Air Canada wants new ban on pets as baggage

An architect from Victoria, B.C., is taking on Air Canada for requiring customers travelling with pets to ship them separately as cargo, instead of as checked baggage on the same flight as their owners, while the airline is trying to completely ban animals as baggage.

Kent Green said he had an exhausting and maddening experience trying to ship his dog home from Toronto on the country's largest airline. He is now filing a formal complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency, the federal regulator that oversees airlines. 

'I could have screamed, I was so angry.' — Dog owner Kent Green

"I would have been better off taking my dog and putting her on Purolator," said Green. "It was horrendous.… I've had better experiences travelling in the Third World."

Green is taking aim at Air Canada's policy that bans pets as checked baggage at peak travel times — from June 20 to Sept. 10 and over the Christmas holiday season.

Air Canada has banned all pets from travelling in airplane cabins year-round, and CBC News has learned the airline is now trying to win the right to ban pets as baggage all year, forcing customers to ship their pets as cargo.

"I love my dog. She's a big part of my family life and I don't think it's fair that we not have our pets with us," said Green.

Air Canada spokesperson Angela Mah said the peak travel time restrictions were put in place because the airline simply can't handle an increasing amount of checked baggage, plus cats and dogs.

Not enough room for bags and pets, says airline

"We would be unable to carry everybody's baggage and we would end up having to offload passengers' baggage during our peak periods," said Mah. "These are the challenges that pets have currently because of the space allocations and because we are seeing record numbers of people travelling."

Green's struggle with the airline began July 23, when he checked his Labrador-cross Luna in as baggage for a direct flight home from Toronto to Victoria, after a holiday at his family's Ontario cottage.

Close to his flight time, he said, an Air Canada agent informed him that the dog couldn't go with him after all, despite his pre-booked itinerary, which included the dog as checked baggage.

"I [then] spent hours and hours trying to get her on a plane and off on the other end," said Green.

Green was told to take Luna to Air Canada Cargo, several kilometres from the terminal, which would then ship her to Victoria separately. He had to scramble to find a taxi that would take dogs, he said, and pay $62 return fare for the trek to and from the airline's cargo office.

Once there, he also had to pay $290 for cargo shipping, three times the cost of taking a dog as checked baggage.

In the meantime, he missed his flight and had to rebook on a later one, not knowing whether Luna would be put on the same flight, which had a stopover in Vancouver.

Dog handled too roughly, says owner

"I rushed to get on the plane, rushed to get to my seat, sat down in my seat, looked out the window — and there comes Luna along in her box from the other side of the airport, now with the 'special handling agents,' " said Green.

He said he watched as the cargo agents shoved the kennel onto a conveyor belt, sending his dog lurching face first into the front of her crate and spilling her water.

"I could have screamed, I was so angry," said Green.

In Vancouver, he said, he tried to ask Air Canada agents if his dog would make his connecting flight to Victoria. He said he was told there was no way to know, because Air Canada Cargo is a separate entity. The only way to find out would be to go to their Richmond office, which is in a separate building, outside the secure area of the terminal.

"They had no special connection to help me look for the dog. They had nothing, so I was completely on my own," said Green. "I was worried — 'Where is she? Is she getting watered? Is she being looked after?' "

Green said he had no choice but to get on the flight to Victoria, not knowing when or if Luna would arrive. He was upset to find she was not put on his flight, nor on several flights afterward.

By the time she finally showed up, Green said, he was exhausted and had blisters on his feet from running around trying to check her status. Luna had been in her crate for 10 hours — twice as long as she would have been if she'd travelled on the original direct flight they were booked on.

"I felt really bad at the end of it for Luna because she spent so much time in her box," said Green. "Not being able to find your pet at the other end makes travelling during those [peak travel] periods untenable."

Air Canada spokesperson Mah said the cargo agents are specially trained to make the pet's welfare their top priority, including making sure they are watered and let out of their crate, if need be.

"At the end of the day, it's a very efficient service. It's very safe," said Mah. "The people who use it love it."

She also pointed out that Air Canada reimbursed Green for the extra cost of shipping Luna cargo, and apologized to him for his experience.

Pets lost and injured, one killed

There have been other problems with the Air Canada cargo shipping system.

In July 2002, a five-year-old German shepherd-Labrador retriever cross named Indy escaped from Air Canada Cargo in Montreal when its crate door swung open on the tarmac.

The dog was lost for a week before someone spotted it hiding in the grass in a nearby field, starving, with cut up paws.

In August 2006, a dog named Jake died after getting loose from its kennel in cargo at Halifax airport. The dog ran around for two weeks before being struck and killed by an Air Canada jet on the tarmac. Jake was owned by a military family, which was shipping the dog unaccompanied across the country.

Vancouver veterinarian Michael Goldberg recalls performing surgery on another dog that escaped outside and injured itself while running around the airport frantically.

"Fearful animal — it doesn't know what is going on and has no one familiar with it," said Goldberg. "It had been running around for hours and hours. It was something like three to seven hours that they couldn't catch this dog."

Goldberg said many dogs suffer from anxiety when they are away from their owners, which can be made worse if they are taken out of their kennels by strangers while waiting for flights. The shorter the time apart, the better, he said.

"I personally would prefer [pets travel] number 1, in the cabin, number 2, as checked baggage and number 3 — if there's no other way — cargo."

Airline wants court to allow total ban

Air Canada is now taking steps to force all customers who want to ship their pets to send them by cargo.

It first tried to implement a ban on pets as baggage in June 2007. In May 2008, it was forced to reverse the policy, after the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) ruled the checked baggage ban was "giving advantages to the carrier while exposing pet owners to many significant disadvantages."

Air Canada is now appealing that ruling in federal court, and expects a court date in the new year.

"Because it's before the courts, I am unable to comment on the case itself," said Mah.

"The only thing I can tell you is that Air Canada's objective is to ensure that all of our passengers arrive at their destination with all of their checked luggage [without limits to accommodate pets]."

"I think that it must just be a bottom line thing; they want to make more money or save money," said Green. "But I think that they are missing the mark. They will get a lot more passengers and money in the bottom end if they are going to allow pets to go.

"I'm going to switch to WestJet," he added.

WestJet, Canada's second-largest carrier, still allows pets in the cabin year-round. It also allows owners to check them as baggage during the peak summer months, although it has the same Christmas blackout period as Air Canada.

"I can't speak for our competition," Mah said. "All I can say is our policy is to balance the fairness for all of our passengers that we carry."