Brussels Airlines Pet Policy

Many of us are pet lovers and make them follow you wherever you go. So when wanting to fly off with a pet, there are many airlines who are accepting the presence of live animals in their aircraft. Similarly, Brussels Airlines is one such airline, originating from Belgium which also accepts pets reservations to transport by their flights.

So the permission of pets on flights of Brussels airlines is done under certain rules stated by Brussels Airlines pet policy. Pet owners who want to make their pet fly abroad by Brussels flight have to meet all the conditions and follow all the instructions just for the betterment of their pet only.

According to Brussels Airlines’ pet policy, any species of animals can travel on flights in Brussels, but in-cabin and in-hold aircraft only dogs and cats as a pet of the passengers are accepted. And all other types of species of live animals can be sent to the cargo service of Brussels Airlines.

So here below we will describe all the descriptions of Brussels Airlines pet policy, by which your pet can travel safely and comfortably, either in-cabin or in the hold of the aircraft.

Traveling with pet

Traveling with a pet on a Brussels flight, there are many rules and regulations, depending on the animal size, weight, and even the destination you are flying to will have different conditions for accepting pets to entry to the respective country.

NOTE:
Pet permission to travel on a Brussels flight is totally subject to availability on one flight left. So it has been advised for pet passengers to book their pet tickets in advance by contacting Brussels’s service center.

Though when you are flying with an Assistance dog or Emotional support pet, then booking for them will be done separately by contacting Brussels’s Medical Assistance team.

Weight Of Pets

The airline offers the facility to travel with your pets either in the cabin or in the hold. The rules and regulations will apply according to the animals/pets and your destination. You need to check the availability of seats for your pets before booking. The airline has some weight restriction rules that are given below:

Pets in-cabin:

Each passenger is permitted a maximum of only 1 pet carriage to carry along with them in-cabin. There are other different criteria for pets by meeting up these conditions, your pet will get permission to travel in-cabin.

• While boarding an aircraft of Brussels flight, it’s mandatory to carry your pet in a closed pet carriage only.
• Pet carriage must meet the standards of the Brussels Airlines pet policy.
• And you can not bring them out rather you have to keep your pet close inside the pet carriage, during the flight journey.
• You have to place your pet cage under the seat of the passenger in front of you.
• The age of the pet must not be more than 12 weeks but if flying to the USA, you will get the privilege to carry a 16 weeks dog or cat as a pet in the cabin.
• While making your pet ready for the in-cabin flight journey, you have to keep them clean, hygienic, and odor-free. 
• You have to check that no such body part of your pet comes out of the pet carriage like tail, head, or paw, which may be harmful.
• At the time of boarding your pet has to be calm and relaxed and must be under the control of their pet.
• Pet traveling with you in the cabin may be pregnant, Brussels will only accept them when you will be having a vet’s certification that your pregnant pet is good in heath for the flight journey.

As you know, the booking of a pet in-cabin is dependent on the availability of space in the aircraft. Thus according to Brussels Airlines’ pet policy, only 4 pet carriage with a pet inside has been accepted in each aircraft of Brussels Airlines.

Weight criteria of dogs and cats to travel in-cabin along with you is:

• The weight of the cat along with the pet carriage can be at most 8kg/18lbs, but not more than that.
• Similarly, the Weight of the dog along with the pet carriage can be at most 8kg/18lbs, but not more than that.
• A disabled passenger traveling with an assistance dog has no restrictions on the size and weight of the pet. Moreover, you do not have to lock them in a carriage, but only have to harness them.
• And emotional support pets can fly only to or from the US and have no restrictions on weight and size.

Pet cage conditions:

So when talking about per carriage, standards for carrying in-cabin will be different from the pet carriage travel in a hold of aircraft. So these standards are:

• The first thing to keep in mind is the dimension of the pet cage which will be carried in the cabin. And that is a maximum of 118cm / 45 inches in a total of length, width & height.
• The container must be leak-proof if carried in a hard pet cage or waterproof if carried in a soft pet bag.
• The bottom of the cage must be fitted with some absorbent sheet or material.
• The inner or outer corners of the container must be smooth and soft so that neither animals inside nor passengers outside get harmed.
• The container should be clean and smell-free, due to the hygienic factor of your pet as well as co-passengers in-cabin.

