EVA Air refuses brachycephalic dogs and cats to, from or via Thailand all year round — not seasonally — and refuses the whole itinerary on every sector if any leg touches the listed Southeast Asian countries. Transiting somewhere else does not get round it. Read on EVA Air’s own site, 4 September 2026.
This does not mean your animal cannot come. It means the passenger booking on that carrier is the wrong product, and the conversation you need is with a BOAS-certified shipper about air freight. Section 03 below.
There are three separate products — cabin, checked baggage, and manifest cargo — with different rules, and “does this airline take pets” is the wrong question. Flat-faced breeds are the hard case, and the answer is usually air freight rather than a passenger booking. Measure the crate from the animal, never buy one by breed. Check every operating carrier in the routing, not just the one on your ticket. And get the total loaded crate weight early, because that number decides which product you are buying.
The three ways an animal flies
In the cabin. Under the seat in front of you, in a soft or hard carrier, subject to a small combined weight limit — typically single-figure kilograms including the carrier. Booked through your passenger reservation. Fine for a cat or a very small dog and irrelevant for anything larger.
As checked baggage. In a pressurised, temperature-controlled hold compartment on the same aircraft as you, booked through the passenger reservation and charged as excess baggage. This is what most people mean by “in the hold”. It has its own weight and dimension ceilings, and it is the product most often closed to flat-faced breeds.
As manifest cargo. A freight booking, made through the airline’s cargo arm or a pet shipper, where the animal travels as a consignment and is not tied to your ticket. It costs more and involves more paperwork. It is also frequently the only route for a large dog or a flat-faced breed, and it is the option people abandon too early because the passenger desk said no.
Those three have different rules, different limits, different prices and different embargoes. Name the one you mean every time you ask a question, or you will get an answer to a different question.
What each carrier actually says
Only carriers whose own page we opened and read appear here, each with the date. That is a short list on purpose. There is an entire industry of pet-travel articles restating airline policies copied from one another, and an owner who books on one of those can lose the money and still not fly the animal.
- These are the flag carrier's own published flat rates, and they are weight bands for the animal and container together — which is why the loaded crate weight is worth knowing before you shop routes.
- Pet charges sit outside your free baggage allowance entirely.
- Qatar publishes separate restrictions on dogs from high-risk countries travelling into the United States and Canada — relevant if Doha is a transit rather than your destination.
- The falcon rule is not a curiosity: it is the only cabin carriage Qatar names, which tells you the cabin is closed to cats and dogs however small.
- The 300 cm total-dimension line is the one to measure against early. It is a different threshold from EVA's 292 cm, which is why 'will it go as baggage' has to be answered per carrier rather than once.
- Emirates asks you to confirm permits, tests and vaccinations with them well before the flight, and will not make final arrangements until those are done.
- Pregnant animals and animals under four months old are not accepted.
- Tell EVA at least 48 hours before departure and complete the Passenger's Declaration for Live Animal in duplicate for the check-in desk.
- Check in two hours before departure, or two and a half at London Heathrow.
- Acceptance covers flights operated by EVA Air and UNI Air only. A codeshare or interline leg is the other airline's decision.
- EVA states the compartment carrying the animal has the same pressure and temperature as the passenger cabin.
- Dogs classified as fighting or dangerous breeds travel only in the hold and only in special crates. The exception is a dog aged three to six months, which may use a standard container and may be considered for the cabin.
- Note the wording on temperature: it covers the DESTINATION airport, not only departure. Bangkok is hot all year, which is exactly the condition being described.
- The 50 kg combined ceiling in the hold is a hard number few guides quote, and it is what rules out the largest dogs on this carrier.
Everything above can change without notice, and an absence on a page is not a permission. Where a carrier publishes nothing about flat-faced breeds we say so rather than reading silence as a yes. Ask in writing before you book.
Flat-faced breeds, and the certification nobody mentions
BOAS stands for Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome — the breathing problem that flat-faced dogs and cats have because of the shape of their airway. IPATA, the international pet transport association, certifies shippers specifically for these animals through its own courses, and runs a separate certified-veterinarian track alongside it.
The assessment is called Fit-To-Fly: a thorough clinical examination, assessing respiratory function in particular, but also weighing other risk factors including obesity, temperament and any significant pre-existing medical condition.
