Air China Pet Policy

Whenever you want to fly with your pets, you must know certain things that will help your pet’s smooth traveling. This pet policy of any airline is essential, so that, when your pet is in flight, they don’t find any discomfort or risk to their life. In a similar way, when flying with Air China, they have a different set of rules under the Air China Pet Policy.

So talking about the Air China Pet Policy, you will get to know all the information, rules, and restrictions. This is something every passenger of Air China, who is about to fly with their pet for the first time must know. Obviously, if you want your pet to travel safely and comfortably without any difficulty, then do follow these rules.

Air China Airlines has permitted only cats and dogs as pet animals which you can carry if you want on a flight. But there are some breeds of cats and dogs which are quite aggressive and can harm co-passengers, or are suspected as dangerous and are not allowed to carry on the flight. Also, there are some other breeds that due to their respiratory problem for their physical build-equipment like short-nosed breeds of cats and dogs.

So here are some included breeds of cats and dogs which are not permitted to fly in a flight

Key Guidelines Before Traveling With Pets on Air China

So below we will be describing all the information, those are required to fly with pets in Air China aircraft.

• Only dogs and cats as live animal pets have been accepted by Air China’s pet policy airlines. 
• The age of cats and dogs must be at least 8 weeks, i.e not less than 8 weeks when an animal is not accepted to travel on a flight.
• If you are having your flight ticket and want to travel with your pet and have yet to purchase your pet ticket then you can purchase it at least 24 hours before flight departure.
• If your pet is pregnant or in a lactation period, then also Air China doesn’t allow it to fly.
• If your pet is born just 7 days back, then you must not try to make them fly. Flying may risk their lives at such a small age as they will not be able to handle the pressure and the change of environment.
• While traveling with live animals, you should have valid animal quarantine certificates and a much more essential health certificate.
• You will need to follow up on any conformational national documentation which may be needed at the exit or entry gate. Or sometimes you will be asked to show when you are transporting small animals.
• Under Air China’s pet policy, you can’t take your pet along with you in a cabin in any case, even if it’s a small animal pet.
• You have to send your pet as checked baggage to the cargo department of the aircraft.
• If the size of your pet is small, then Air China will consider being a piece of special baggage and you will be asked for separate fees which they normally charged for any other special baggage.
• While traveling you must confirm your pet reservation to Air China in advance. Cause, only one pet container is permitted to fly on every aircraft of Air China.
• You can’t keep more than one animal in the same container, as this is not allowed by the Air China pet policy.
• Each weight of the container with your pet in it must not exceed 32 kg and the weight also includes excess food or water you kept inside for your pet.
• If the weight of the container box exceeds the weight mentioned in the above point then your pet animal will be traveling in an aircraft as a cargo hold. 

Pet travel with Air China can be transported which has been operated only on-way flights that are direct. Whether it’s domestic to domestic or it’s domestic to international locations.

Usually, Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu are the connecting destinations in China from where pet travel with Air China flights is available easily and with full safety and care. These places usually come up in the list cause, from these locations in china, the travel time of flight is at least 2.45 hours

If your flight is not direct or flight time is exceeding 4 hours then at the middle stop, pets surrender to their owner for a while, so that they can feed and make them walk around for refreshment. Before you are boarding for the next half of your journey, give its custody back again to the airlines for completing the further flight journey of your pet.

Animals/Pets Container

So in China, there are restricted rules or requirements which you have to follow when you are putting your pet in a container and making it fly, under the Air China pet policy.

So you have to meet the details according to “National Standards GBT26543-2011, the People’s Republic of China that is General Requirements on the Packing of Animals for Air Transportation”.

