Airline
Airlines and dogs: cabin, hold or cargo
Flying with a dog depends first on the airline: every carrier sets its own weight limit, its own carrier dimensions and its own rules for the hold. This page brings together the 102 airlines whose pet policy we have read, with the official page consulted and the date it was verified.
For each airline, the page says whether a dog can fly in the cabin with its owner, travel in the hold as accompanied baggage, or be shipped as cargo. Where the official page does not settle the question, we write "to confirm" rather than invent an answer: flying with a dog is planned on facts, not on assumptions. And because airlines rewrite these pages without notice, every policy carries the date we last read it.
No match.
Cabin, hold or cargo: three ways to fly a dog
Airlines distinguish three ways for a dog to travel, each with its own conditions. In the cabin, your dog stays with you in a carrier under the seat, an option intended for small dogs. In the hold, it travels in a rigid crate as accompanied baggage on the same flight as you, with transport booked alongside your ticket.
Cargo is something else. The dog is handled as a shipment, with its own booking, often a specialised agent, and a journey no longer tied to your plane ticket. Some airlines will only fly a dog through that channel, notably into the United Kingdom or Australia. When a policy says "cargo only", it does not close the journey: it tells you which counter to use so the dog can fly.
A refusal in the cabin does not necessarily rule out the journey, as hold or cargo transport may still be possible. The options depend on your dog, your route and the airline's conditions for each mode of transport.
What really changes from one airline to the next
For cabin travel, 58 airlines publish a weight limit ranging from 6 to 10 kg, and 43 set it at 8 kg. Since 57 of those 58 limits include the carrier, a 7 kg dog may exceed the applicable limit once the carrier's weight is added. In those cases, the combined weight, rather than the dog's weight alone, determines whether the limit is met.
In the hold the consensus disappears: 42 airlines publish a limit, and it spreads from 25 to 100 kg, a factor of four depending on the carrier you choose. Then come rules of another kind: 6 countries ban certain breeds whatever the flight, 18 airlines publish their own list of refused breeds, and 6 apply a seasonal heat embargo that can refuse in July a route accepted in March.
Before booking a plane ticket, the useful question is therefore not only "which airline" but "which dog, which route, which date". A ten-kilo dog does not travel like a forty-kilo one, and the same flight may accept it in March and refuse it in July. That is exactly what our flight search compares, channel by channel, for each route requested.
Flying with a dog: common questions
Can my dog fly in the cabin?
It depends on its weight and on the airline. Of the 58 airlines publishing a cabin limit, the range runs from 6 to 10 kg and 43 stop at 8 kg — carrier included in 57 cases out of 58. Above that, the dog travels in the hold or as cargo, and some airlines simply do not offer the cabin at all.
What is the difference between the hold and cargo?
In the hold, the dog travels as accompanied baggage: you book it with your ticket and you are on the same flight. As cargo, it travels as a shipment, with its own booking and often a specialised agent. Both place the animal in the aircraft hold, but they are two counters, two fares and two procedures — and a policy that closes one may leave the other open.
Does the published weight include the carrier?
Almost always, and it is the most ordinary cause of an avoidable boarding refusal: 57 of the 58 published cabin limits count the dog and its bag together. Weigh both before booking, not just the animal.
Are snub-nosed dogs refused everywhere?
No, and two things must be told apart. A snub-nosed refusal is physiological: it concerns the breathing risk, varies from one airline to the next and often applies to the hold only. A breed ban is legal and comes from the destination country: 6 countries ban certain breeds whatever the flight, and no airline can override them. Changing carrier never solves a national ban.
Do assistance dogs follow the same rules?
No. Guide and assistance dogs fall under a separate regime with its own eligibility conditions, and pet rules do not transfer to them as they stand. A policy that refuses a pet in the cabin therefore says nothing about an assistance dog, whose case is checked separately with the airline.
Is this information up to date?
Every policy carries the official page it was read on, the quoted sentence where one exists, and the date it was verified — the most recent in our database is October 31, 2026. Airlines rewrite these pages without notice: we re-verify in batches, and we would rather show "to confirm" than an answer the source does not give.
Answers drawn from the 102 policies read on the airlines' own official pages. Before booking a flight, confirm with the airline and with the authorities of the destination country: the rules change, and they change without warning.