A maximum of 2 adult pets of the same species can travel in the same container, only if they are comfortable and know each other for quite a while. Total weight measured thought must not exceed 8 kgs / 18 lbs which also includes pet carriage weight.

And if your pet is small in size then you can put 3 pets of utmost 6 months old who were knowing each other from birth can be kept inside the same container. The condition of the pet carrier is similar, its weight together (3 pets & cage) must be within 8 kgs / 18 lbs.

Seat restrictions:

While traveling with pets in the cabin, you can not get any seat of your choice. There will be some restricted areas where pet passengers will not get seats allocated in-cabin of aircraft and those are:

• Seat near emergency exit rows is prohibited for pet passengers.
• Your operated flight is on a narrow-body aircraft, then its first row can not be reserved by pet passengers.
• Seats near other co-pet-passengers are flying, i.e pets must be seated in district areas of aircraft, so that they may not get in touch with each other anyhow.

Pets in the hold of aircraft

When your pet fails to match the criteria for travel in-cabin along with you or your pet size is slightly too big to fit under the seat of a passenger, then your pet will be sent in the baggage hold of the aircraft as extra checked baggage of a passenger.

Traveling in the hold has also some conditions, in which your pet and pet carriage must be matched with Brussels Airlines pet policy.

• Your pet must be clean and tidy with a pleasant smell at the time of check-in for traveling as checked baggage is on hold.
• Containers of the pet must be according to the guidelines of the Brussels Airlines pet policy.
• Pet containers must be properly locked so that pets can not escape from the cage.
• And if the pet got lost then Brussels Airlines will not responsible for it.
• You should attach food and water supper with the container so that if your pet gets hungry or thirsty then they could fulfill themselves during the flight journey in the hold of the aircraft.
• If your pet is pregnant then, Brussels Airlines strictly do not permit your pet to fly in the baggage hold of the Brussels aircraft.
• Before letting your pet go to hold of the aircraft, just make sure by overlooking it that your pet’s body part (like tail, head, or paw) may not come out of the container which may be harmful to your pet only.

So in the hold of aircraft, you are only allowed to send dogs and cats as pets, though the size of the pet and weight is not restricted. But fees charged for pet transport will vary with the size and weight of the pet and the pet container only.

In some cases if you want cancellation then your pet reservation may be forfeited by the airlines and if the other case like rescheduling of the flight then you have to inform the booking department about your changes along with your pets.

Pet carriage conditions:

Pet containers for hold must be hard type only and there are certain guidelines that you follow as a pet owner, for a better travel journey of your pet only.

• The material of your pet carriage must be of hard plastic, or of non-reactive metal or of glass fiber, which is not easily breakable.
• Pet container must be leak-proof and screws & nuts are must be properly fitted.
• Pet must have a well-equipped lock facility, so that door did not get open and pet escape.
• Pet container must not have any such big hole from where your pet’s body parts like paw or tail, or snout can come out and harm themself.
• The cage should have a proper strong handle which will help the container to carry to the hold section by the staff of Brussels Airlines.
• Pet carriage must be spacious for the pet, where they can comfortably stand straight, lie down, or turn around in a natural way.
• Containers must have ventilation from all the 3 sides apart from the door.

If you want to keep more than one animal in one container, then you can keep 2 adult animals of the same species who are familiar with each other, but the only limit is they should be weighted within 14 kgs each over a strong pet container.

And a maximum of 3 pets, small in size of at most 6 months who know each other from birth can be kept in a similar container. But the condition is the same that each should weigh within 14 kgs.

Besides all this, if your pet weight is individually more than 14 kgs, then you can not lock more than 1 pet in one container to send in the baggage hold of Burrels Airlines aircraft.

Pets under cargo service:

As apart from In-cabin or in-hold service of pet transport, you can even get cargo service from Brussels Airlines for getting the live animal to transfer from one destination to another, internationally.

So under Brussels Airlines’ pet policy, animals flying in cargo can be of any species apart from dogs and cats which has been according to IATA Live Animals Regulation. So species of animals are:

• Rodents
• Rabbits
• Fish
• Birds
• Dogs
• Cats

And any other wild animals which are big in size and whose weight is more than 8 kgs can send live animals as in-cargo.

