Can You Travel with a Pet Pigeon Overseas?


Can You Travel with a Pet Pigeon Overseas?

Pigeons are one of the only bird species that aren’t classified as exotic pets. In other words, pigeons are one of the only birds that can travel on an airplane without too many restrictions. Since you can already carry them on a plane, can you travel with a let pigeon overseas?

It’s possible to travel overseas with your pet pigeon, but it requires more preparation than traveling casually between states. For the perfect experience, you should try to ensure that your airline allows you to transport pet pigeons and you should make sure to alert them before the flight.

In this article, you’ll learn the potential problems that might obstruct the process of transporting a pigeon overseas. Then, I’ll show you some of the best ways to transport a pigeon across borders and some of the best airlines willing to help you do just that.

Can You Travel Internationally with a Pet Bird?

Can You Travel with a Pet Pigeon Overseas?

There are many reasons why you may want to travel with your pet bird, but those reasons don’t matter much in this context. Most airlines already have their policies about bird travel set in stone and trying to convince anyone will be an ineffective tactic.

Therefore, it’s only recommended to only bring your bird along on a flight after you’ve already confirmed that it’s allowed on that specific airline. Fortunately, airlines don’t typically have stringent policies against birds. Unless you’re traveling with an exotic bird, you should have a good time.

How Do You Transport a Bird Overseas?

Transporting a bird isn’t much of a big deal. As long as you can carefully choose the right time, the right travel equipment, and the right airline, everything should go just fine.

However, everyone wishes that things are easier done than said, but they aren’t. Here are the step-by-step processes to transporting a pet pigeon overseas.

  1. Do some preliminary research.

As funny as this may sound, there are stories of people that showed up with pigeons immediately before departure without any prior notice to the airline. They had to leave their birds behind 100% of the time for obvious reasons.

One of the cruelest ways to punish a pigeon is to attempt bringing it along on a flight without learning the due process. There are usually so many things to learn, some of which will may make or break the entire travel experience.

For example, some countries will require you to bring a health clearance along when bringing in a bird, while some countries don’t allow you to own pet pigeons at all. Even if your airline will let you travel with your pigeon, you’ll still get a rejection if you’re going to a jurisdiction where pet pigeons are banned.

Another important reason why you need some preliminary research is to learn about the airline’s policies on bringing a pet pigeon. Most airlines will let you travel with your pigeons, but only some will allow you to bring it along in the cabin.

If you’ve been dreaming of bringing your pigeon along in the airplane’s cabin, you may want to check what the airline’s policies say about it.

  1. Get an airline-approved bird carrier.
Can You Travel with a Pet Pigeon Overseas?

After confirming that it’s okay to bring your dog along on the airline and to your destination, it’s time to prepare for the flight.

The process of choosing the perfect bird carrier for your bed starts weeks before the scheduled date of the flight. Regardless of how comfortable your bird may look in the carrier, your pigeon should grow into it before the date of the flight.

If your bird feels uncomfortable in the cage, it will cause unnecessary stress for the bird during the flight. To avoid this, it’s important to keep your bird in the cage for some days before the actual flight date.

It’s also important to know that your bird will never grow into an uncomfortable cage. Before the flight, you should check the airline’s requirements to ensure that your cage is neither too big to fly in the airplane nor too small to fit your pigeon comfortably.

If you have more than one bird, you don’t need separate carriers for each. You can simply pick up a pet carrier designed to carry two birds at once, which is every bird carrier in existence.

  1. Alert your airline before the flight.

To avoid any disappointments during departure, it’s important to let your airline know of your intention to travel with a pet pigeon, even if their policies clearly show that it’s allowed. In most cases, extra fees will be applicable, and some airlines will reject if you didn’t inform them beforehand.

When making the reservation, your airline should inform you if you can carry the bird in the cabin. Most airlines will let you do that, but there’s no assurance that the airline you booked will. Knowing where your pigeon will be traveling is important to determine the best kind of travel carrier you should get.

What Airlines Allow You to Travel with Pigeons?

Can You Travel with a Pet Pigeon Overseas?

If you have substantial experience with carrying animals in planes, you should already know that your options are usually limited. If you’re not carrying a cat or a dog, you usually have to settle for the available and often limited options.

With pigeons, that isn’t usually the case. There is a surprising amount of airlines willing to help you carry your pigeon internationally, with some allowing you to carry them in the airplane’s cabin.

If you want your pigeon next to you in the cabin, you should consider using Air India, Air Europa, Delta, Aeroflot Airlines, or some of the other few airlines that let you transport your pigeons in the cabin. They all have different requirements and policies, but the travel experience should be largely the same.

If you’re fine with your bird traveling as part of the airplane’s cargo, Alitalia, Finnair, Japanese Airlines, or Aegean Air should work fine.

You don’t have to use any of the airlines mentioned above. If your favorite airline has a passable bird transporting policy with a good track record with animals, you should have a good traveling experience.

Gui Hadlich

Hey there, I'm Gui! These are my 2 good pals Ozzy and Luna. I've gone through the headache of figuring out what to do when either traveling with them or leaving them behind, and I know it can be a pain. I created Pets Travel Guide to make your life a bit easier when you love your pet but also love to travel!

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