The owner questionnaire is the most useful document in this whole category, because it shows exactly what the answer turns on. It asks for:
- Species, sex, weight, age, microchip number and colour
- Primary and secondary breed, from IPATA's own snub-nosed lists — which include cats, not only dogs
- Heart or respiratory disease
- Epilepsy or seizures
- Joint disease
- Metabolic disease — diabetes, kidney or liver disease, cancer
- Current medications
- Any previous BOAS surgery, and the age at which it was done
- Any previous FAILED Fit-To-Fly assessment
- How well the animal is already acclimatised to its travel crate
- Airline, departure, arrival and transit airports, travel date and total flight duration
The questionnaire requires the owner to acknowledge a higher risk of death during flight for brachycephalic breeds. That is IPATA’s own wording, not ours, and it is the honest frame for this decision. Two of those questions are worth sitting with before you start: whether the animal has already failed a Fit-To-Fly assessment, and how long the total flight is including transit. Both are things you can change.
IPATA’s BOAS-certified shipper search and the owner questionnaire are both public. IPATA does not ship animals itself and takes no part in sales. Its members vary in experience and each sets its own policies, so membership is a starting point for your own checks rather than the end of them.
The crate — measured from the animal, never bought by breed
Buying a crate by breed name is one of the most common reasons an animal is turned away at the desk. The size comes off the animal, using the industry sizing rule:
- Height: the animal standing, without its head touching the roof.
- Length: nose to the root of the tail, plus half the height from the ground to the elbow joint.
- Width: twice the animal's width across the shoulder blades.
- The animal must be able to turn round normally while standing, stand and sit upright, and lie in a natural position.
And the build has to satisfy all of this:
- Rigid plastic, with one door only, and no way for the animal to escape or get a claw through.
- Working ventilation openings on more than one side.
- Recognisable at a glance as an animal container.
- Moisture-absorbing material covering the floor.
- The four sides of the door secured with cable ties, or the crate reinforced with netting or straps on the outside.
- Wheels removed before the crate is handed over.
- Food and water containers securely attached inside.
- Not acceptable: anything made entirely of welded or wire mesh, wicker, cardboard or collapsible material, and anything with two doors.
Shippers we have actually looked at
This is a short list and it is not exhaustive. Every entry is a company whose own site was opened and read on the date shown. It is not an endorsement. We have not checked licensing, insurance or any customer’s experience, and where a company says it belongs to an association that is its own claim, recorded as such. Verify membership yourself in IPATA’s directory before you send anyone money — it takes a minute and it is exactly the kind of check worth doing. BAANLYY takes no paid placement of any kind.
What to ask before you hand over your dog
- Have you moved this breed, at this weight, on this route, in this month — and what happened?
- Which airline are you booking, and is the animal going as checked baggage, as manifest cargo, or in the cabin? These are three different products with three different rule sets.
- Is any leg of the routing operated by a different airline? A codeshare leg is that airline's decision, not the one I booked with.
- Does any airport in the routing sit inside a seasonal embargo on my travel dates, including the transit airport?
- What is the total crate dimension and the total weight with the animal inside, and does that stay under the carrier's checked-baggage ceiling or does it have to move to cargo?
- Who physically holds the animal during the transit, and for how long?
- What is the written quote, what is excluded from it, and what happens to my money if the airline refuses the animal at the desk?
- For a flat-faced breed: are you BOAS certified, and who does the Fit-To-Fly assessment?
Then get the answers in writing. A shipper who will not put the routing, the operating carriers and the refusal terms in an email is telling you something.
The paperwork side is a separate problem with its own timing traps — work it out on the pet import timeline planner, and read the import guide for the forms. Once the animal is here, the other half is finding a building that will have it.
Common questions
Can a French bulldog or pug fly to Thailand?
Not on EVA Air, at any time of year. EVA lists Thailand among the Southeast Asian countries where brachycephalic dogs and cats are prohibited for the whole year, and states that an itinerary involving those countries is refused on every sector — so routing through somewhere else does not get round it. That is unusual and specific: most carriers apply a seasonal embargo, and EVA's Thailand rule is permanent. Other carriers differ, and the practical route for a flat-faced breed is often air freight rather than a passenger booking. Ask each carrier in writing before you book anything.
My airline says snub-nosed dogs cannot go in the hold. Is that the end of it?
No, and this is the single most expensive misunderstanding in pet travel. A passenger airline barring these breeds from the aircraft hold does not mean the airline group will not carry the animal. Lufthansa bars snub-nosed dogs and cats from the passenger hold and says on the same page that they can travel as air freight with Lufthansa Cargo. The passenger booking and the cargo booking are separate products with separate rules and separate people to talk to. Owners give up at the passenger desk every day when the answer was one department across.
What are the three ways a pet can fly, and why does it matter?