Charges for Pet Transportation

These charges are for the travel with your pets by Brussels Airlines. The one-way charges are as follows:

Document required for pet travel in Brussels Airlines flight

For making your pet travel abroad by flight, you have to collect some documents and certificates of pets which you have to place at the time of check-in and for getting approval for pet transport in flights of Brussels Airlines. So documents required are:

• Export permission papers for pet
• Import or transit permission paper for pet
• Pet passport or identification of one individual pet
• Health fitness certificate by a vet doctor
• Certificate of vaccinations done properly

Though you have all the documents fulfilled according to the needs of Brussels Airlines, but the country you are flying may refuse pet entry according to the norms of the respective country’s pet travel scheme. And Brussels Airlines is not at all responsible for the refusal of pets over any country.

EU regulations

EU regulations for pet transport has added new rules and regulations with new restriction and limits for transporting pets to or from Europe on 1 October 2004.

These are some standard guidelines for pets like cats and dogs as pets only which are flying to/from member states or countries which are within the EU.

So set of rules or guidelines added by EU regulations for pet transport are:

Apart from these requirements of pets, if you are flying to Malta, the UK, Ireland, and Cyprus, then you even have to issue a certificate as proof of tick treatment and tapeworm treatment to show them at the airport.

And traveling to Finland with a pet then you only have to palce proof of tapeworm treatment.

Safe countries according to the EU regulation for pet transport are:
Ascension Island, Antigua and Barbuda, Netherlands Antilles, Australia, Aruba, Barbados, Bahrain, Bermuda, Canada, Fiji, Falkland Islands, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan, St Kitts and Nevis, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Mauritius, New Caledonia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, St. Pierre et Miquelon, Singapore, St. Helena, USA, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, Mayotte.

Restricted pet breeds:

As a pet owner, you should know that most airlines in the world do not accept short-nosed or snub-nosed breeds of dogs or cats as pets in flight. As they have a respiratory problem when it comes to high altitude and thus face breathing problem which sometimes causes death. 

So travel of these breeds is not allowed in Brussels Airlines also. Breeds that are not permitted are pugs, bulldogs, boxers, Pekinese and all cross-breed as well as Himalayan, Persian and exotic short-hair cats.

But with an agreement launched by Brussels Airlines pet policy, you can make your pet of one such breed that can travel either in-cabin (PETC) or in-hold of aircraft (AVIH) and even in a cargo service of Brussels Airlines.

Steps to get your short-nosed breed pet on a Brussels flight is:

• There is a form for pet transport as in-cabin or as in-hold of aircraft. You have to find it on the official website and fill out and sign the form, by reading all the instructions and conditions for the following.
• And if you will be sending your pet under the cargo service of Brussels Airlines, then you have to fill out the form for pet travel in cargo that is also found on the official website.

And at the end, you have to send this form’s soft copy by mailing it to Brussel Airlines at release@brusselsairlines.com, to get advance approval information before your flight day.

Pet travel scheme to fly from/to the UK

As you will know to be the pet owner who flies often abroad through the air, that state of Europe or the UK does not allow pets to travel in-cabin. That is the reason Brussels Airlines also do not permit pets in the passenger cabin of Brussels flights.

Though if you are flying to London Heathrow in Uk, so accordance with UK pet travel scheme passengers are permitted to take away cats, dogs, or Ferrets as pets but in the cargo section of the aircraft, not in-cabin.

Being the pet owner, you will be responsible and have to fulfill all the requirements which your pet may require to pass all the guidelines of the Pet Travel Scheme of the UK to enter the respecting destination of the UK you are flying to.

Just keep this in mind that Brussels airlines will not permit or approve your pet’s travel to the UK in any condition if your pet is even missed with or incorrect one document or certificate which are been specified by the UK pet travel scheme

So for more detail and information contact, Brussel Airlines support team by emailing them on cargosupport@brusselsairlines.com.

There are many more things that will arise in your mind regarding Brussels Airlines’ pet policy. So feel free to contact Brussels airline’s official site or customer care center to get answers to your question for the same and even a part of this topic. You can even contact us, Treknova. Dial our toll-free number +1-800-831-1547 available 24*7 for your help.