Can I travel with my dog by air in India?
“Yes you can”. Here is my experience of traveling in Air India with my little puppy. Meet Bruno who traveled with me.
My native is UP and needed to take Bruno from UP to Bangalore which included flight from Delhi to Bangalore. I chose Air India because that is the only Airline which allows small puppy to be taken inside the cabin. If I would have carried him in the dogs compartment, he would probably have not survived the flight given he was very young and chances of dog compartments having oxygen issues are not rare.
I searched on internet and found this link on Air India website. It says, they allow pets (less than 5 kg including crate) to be carried inside the cabin.
First thing I did was call the customer care and ask for the whole process, to which I got a reply that they don’t allow the puppy inside cabin. I chose to trust the website more than the customer care.
I got all the vaccination records (All vaccines for a 1 months old) with a doctor’s certificate stating that the dog is good to travel by Air and does not carry any disease.
I traveled from UP to Delhi Airport and reached at 2:00 am for a flight of 5:15 am (little early as buffer) and reached the check-in counter with Bruno. I was told that I will have to wait till the pilot comes and only after his permission I will be allowed to board the flight. I waited at Airport with Bruno.
He was whining inside the basket and running around in open, so, I had to make a closed boundary for him to be contained. He enjoyed sleeping on the floor while I was sleepless on whether the captain will allow us or not.
I waited till 4:15 am and since it was just 15 more minutes to check-in, I was quite worried already. I talked to the attendant on the counter and was told that captain was yet to come. He also mentioned that normally if the dog is not in muzzle, they are denied entry. As I did not have muzzle for him (as doctor told me he is too small for muzzle), I was quite certain that I was going to lose my flight and have to go back. I talked to the manager at the check-in counter and asked him to explain the situation to the pilot that the dog is too small and unlikely to create a situation inside the flight. He said he will try.
At 4:20 am, attendant called me and told me that I got permission to fly and I was very happy. I got the boarding pass and reached the security gate. I did the scan and the policeman asked me to produce document for the dog which I did not have. I was asked to go back to the counter to get a slip for the dog (nobody had clue of which slip). Attendant called somebody to clarify and finally I was asked to go to another counter to weigh the dog and pay for the dog as per luggage charges (Rs 250/kg). I got the payment slip for the same and reached the security gate. I was allowed after producing the payment slip for the dog as a luggage.
Finally we flew and Bruno did not whin or even make a sound in the flight at all (I was quite lucky on this). People next to me could not even figure out that there was a puppy right below the seat in front of me until I took the basket out and they saw him.
We finally reached Bangalore and Bruno did his morning business right after coming out of the Airport. We took a taxi to our home from Airport.
Point to note: There was very different information I got from people about taking a dog in the flight from Customer Care, Carriage staff, ticket counter etc which was totally wrong. The information on the website was the most accurate one.
It was quite a stressful travel with Bruno from UP to Bangalore. Here is Bruno after reaching home in Bangalore.
Written By – Rajeev Sharma, lives in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
