Airline engagement

A practical pathway for airline and operator evaluation

ESTCA is designed to support airline and transport-operator verification. Airline outreach is planned; participation, pilots or acceptance will be published only where an operator has agreed to be named.

Step 1

Technical briefing

Introductory discussion on the standard, the public register and the verification workflow.

Step 2

API and data-use review

Review the OpenAPI specification, rate limits, data-use terms, owner privacy and animal-health documentation boundaries.

Step 3

Operational verification process

Map how check-in, booking, cabin crew or compliance teams would verify a certification alongside carrier safety rules.

Step 4

Pilot or acceptance discussion

Any pilot, participation or acceptance is listed publicly only where the operator agrees to be named.

Operational value

What airlines gain

ESTCA is intended to reduce uncertainty around readiness evidence while leaving passenger acceptance, routing and safety decisions with the carrier. The benefit is a neutral, checkable signal that can be mapped into existing airline processes. ESTCA does not grant flight permission.

Consistent readiness evidenceGives airline teams one neutral readiness signal for non-assistance dogs instead of comparing different trainer claims at check-in.
Privacy-safe status checksConfirms certification status, key dates and trainer information without exposing owner contact details in public results.
Shared operational referenceHelps booking, check-in, compliance and cabin teams use the same language when evaluating canine travel-readiness evidence.
Clear flight-permission boundaryShows what ESTCA verifies while keeping final acceptance, routing and safety decisions with the carrier.

Flight-readiness boundary

Registry verification is not a flight permit

ESTCA registry verification is intended to help airlines and operators assess canine travel-readiness evidence for non-assistance dogs. It does not replace airline approval, carrier policies, national rules, animal-health documentation, import/export requirements or aircraft safety assessment.

Airline approval, carrier policies and passenger-booking requirements.
Pet passport, animal-health documentation, import/export and destination-country requirements.
Aircraft safety assessment, cabin floor-space, seating, restraint and disruption-handling rules.

What you're verifying

The certificate, the register, the API

A single ESTCA certification can be checked in three ways: visually on the certificate, manually on the public register, or programmatically through the verification API. All three return the same authoritative source — the public register on estca.eu.

Sample certificate

ESTCA Certificate

European Standard for Travel with Canine Animals

Certified

Certification number

ESTCA-2026-0042

Animal name

Bruno

Pet passport

NL-123456

Certified

18 April 2026

Valid until

18 April 2027

Certifying trainer

J. van den BergTR-0012

Verify at estca.eu/register

Sample · illustrative

Illustrative sample. Real certificates carry a unique certification number that can be verified at estca.eu/register.

Sample API request and response

GET /api/v1/verify

$ curl https://www.estca.eu/api/v1/verify \
    --data-urlencode "passport=NL-123456" \
    -G

# 200 OK
{
  "registrationStatus": "Certified",
  "certificationNumber": "ESTCA-2026-0042",
  "certifiedAt":  "2026-04-18",
  "expiresAt":    "2027-04-18",
  "animalName":   "Bruno",
  "trainer": {
    "name": "J. van den Berg",
    "accreditationNumber": "TR-0012"
  }
}

Owner contact data is never returned in public responses. Authenticated partner endpoints follow Part E.2 of the standard.

API and partner details OpenAPI specification Try the public register

Contact

Request a briefing

Contact the secretariat with the subject “Airline engagement” and include organisation name, role and verification use case.

contact@estca.eu