Get in touch+44 (0)2039 266 622
Get a QuoteWe can arrange flights for pets where the owners are on the same plane. We can also collect your pets, complete the veterinary work and fly your pets over to you if you are already abroad. PetAir UK can offer as much or as little help as you would like – just ask us.
PetAir UK is registered with IATA, IPATA and DEFRA approved and we are well experienced in pet flights. We have accounts with all the airlines who can fly pets, so if the plane will take pets and your pets will fit, then we can book that flight. This can be for both short haul flights and long haul flights. All of the vets at PetAir UK are official veterinarians, which means that the vets have undergone extra training and can complete the DEFRA export certificates and pre travel health checks for your cats and dogs to travel to their new destination.
Transporting pets on these incredible journeys is quite difficult and the team at PetAir UK does all we can to ensure the welfare of your pet comes first. Attention to detail is the key. We can offer our clients whatever they want to suit them and their pets. From the veterinary bedding we use in the crates to absorb any urine to the fact that our crates are custom made around the sizes of your pet to ensure they have the perfect amount of room to be comfortable and not too much room to harm themselves.
Moving any pet from a home they know to a home they don’t can upset the pets. All of our flight routings are based around what is best for that particular pet. PetAir UK will use the best pet airlines and the quickest routes for your pets and avoid the cheaper routes where there may be a stop on the way. We make sure that any connection times are minimised and take time working out the best journey for each individual animal and destination.
Pets travel in the hold of the aircraft, in a special area which is heated and pressurised. There are more details about the hold on our FAQS page.
So do we. The dogs and cats who fly have to travel in crates and the requirements about how the crates are built and what materials they are made out of are rigorous and complicated. This is utterly sensible as the pets need to be comfortable and secure as they are often in the crates a long time. The crates built by the PetAir UK team go above and beyond the minimum guidelines. They are sprayed with pheromones and lined with veterinary bedding and incontinence pads to ensure that the pets can be as comfortable as possible.
We find that the wooden crates tend to be a bit “softer” and not as noisy as the plastic crates. PetAir UK recommends using plastic crates if you have provide a custom built kennel that not only conforms to these regulations but also features an absorbent base layer and comfortable soft bedding as standard. Our crates are made of wood in order to minimise noise and temperature variation and we also impregnate them with reassuring pheromones which settle and relax pets. All our crates have to be “just so”, not too big so that the animal feels insecure and not too small so that they don’t feel cramped. We pride ourselves on crates which are the perfect dimensions for your individual pets.
A crate with too much free space as this affords less protection should there be any turbulence and we take this into account to achieve the perfect dimensions.
Circumstances do change and if your flight has to move at the last minute or a situation arises whereby you need to fly your pet at a different time, we can organise this and rearrange things in a flash – taking care of every aspect and rearranging things as required.
Even better, because of our affiliation with all the main airlines, you will not be charged for the cost of a last minute cancellation and only the administration costs of reapplying for permits and paperwork. We can even look after your pet for you and do any necessary vet checks before flying your pet out to you a couple of days later if a last minute situation requires it.
We normally charge a £30.00 admin fee and you would be responsible for extra kennelling.
The Team
Each member of the team looks after the journeys for a different part of the world, which means they are experts on the best way to fly your pet to their new destination, in terms of routings, requirements, flights and which crates will go on which flights. Flying pets around the world is complicated and it would be nearly impossible for one person to know all the tricks for all the destinations around the world.
PetAir UK flies around 200-250 pets per month, with the summer time being our peak when we often fly over 400. We have a big team which means we have back up in many areas. All pet shippers should have a 24 hour emergency number, but often there is no way of actually calling the people you need to in an emergency. PetAir UK has the scale to have a 24 hour emergency number that is actually answered 24 hours per day so that if here is an emergency with one of our pets we are poised to help out no matter what the time in UK.