Canada - British Expat Forum

Hi all,

Just thought I better let everyone know, if you're planning to fly with dogs from UK to Canada via Amsterdam with KLM, you NEED passports for your dogs !

I've been thru the process with DEFRA and even though the official advice is you only require Pet Health Certificate etc, as final destination is Canada, Amsterdam Schipol will demand passports. It doesn't matter if you only have a short transfer time and don't claim your pet, they will still demand passports.

If you have your pet micro chipped already and booster jabs up to date, it is just a matter of getting rabies jab & applying for passports, which I'm told by vet can be done by the time the dog is allowed to fly, which is 21 days after the rabies vaccination. Apparently it used to take up to 7 months for pet passports to be issued.

I hope this advice helps someone, as Schipols demands for passports nearly ruined it for us. It was only that I'd looked into the ambigous KLM pet travel conditions and made some phone calls to them, with conflicting answers from them by the way !

We've decided to change to flights with CanadianAffair (Air Transat), who in the winter months fly direct to Vancouver out of Gatwick, also they allow dogs & cats in the hold, you just contact Air Transat with your booking ref & pay $275 canadian dollars per pet, no weight or pet crate size limit, no extra charge for ski/snowboard equipment

Thanks for letting us know. Very kind of you.