In the cabin, under the seat in front of you, subject to a small combined weight limit. As checked baggage, in a pressurised hold compartment on the same flight as you, booked through the passenger reservation. Or as manifest cargo, which is a freight booking made through the airline's cargo arm or a shipper, where the animal travels as a consignment and is not tied to your ticket. They have different rules, different limits, different prices and different embargoes — which is why 'does this airline take pets' is the wrong question. The right one names which of the three you mean.
What size crate does my dog need?
It is measured from the animal, not chosen by breed. Height is the animal standing without its head touching the roof. Length is nose to the root of the tail, plus half the height from the ground to the elbow joint. Width is twice the animal's width across the shoulder blades. Inside it the animal must be able to turn round normally while standing, stand and sit upright, and lie in a natural position. Buying a crate by breed name rather than measuring is one of the most common reasons an animal is refused at the check-in desk.
Is there a weight limit that stops a large dog flying?
Yes, and it varies by carrier and by product. Turkish Airlines caps the hold at 50 kg for the animal and carrier together, and 8 kg in the cabin including the carrier. EVA Air will not take a cage over 292 cm in total dimensions or over 45 kg including the cage as checked baggage at all — over that it has to move to cargo. Work out your total crate dimensions and loaded weight early, because that number, not the dog's weight alone, is what decides which product you are buying.
What is BOAS certification?
BOAS is Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome, the breathing problem flat-faced dogs and cats have because of the shape of their airway. IPATA, the international pet transport association, certifies pet shippers specifically for these animals through its own courses, and runs a separate certified-veterinarian track. The assessment is called Fit-To-Fly: a clinical examination focused on respiratory function but also weighing obesity, temperament and pre-existing conditions. If you have a flat-faced breed, a BOAS-certified shipper is the person to be talking to, and almost nobody writing about pet relocation mentions the programme exists.
Why does this page cover only a handful of airlines?
Because those are the ones whose own pages we read, and each entry shows the date we read it. There is a whole industry of pet-travel articles restating airline policies copied from each other, often years out of date, and an owner who books a flight on one of those loses the money and sometimes cannot fly the animal at all. A few carriers read properly is worth more than thirty copied. We would rather tell you what we checked and when than pad the page — and where a carrier's page was silent on flat-faced breeds, we say it was silent rather than reading that as a yes.
Can my pet fly in the cabin to Thailand?
On most of the long-haul carriers into Bangkok, no. Emirates does not permit pets in the cabin at all, and goes further than most in requiring even assistance dogs for vision- and hearing-impaired passengers to travel in the hold kennels. Qatar Airways does not carry cats or dogs in the cabin either — the only cabin carriage it publishes is a falcon, one per passenger in Economy. EVA Air accepts no pets in the cabin except service dogs. Turkish Airlines does allow a cabin pet up to 8 kg including the carrier. If in-cabin travel is essential to you, that narrows the carrier list before anything else does.
What does it actually cost to fly a pet to Thailand?
The only prices on this page are Thai Airways' own published flat rates for a pet as checked baggage, because they are the only ones we did not have to estimate: USD 300 up to 10 kg, USD 450 up to 20 kg, USD 600 up to 30 kg and USD 750 up to 40 kg, and those bands are the animal and its container together. That is one carrier on one product. Cargo bookings, shipper fees, crates, vet visits and endorsements are all separate and vary enormously, and we do not publish estimates for them — get quotes for your actual animal and route.
Does a codeshare flight follow the same rules?
No, and this catches people out on connecting itineraries. EVA Air states that its pet acceptance covers flights operated by EVA Air and UNI Air only, and that any other airline in your itinerary has to be asked separately. The rules that apply to a leg are the rules of the airline that actually operates it, not the one whose ticket you hold. Check every operating carrier in the routing, including the one flying the short connection.
Sources & References
- Thai Airways — travelling with pets (the carrier's own page)
- Qatar Airways — travelling with pets (the carrier's own page)
- Emirates — travelling with pets (the carrier's own page)
- EVA Air — travelling with pets (the carrier's own page)
- Lufthansa — travelling with pets (the carrier's own page)
- Turkish Airlines — travelling with pets (the carrier's own page)
- IPATA — Certified BOAS (snub-nosed) pet shippers
- IPATA — BOAS pet owner questionnaire
- Thailand Pet Mover — company website
- United Pet Express — company website
- Pet Relocation Thailand — company website
- Feathers & Fur Express — company website
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
General information only — not veterinary, legal or transport advice. BAANLYY is not a pet shipper, a freight forwarder or a veterinary practice, is not affiliated with any company named here, and takes no paid placement. Airline policies, embargoes, breed lists and fees change without notice; confirm everything directly with the operating carrier and, for a flat-faced breed, with a BOAS-certified shipper and vet before booking.