Here are some of the requirements:

1. The pet carrier should be solid and well-conceived so that the small animal can not escape and not injure the passenger or damage the cargo, baggage, or aircraft. The carrier should be big enough and have proper ventilation so that the pet can move easily and will not feel suffocated. The carrier should be leakage-proof so the urine and dung of the pet will not come out from the carrier.
2. The container ventilation holes must be fitted with metal meshes for the animals’ comfort.
3. The container holes for ventilation must be somewhere closer to the top of the three walls without a door and the diameter of the container hole shall be at least 2.5cm, and the distance from one hole to another shall be 10cm.
4. Container base material should be strong so that container holds your pet perfectly.
5. The total area of the ventilation holes shall be at least 16% of that of the container’s four walls and all container ventilation holes must be conceived because the small animal’s nature is poking around yourself so it helps to save that time to poking its nose or paws outside the container.
6. The animal’s container is wrapped with cotton or linen mesh that can protect the animals in the container and can prevent the animal from escaping.
7. The container doors must be on one of the four sidewalls and can be locked with a metal chain. 
8. If the two pets have a weight of 14 Kg each, then the airline allows to stay them in one container. But if each pet has more than 14 kg, they will carry it in separate containers. You can carry 3 pets in one carrier with or without a compartment when they age up to 6 months only.
9. The containers for large dogs should have two layers of doors, spaced 1cm apart. The door must be of closely meshed connected metal bars. The container doors should be locked with two or three laches and absolute safety to be fitted with additional metal chains.
10. The total weight of your pet including carrier, pet, feed, and water should be a maximum of 45 kg for domestic flights and 32dfG for international flights. If the weight will exceed the above-given points then it can not be checked out as baggage but as cargo.
11. Animals that need to eat and drink in the process of transportation time must use that type of container which are reliable utensils for feed and water which can prevent the animal feed from being spilled over the floor.
12. The feed provided shall not be in violation of the relevant rules and regulations of the state which is decided for the animals.
13. You are allowed only two carriers for each flight.
14. The baggage charges will not be applicable for small pets.
15. Even small pets/animals can not be checked as baggage at hong kong airport, there must be checked as cargo.

What you need to know before traveling with your pets in Air China

While doing reservations for pets till you depart from the flight. There are many procedures you have to follow if flying with live animals on Air China Airlines.

• You have to call up Air China ticket booking officials to inform them in advance that you have a pet booking too. Because you have to fill out the application which they will ask for under the Air China pet policy.
• They will check over which type of pet you will be flying and other such requirements to be done for the pet for a smooth flight with Air China.
• Before your flight, you should have all the agreements and documents that Air China airlines needed to approve your pet to have a flight journey.
• Small Animals with a Quarantine certificate from a veterinarian are not needed to present in the application process of confirmation of your pets to fly.
• If in case they change your flight tickets, or aircraft whose carriage department atmosphere may not suit the presence of a pet, then they can cancel your pet’s booking. In this case, you may have to leave your pet at the airport or you can change your flight so that your pet can fly comfortably.
• On the day of departure when you have your pet with you to have a flight, then you should reach the airport at least 2-3 hours early the departure time. As check-in with live animals takes time to look carefully at all the requirements done and after that only you will get permission for your pet to fly.
• Small pets belong to the special baggage category and are also charged special baggage fees.
• Air China will charge you fees separately for pet carrier hold, when you will be at the airport they will ask you to pay transportation expenses for your pet.

ALERT :

• Air China Airlines will not be responsible for any sort of harm, injury, or pet life death under transportation conditions in aircraft or when carried out. If in any case your pet gets to escape from the container and gets lost, airlines will not claim your loss of a pet.
• Air China may even refuse to carry your pet on a flight even as a carriage bag sometimes due to the country you are flying to not accepting pets on flights.

Thus, these are some general principles you have to maintain while traveling with a pet not only for your pet’s well-being but also for the co-passengers traveling along with you in the same cabin. This Air China has a General set of rules, you have to follow if you are an Air China’s pet passenger.

You may contact the Air China Customer Support Team, for confirmation or to clear your questions and queries directly to them. In case they fail to respond, you can contact us, Treknova also regarding the Air China pet policy. You can call up, our toll-free number +1-800-831-1547 for urgent help. We are there for you to solve your problems.