About Air Crates
A Dorset workshop with one job: get your pet there comfortably.
Air Crates has been building wooden pet travel crates for the aviation industry for over ten years, from a workshop in Ferndown. Every crate is made by hand, to one animal's measurements, by people who have spent their working lives around pet transport.
Why wood, and why bespoke
Because flying is stressful for animals, and most of what makes it stressful can be built out of the crate. A rigid timber shell doesn't flex and rattle in handling the way plastic does. Sound insulation takes the edge off the loudest part of the journey. Vetbed over incontinence pads means a long-haul flight doesn't have to mean a wet, miserable arrival. And a crate built to your animal's own four measurements fits properly, which is what the airlines check for and what your pet actually feels.
None of that comes out of a mould in a fixed set of sizes. So we build each one.
Who's behind it
Air Crates is Sam, who founded it, and Sam, who builds with him. This causes exactly as much confusion in the workshop as you'd imagine. Between them they have built crates for the aviation industry for over ten years, from hamster boxes to giant-breed builds on pallets. What never gets confused is the work: every crate is made and checked by hand before it leaves Ferndown, by a Sam, under the supervision of Millie and Cody, who give each finished crate a wag of approval.
What we will and won't tell you
We won't tell you our crates are the best in the world; claims like that don't mean anything. We will tell you exactly what they're made of, exactly what standard they're built to, and exactly when yours will be ready, and we'll pick up the phone when you have a question. Ten years in, that seems to be what people value.