KLM and Air France Pet Policy From Canada: Two Rulebooks

KLM and Air France have been one group since 2004 and they sell each other’s flights, so a Toronto or Montreal itinerary to Amsterdam or Paris will often carry both names. Their pet conditions are not one document. The cabin ceiling matches at 8 kg including the bag, and after that they publish different amounts of detail, different container sizes and different breed lists. On a booking where the ticket says one airline and the aircraft belongs to the other, sorting out which set applies is the first job.

This guide sets out what each airline publishes, what Canada requires on the way out, and where the two interact. Sources are KLM, Air France, the CFIA and the European Commission, checked on 8 September 2026.

KLM allows a cat or dog in the cabin at 8 kg (17.6 lb) with the animal inside. Air France allows cats and dogs “weighing less than 8 kg / 17.64 lb., including the carrier”.

Neither number describes the animal on its own. Put the pet in the bag, stand on a scale, subtract yourself. Come in under and the trip is a fee and a soft carrier. Come in over and it becomes freight, which is a different specification, a different budget and a longer runway. KLM takes one cat or dog in the cabin.

KLM publishes a cabin bag limit of 46 x 28 x 24 cm, given also as 18 x 11 x 9 in. Air France’s passenger pages set the weight ceiling and do not publish carrier dimensions.

KLM’s number is worth pausing on because it is tight. It is smaller than what our Lufthansa guide records for the same job, so a bag bought in Canada for a German itinerary may not clear a Dutch one. Where Air France publishes nothing, buy to the smaller standard on the route and confirm with the airline rather than assuming the more generous limit applies.

Both airlines cap the hold the same way. KLM allows up to 75 kg (165 lb) for the animal and kennel combined; Air France allows a pet up to 75 kg / 165.35 lb with its carrier.

KLM also publishes container size limits, and there are two of them. On KLM flights the kennel may be up to 122 x 81 x 89 cm, or 48 x 32 x 35 in. On KLM European flights the limit drops to 102 x 69 x 76 cm, or 40 x 27 x 30 in.

That second figure is the one that catches Canadians, because very few of us are flying to Amsterdam and stopping there. A kennel sized for the transatlantic leg out of Toronto can be too large for the intra-European leg that follows it, and a container is not something you swap at a transfer desk in Schiphol. Size for the smallest aircraft on the whole itinerary, not for the ocean crossing. Our crate size guide covers measuring the animal, and airline crate requirements from Canada covers the build.

Anyone relocating a household rather than a single animal should read KLM’s sharing rule, which is unusually permissive. Its ceiling is 3 animals to a kennel below deck, none heavier than 14 kg (31 lb), and the group has to be either 2 adults of comparable size or 3 littermates no older than 6 months.

The conditions narrow it fast. A trio has to be one litter, still under six months. A pair has to be evenly matched. And nothing over 14 kg qualifies at all, so two 20 kg dogs are two kennels regardless of how well they share a bed at home. When it does apply the saving is worth having, since the charge follows the container rather than the animal inside it.

Two lists appear under KLM’s heading for breeds it will not carry below deck.

The cat list is four: Burmese, Exotic Shorthair, Himalayan and Persian.

The dog list runs longer: Affenpinscher, American Bully, Boston Terrier, Boxers of all breeds, Bulldogs of all breeds, Bull Mastiff, Cane Corso, Pugs of all breeds, Chow-Chow, Great Dane of all breeds, certain Spaniels (Tibetan, Japanese, English and King Charles), Brussels Griffon, Lhasa Apso, Mastiffs of all breeds, Neapolitan Mastiff, Pekingese, Small Brabant, Shih Tzu, Shar Pei and Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

Two features of that list matter here. It reaches well past the flat-faced breeds, taking in Great Danes, Cane Corsos and every Mastiff, so the reliable method is to check the names rather than judge by the muzzle. And other carriers do accept several of these dogs below deck, so the same animal leaving Pearson can have a route on one airline and none on another. Destination law is a separate filter again, covered in our list of banned dog breeds by country.

Air France is quieter on this. Its passenger pages handle weight, booking and fees, and stop there; no comparable list appears. The wording it does offer is that transport “may be refused depending on the availability of the flight or if it does not meet the requirements for transporting an animal in the hold”. Which means that on an Air France booking the breed question has to be asked directly and answered before you commit to a date. The site will not settle it for you.

KLM explains itself: “Your snub-nosed pet may have trouble breathing during the flight due to high temperatures and stress.” What follows from that is a bar on the hold, paired with an alternative the airline states in the same breath, that “you can take them with you in the cabin or transport them as cargo”.

