Pet Transport from Italy to the USA

ITA Airways now carries dogs and cats only, in both the cabin and the hold, from a minimum age of three months. That date matters: guidance written before it may list other species that the airline no longer accepts.

In the cabin on international flights, the limit is 8kg for pet and carrier combined, in a soft, well-ventilated carrier closed on all sides that fits under the seat in front. Note the difference from ITA’s domestic rule, which is more generous at 10kg for the animal plus 2kg for the carrier. The transatlantic figure is the lower one.

In the hold, pet and carrier together may reach 75kg in a pressurised, air-conditioned compartment.

Set that against the field. Iberia’s hold tops out around 45kg. Most carriers that will take a pet as checked baggage cap it at 32kg. And the US flag carriers have largely stepped back from civilian pets in the hold on transatlantic routes altogether. For a Mastiff, a Bernese or a large shepherd leaving Rome, ITA is not merely the convenient option; it may be the only scheduled one that does not require a cargo agent.

Fees are published from around 105 USD on international routes and rise with the weight band. Confirm the figure for your own animal when you book rather than budgeting from a headline number.

Submit the CDC Dog Import Form online, free, at any point in the six months before travel, and print the receipt. Carry a microchip a universal scanner can read. Make sure the dog is at least six months old on the arrival date. Present a healthy animal.

That is the complete list.

No rabies titre, because Italy is not high-risk. No Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip, no CDC-registered facility reservation, and no restriction to the six airports that host one. No screwworm inspection in the final five days, because Italy is not on the APHIS screwworm-affected list. Italy also appears among the regions APHIS treats as free of foot-and-mouth disease subject to restrictions.

The six-month age rule is the one to watch, because it is enforced at check-in rather than at the border. Families moving with a puppy acquired shortly before the relocation are the usual casualties, and there is no discretion in it.

The CDC does not require a rabies vaccination for a dog from a low-risk country such as Italy. Keep it current anyway.

Airlines write their own conditions of carriage and commonly ask for current rabies cover regardless of the border rule. US states set their own requirements for resident animals. And the return journey to the EU runs on the vaccination record in the pet passport, where an unbroken chain of cover is the thing that keeps the trip simple.

That passport, incidentally, has no standing at the American border. It is a European document and no US official requires it. Carry it because the airline will want the vaccination record inside it and because it is the animal’s history, not because it is an entry document.

ITA flies Rome and Milan to several US cities nonstop, and for a pet that directness is worth paying for: one loading, one unloading, no risk of a missed connection with an animal in a crate somewhere in between.

Where the ITA schedule does not fit, Lufthansa via Frankfurt is the usual alternative, with a dedicated animal lounge at the hub that handles transiting animals properly. It excludes brachycephalic breeds from cargo, so that is the first question to ask if your dog is snub-nosed.

What is worth checking in every case is who actually operates the aircraft. A ticket sold by one airline and flown by another can carry different pet rules, and the transatlantic market is full of codeshares. The animal travels under the operating carrier’s policy, not the one on your booking confirmation.