Earlier this month, Italy announced that it had updated its air travel regulations for pets, allowing medium and large dogs to travel in the cabin alongside their owners for the first time.
Italy’s civil aviation authority ENAC confirmed the policy change in a press release that said pets could now be transported in cabins “beyond the current limit of 8-10 kg”.
"From now on dog and cat owners will have less difficulty flying with their four-legged friends," said Transport Minister and Deputy PM Matteo Salvini on his social media accounts.
"Promise kept!" he added.
The announcement was hailed by various travel news sites as a "landmark move set to transform pet-friendly travel" and a "pet travel revolution".
Il Messaggero newspaper even went so far as to argue the move could have "significant economic repercussions" for the country, enabling Italy to become a European capital for pet tourism.
But a closer look suggests that the rule change is unlikely to bring about the revolution these headlines suggest.
As political fact-checking site Pagella Politica pointed out, the measure doesn't actually require airlines operating in Italy to increase their weight limit for pets, but merely gives them the option of doing so.
Many airlines don't allow pets to travel on their planes at all unless they are service animals; for customers of these companies, the rule change won't make any difference.
The new rules also say that pets "must be placed in approved carriers, which can also be placed on seats, without obstructing emergency exits or crew operations," and that these "must be secured with belts or specific anchoring systems."
This means any carrier brought into the cabin must be able to fit on a plane seat, usually around 40-50cm in width: not large enough to contain a Labrador, let alone a Saint Bernard.
Publicity stunt
Salvini needs an easy win: his hard-right, anti-immigrant League party has waned in both popularity and influence in recent years, and is now polling at just over 8 percent, compared to 34 percent in 2019.
When joining PM Giorgia Meloni's coalition government in 2022, he pushed hard to become interior minister, but instead found himself shunted into the unglamorous role of minister for transport and infrastructure.
Since then, he has spent much of his time trying to cement his legacy through a contested project to build a bridge over the Strait of Messina, while periodically making headlines for arguing with other members of his own coalition.
It's not surprising then that he'd make the most of the opportunity to win some support by throwing his weight behind as uncontroversial a campaign as increasing rights for pets and their owners.
But until any airlines actually change their own policies on pet travel, this amounts to little more than a publicity stunt.
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