Buried in that alternative is the distinction Canadians miss most often, and it is the same one that explains why Air Canada sells what it sells. Pets move three ways, not two. Under the seat on your own ticket. Below deck as accompanied baggage, still tied to your reservation. Or as freight on its own air waybill, which is a different transaction entirely and which KLM hands to a specialised shipping agent rather than handling itself.

So an oversized Pug is not out of options on KLM. It has simply left the accompanied-baggage route and joined the freight one, which is dearer and slower to set up but perfectly real. Learning that at the point the breed list closes the hold, rather than a week later, is what keeps the move on the calendar.

KLM states that your pet “should travel on the same flight as you and should be at least 15 weeks old”.

Fifteen is not arbitrary. It is what the European rabies sequence produces: a puppy or kitten can be vaccinated at 12 weeks at the earliest and the vaccine needs 21 days to take effect, so twelve plus three is fifteen. The airline rule and the entry rule land on the same date from opposite directions.

That is worth knowing if you are buying a puppy at a distance and someone offers to fly it to you sooner. The arithmetic is the reason that cannot be done properly, and our guide to breed restrictions on pet shipping covers the other checks worth running on an animal you have not met.

The airline conditions above are only half the job. The other half is Canadian and it usually sets the date.

A pet leaving Canada for the EU needs an export certificate completed by your own veterinarian and endorsed by an official CFIA veterinarian, and the CFIA is clear that the endorsement cannot be done once the animal has left Canada. Nothing in that file can be repaired from Amsterdam or Paris. Book the endorsement appointment first and fit the flight around it. Our guide to the CFIA health certificate covers the two-step process, and the fee is set by the officer at the appointment rather than published in advance.

The good news is the part that is missing. The European Commission lists Canada among the non-EU countries and territories under Article 17(1)(b), and an animal entering the EU from a listed country does not need a rabies antibody titration test. Where a titre is required the wait runs to months and a late booster restarts it. From Canada it is simply not in the sequence. Our rabies titre guide covers where it still bites.

KLM quotes “EUR 70 to EUR 500 per one-way flight”. That range has to stretch from a cat under the seat on a short hop to a large dog in the hold across an ocean, which is why it is so wide. Out of Canada, in the hold, budget from the top end down.

Air France works differently again: a flat fee, settled at the airport rather than at booking, not in the ticket price and varying with where you are going. No amounts are published, so this one has to come from the airline for your route. It is not a figure to guess at.

The deadlines differ too. KLM asks for the animal to be booked at least 48 hours before departure. Air France says the pet must be added no later than 24 hours before departure, asks for 48 hours where the United States is involved, and applies a late-addition surcharge of 25 percent on international flights for bookings made inside 24 hours. Space per aircraft is capped in any case, so availability binds long before the deadline does.

One consequence of the shared selling arrangement is that a Canadian itinerary can show an Air France flight number while a KLM aircraft does the flying, or the other way round. Each airline’s conditions are its own. Nothing on this page tells you which of them a codeshare answers to.

What works is to read the operating carrier off the issued booking, go to that airline’s own conditions, and confirm before spending money on a container or committing to a date. Where the two disagree, build to whichever is tighter. Nobody has ever been turned away for arriving with a container that was compliant twice over.

If the Netherlands or France is the destination, our Canada to Netherlands and Canada to France cost pages carry the route line items, and our Air Canada guide covers the home-carrier alternative on the same city pairs.

8 kg, and that is the bag with the animal in it. Air France stops at the same place. Neither figure refers to the pet by itself.

46 x 28 x 24 cm, or 18 x 11 x 9 in in KLM’s own conversion. Tighter than the Lufthansa allowance, so a bag bought for a German routing is worth measuring again.

It can. KLM publishes a smaller kennel limit on its European flights than on the rest of its network, so a container sized for the crossing may be too large for the leg after it. Size for the smallest aircraft on the itinerary.

Not in the hold; both breeds are named on KLM’s restricted lists. Under 8 kg loaded, the cabin works. Over it, the animal moves as cargo instead, which KLM directs to a specialised shipping agent.

No. Canada’s Article 17(1)(b) listing with the European Commission takes the titration test out of the sequence. The CFIA-endorsed export certificate is unaffected and still has to be arranged.

Sometimes. KLM’s ceiling is 3 animals per kennel, nothing over 14 kg each, and they have to be either two evenly matched adults or three littermates under six months.

Not on its passenger pages, which stop at weight, booking and fees. Air France reserves the right to refuse an animal that does not meet its hold requirements, so the breed question goes to the airline directly.

Checked on 8 September 2026.

Between the two airlines, the container size, the breed list and the connecting leg all have to agree before a Canadian booking holds together. Working that out ahead of the quote is the job we do, out of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Send us the animal and the destination and we will tell you which of the two the route actually allows.