Pets on flights can be classified as baggage, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled.

This means airlines are not required to pay higher compensation if the animal is lost.

The decision comes from a case in which a dog escaped from its pet carrier while being transported to the plane at Buenos Aires airport in October 2019 and was never recovered. 

The court heard that the passenger and her mother checked into the flight with the dog, Mona, who was put in a special pet crate for the flight. 

Its owner had sought €5,000 (£4,345) in compensation from Iberia Airlines, which admitted the loss but argued that liability is limited under EU rules for checked baggage.      

‘The dog got out of the carrier, started running near the plane and could not be recovered,’ the court papers said.

Despite an intense ‘active search’, including a campaign on social media, the dog has never been recovered, the Spanish court heard.

The case sets a precedent for anyone travelling with pets who do not make a special declaration about the contents of the pet crate and suffer the loss of the animal.

Pets on flights can be classified as baggage, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled

Iberia accepted liability for the loss of the pet but not the size of the claim, arguing it exceeded the liability for lost luggage without any special declarations as to the crate’s contents.

A Spanish judge referred the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to examine whether the concept of baggage applied under the Montréal Convention, an international treaty setting out rules for airlines’ liability for losses ranging from death to delays and lost cargo or baggage.

The court said: ‘The Montréal convention clearly refers to persons and baggage.

‘It therefore follows from the clear wording of this provision that the term “persons” covers “passengers”, such that a pet cannot be considered a “passenger”.

‘It must therefore be considered that, for the purposes of air transport, a pet falls within the concept of “baggage” and compensation for damage resulting from its loss during such transport is subject to the liability regime laid down for baggage.’

The judge also noted that the liability of an airline for lost baggage could be determined by any special declaration on contents, which did not happen in this case.

As a special declaration about the animal was not made before the flight, Felicísima was only entitled to €1,578.82 (£1,372) – a fraction of the €5,000 claimed – the Spanish court ruled.

In a statement, the ECJ said: ‘The fact that the protection of animal welfare is an objective of general interest recognised by the European Union does not prevent animals from being transported as baggage and from being regarded as such for the purposes of the liability resulting from the loss of an animal.’

The decision comes from a case in which a dog called Mona (pictured) escaped from its pet carrier at Buenos Aires airport in October 2019 and was never recovered

It comes after a British tourist, who almost lost her life from rabies after being bitten by a cat in Turkey, revealed she wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for her pet dogs. 

In September 2022, Chloe Kay, 44, was rounding off her week-long stay in Bodrum with a meal at a resort restaurant, when she was bitten on the heel by a stray cat. 

The mother-of-two, from Exeter, believes she startled the cat, which had been sat underneath her table, by scraping her chair along the marbled floor. 

She said: ‘I didn’t know it was there. Animals with rabies tend to be more aggressive and this cat just sunk its teeth into my heel. I only saw it when it ran off.’