journey.
2. Work through your readiness
Work through the health, carrier or crate, training, handling and practical readiness that applies to your pet.
3. Add journey requirements when needed
Check the airline, route, transit, destination, documentation and entry requirements that apply to the journey.
Flying can form part of a Sailing or Overland journey. Your existing ZULSIRA pathway does not need to change because your pet is flying.
