IAG Cargo launches online booking for pets

Putting a new spin on the emerging digital capacity-booking trend, IAG Cargo and its affiliate carrier, British Airways, are offering a new pet transportation service on its U.K.-based routes, which customers can use to book slots for their pets on the carrier’s flights via IAG Cargo’s website.

The new offering is the result of a partnership with PetAir U.K., an organization that serves as a link between pet-owners and carriers, and manages the necessary import/export documents. The service uses its own temperature-controlled crates, which provide a dry, comfortable environment for pets, addressing customers’ concerns about the safety of their animals. PetAir’s relationships with airlines allow it to host a network of hundreds of international destinations.

IAG Cargo, the cargo-handling division of the IAG Group of carriers, is one of many industry players investing in the improvement of its live-animal transportation. Delta Air Lines and Emirates SkyCargo both launched similar initiatives in the last year. IATA also released a new certification in April, CEIV-Live Animal, to define a more concrete framework for the safe transportation of animals.

Perhaps IAG Cargo’s investment is also a mitigation tactic approaching Brexit, which will take place on March 29. BBC has warned that, in the event that there is a “no-deal” Brexit, “Pet owners who want to take their animals to the E.U. face having to make plans at least four months in advance” – just one of the many facets of E.U.-U.K. trade to be affected by the secession.