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Need pet transportation service from Italy to USA

Posted by (San Diego, California) on

You all are amazing in your depth/range of practical info, so he's a real challenge:

My step-son and family are returning to the USA from three years in Italy, stationed at the Air Force base north of Venice. They have two large dogs to bring back. Finding pet air transportation services has been a real challenge. When they moved over there three years ago, there were options, expensive, but reliable. Now since Covid, there are very few options, and one quoted them 10,000 Euros, and the only departures are from either from Rome or Amsterdam. The dogs are family, so leaving the dogs behind to be re-homed in Italy isn't a consideration.

Does anyone have any experience in this area? The AF has no support services for transporting pets. The family will be leaving in a month, and hopes to have the dogs arrive in Houston, as it's a large airport with family nearby, and their next assignment is in New Mexico.

Military international moves are already stressful, as their furniture will take months to arrive, and they can't house hunt until they are stateside. This just adds to the challenges. Hopefully we have folks here who have some useful info.

Thanks so much, and safe travels!

Posted by
2681 posts

I work for an agent of Allied and North American Van Lines and for at least 20 years we have used Air Animal for complete pet relocation services, both domestic and international. The website indicates US to intl options, so I am not sure if they do Italy to US but I suspect if not then they might have contacts for that, might be worth a call 800-635-3448.

Posted by
4105 posts

Daughter did this 2 years ago. She lived in Napoli but had to drive to Rome for the best connection. This airline was the only one that transported on the same flight she was on.
They also have a cargo service for larger dogs.

https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/transporting-animals-as-excess-baggage

https://www.pettravel.com/airline_pet_rules/lufthansa_airlines.cfm?fb_comment_id=10150492192415275_10152944663610275

Edit. The charge for her 50# dog was $600 the 2 cats were $$300 each.

Have them contact Lufthansa ASAP, stringent
Regulations as far as health requirements and crate size.

Posted by
4738 posts

You might try contacting Karen on this forum, who recently moved back from Verbania with their large lab named Barley. I did a search on the forum for “Barley” and narrowed it to Forum results and she popped right up. Otherwise her blog is http://barleysgrandadventures.com/. I remember reading about the process and it was involved but all went well.

Posted by
6113 posts

Covid has changed the ease of pet movements, as there are so few flights between Europe and the USA. Flights have a limited number of pets that can be transported on each flight, your case probably not helped by there being 2 large dogs rather than one very small pooch. Far fewer flights means far fewer animals can be moved.

As general movement between Europe and America hasn’t been permitted for months, I doubt that anyone on this forum has any relevant experience.

Googling this question indicates that many airlines have suspended their direct animal transport services and you must use an agency. It maybe wise to shop around and get several quotes. With travel in a month’s time, your options maybe limited.

Posted by
10593 posts

Karen, mentioned above, has experience from December. I think where I saw the details on the arrangements to send Barley back to the US was on the closed Facebook group, Barley's Grand Adventures. Their plans had to be changed at the last minute due to new Covid rules by the Italian government. The dog was driven to Switzerland by the company, spent the night in the countryside and treated very well.

Posted by
5530 posts

Thanks for all the prompt input. This is just a situation made even harder by Covid and the resulting severely reduced flight services. The family has been working on this for months.

Posted by
1520 posts

Good luck pat, sounds like you have some good leads. I have a completely outdated story of my friend flying out of the st Louis Airport to join her army husband in Germany with a cat, a small terrier and a human toddler. Darn cat escaped carrier in the bowels of the Airport... she had to proceed with dog and kid, eventually baggage personnel trapped the hungry kitty, he spent a few days with me because he had to have new vet clearance and I took him to the airport in a new tamperproof carrier, and that time he made it!!!

Posted by
4105 posts

Pat,
Aviano is about an hour north of Venice by car.
Lufthansa is showing a few flights in April.

Venice>Frankfurt ( this is where pets are held and vet cleared for international flights) then on to Houston.

Hopefully this would work out for them.

Posted by
5530 posts

Thanks for all your concern. A complicating factor is that the military choses the family's flights home, generally with American carriers with whom there's established relationships. Therefore coordinating a flight for people with a flight for animals [in cargo] is even harder.
Just another covid complication.
Thx to all again.

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