IATA carriers and crates: what airlines actually check.

IATA’s Live Animals Regulations set the container standards that airlines apply to pets in the hold, and each airline translates them into its own pet cargo page. The airline’s version is the one that binds your flight: it decides the accepted crate sizes, the cut-off times, and any rules on top of the baseline. Read the standards below to know what you’re buying, then confirm against your airline’s page before paying for the crate.

The baseline that recurs across every carrier’s rules is a crate that is:

• Rigid: hard plastic, wood, or fibreglass. Soft or collapsible carriers are cabin equipment and fail at the cargo desk.
• Ventilated on at least three sides: mesh or grille openings the pet can’t force.
• Closed with a secure, spring-loaded metal door: plastic latches and zip fastenings are the most common single reason a crate is rejected.
• Leak-proof on the floor: a solid base with absorbent bedding on top.
• Serviceable from outside: food and water containers fixed inside the door, reachable without opening it.
• Immobile: wheels removed or taped so the crate can’t roll in the hold.

One pet per crate is the default for adult animals, and the crates sold as “airline approved” are not all approved by your airline. The label to trust is your carrier’s own accepted-crate list, not the box in the pet shop.

The pet must be able to stand with its head upright without touching the top, turn around freely, and lie down flat in a natural position. Cargo staff apply this by looking at the animal in the crate at drop-off, and a borderline fit usually fails, because staff are told to reject doubt rather than argue it.

Measure the pet before buying: nose to base of tail, floor to the top of the head or ear tips (whichever is higher), and shoulder width. When the measurements land between two crate sizes, buy the larger one. The cost difference is small against a refused booking.

Flat-faced dogs and cats (bulldogs, pugs, boxers, Persians, and similar) breathe poorly under stress and heat, and airlines treat them differently in the hold. Many refuse them outright; others accept them with a crate one size larger than the size test requires and extra ventilation. Some pause all pet cargo in high summer temperatures, which hits these breeds first. If your pet is snub-nosed, ask the cargo desk about the breed policy before booking anything, or take the tunnel or a ferry and skip the question.

Drop-off is at the airline’s cargo terminal, three to four hours before departure. Staff check the AHC, scan the chip, inspect the crate against the standards above, and watch the pet stand and turn inside it. Water is topped up, the crate is labelled, and the pet goes into the airline’s care until the cargo terminal at the other end.

A failed crate at that point rarely leaves time to buy and fit another before the flight closes, which is why the crate is worth solving weeks early, not the day before.

Buy the crate two to three weeks before the flight and make it furniture: door open at home, meals fed inside, bedding that already smells of the pet. An animal that walks into the crate on its own at the cargo desk has a calmer flight than one meeting it for the first time, and the difference shows for hours after landing.

If your pet is small enough for the cabin on the outbound leg, the equipment is different: a soft carrier that fits under the seat, covered in the cabin article. The rigid crate is for the hold, and for every pet flying into Great Britain.

The container standards are the same on the commercial track, applied per consignment rather than per pet, with the border control post inspecting animals and crates on arrival. Switch the search on this site to commercial mode for your corridor’s requirements.

If you want to read the official guidance and standards:

• IATA, Traveler’s Pet Corner on iata.org.
• APHA and Defra, Pet travel: approved air, sea and rail carriers and routes on gov.uk.
• Defra, Bringing your pet dog, cat or ferret to Great Britain on gov.uk.