Airport transfer with pets

To book an airport transfer with pets, declare the animal, its size and its carrier when you book, and a vehicle is assigned that can take it. Assistance dogs are a separate matter entirely: they are not pets in law, they travel with their owner as of right, and no declaration or surcharge applies.

Which animals travel as pets

Dogs and cats make up almost every pet booking, and both are straightforward provided the vehicle is right and we know in advance. Small caged animals — rabbits, birds, rodents — travel in their carrier without difficulty.

What needs a conversation rather than a checkbox: very large breeds, more than two animals, animals travelling without their owner, and anything unusual. None of these is automatically refused, but each changes which vehicle and which driver can take the job, and a driver who arrives expecting a cat in a box and finds two large dogs loose will decline at the kerb.

Be specific about size. "A dog" covers everything from a two-kilogram terrier on a lap to a forty-kilogram shepherd that needs a boot with the seats down, and those are different vehicles.

Carriers, crates and restraint

An animal loose in a moving car is a hazard to itself and a distraction to the driver, and the road codes in the countries we operate in expect animals to be restrained so they cannot interfere with driving. In a crash an unrestrained animal becomes a projectile at the same multiple of its body weight as anything else in the cabin.

Bring a blanket or the animal's own bedding. It protects the upholstery, which matters for the cleaning question below, and a familiar smell settles an animal that has just spent hours in an aircraft hold.

Assistance dogs are not pets

Nothing above this heading applies to an assistance dog. In law it is a different subject with different consequences, and the distinction matters more than any other point on this page.

An assistance dog is a working animal — a guide dog, hearing dog, or a dog trained to support a physical or medical condition. Equality and disability legislation treats it as an auxiliary aid rather than as an animal the passenger has chosen to bring. In the United Kingdom, under sections 168 to 171 of the Equality Act 2010 as amended by the Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Disabled Persons) Act 2022, a licensed taxi or private hire driver must carry an assistance dog, must allow it to stay with its owner for the whole journey, and must not charge extra for it.

Refusing is a criminal offence. The only lawful exception is a medical exemption certificate issued by the driver's licensing authority — which must be applied for, granted in advance on medical evidence, and displayed in the vehicle. A driver who simply does not want a dog in the car has no defence. Convictions carry fines and, in practice, licence revocation: councils prosecute for this, and operators as well as drivers are bound, since a private hire operator may not refuse a booking because the passenger has an assistance dog.

The gap between the law and daily experience is wide. Guide Dogs UK reports that 81% of guide dog owners have been illegally refused access to a service — taxis among them — and that almost three in four of those owners were refused again within the preceding twelve months. If you travel with an assistance dog, you do not need to declare it, negotiate it, or pay for it. Telling us anyway is useful only so the driver can allow space, never as a request for permission.

Wheelchair and mobility requirements are covered on accessible transfers.

Booking an airport transfer with pets

Declare the animal when you book. A pet is not a bag that can be produced at the kerb — it changes the vehicle, and sometimes the driver, because not every driver will take animals and we do not assign one who will not.

• Say the species and the approximate weight. Size decides the vehicle more than species does.
• Say whether it travels in a carrier, and give the carrier's dimensions if it is a large one. A rigid crate for a big dog occupies the luggage space of two suitcases.
• Count the carrier as luggage, not as an extra. Families arriving with a cat box, two cases and a pushchair are close to a standard vehicle's limit before anyone sits down.
• Book the return leg separately. The pet does not carry across automatically, and this is the most common omission.

More than two animals, or an animal travelling unaccompanied, needs arranging rather than booking — tell us before you pay.

Charges and cleaning

Where a surcharge applies for carrying an animal it is shown at booking, before payment, alongside the vehicle assigned. Nothing is charged at the kerb for something declared in advance.

A cleaning charge is a different thing and applies only where a vehicle needs professional cleaning afterwards — heavy shedding on upholstery, mud, sickness or soiling. It is not routine and it is not a deposit taken by default. Two things reduce the risk to near zero: a blanket over the seat or boot floor, and not feeding the animal immediately before a journey.

Assistance dogs attract no surcharge of any kind. That is a legal requirement, not a courtesy.

What the border required before you reached us

The paperwork governing whether your animal could travel at all is checked by the airline and by border control, not by us. By the time you are in the car it has already been settled. It is worth knowing what it consists of, because the commonest failures happen before departure rather than after landing.

Movement of dogs, cats and ferrets into and within the EU rests on three things: an ISO-compliant microchip, a valid rabies vaccination, and either an EU pet passport for an EU-resident animal or a single-use animal health certificate for one arriving from outside.

Since 22 April 2026 a new EU framework has applied to non-commercial pet movement: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/705 replaced the 2013 scheme and set new model passports and animal health certificates. No more than five dogs, cats or ferrets may travel under the non-commercial rules in one means of transport. Great Britain left the EU pet travel scheme in 2021 and uses its own certificate format, so a GB pet passport issued before that date is no longer valid for travel to the EU.

Confirm current requirements with an official veterinarian well before you fly. Consequences of arriving without compliant paperwork run to quarantine, refusal of entry or return to origin.